Bid to save HMS Plymouth from scrap
She carried Portsmouth sailors to fight in the Falklands and took the surrender of South Georgia, but campaigners are now locked in a battle to save HMS Plymouth.
Veterans are trying to raise 2m to preserve Plymouth, the last of the navy's Type 12 Rothesay class anti-submarine frigates. Launched in 1959, the ship travelled the world and saw every action of the 1982 war before decommissioning in April 1988.
Since then she has been on display in Glasgow in 1990 and Liverpool in 1992, but plans to move her from there to Plymouth have fallen through.
Martin Slater, secretary of the HMS Plymouth Association, now fears for her future.
'Mersey Docks and Harbour Company have been very patient with us, and have turned down a number of other offers to take HMS Plymouth in favour of our bid,' he said.
'But they have recently told us she will probably not last another winter in Birkenhead, and over the last six months they have been making noises about scrapping.
'We believe that it is now only a matter of time before this will happen, so time is running out fast. This has been going on for two-and-a-half years, and their patience will only stretch so far.'
Backing The News's Save Our Ships campaign, former naval officer and editor of Warship World Steve Bush said: 'HMS Plymouth would be an excellent ship to save because she was so heavily involved in the Falklands conflict.
'She received the surrender at South Georgia but also lost many of her ship's complement, so she has a strong memorial value.'
In 1988, the Ministry of Defence loaned Plymouth to the Warship Preservation Trust and she was opened to the public in Plymouth.
At the end of the 1989 season, it looked as though she was heading for a watery grave as a missile target, but trust campaigners managed to raise 205,000 to save her.
Sadly, after being on display during the 1990s on the UK's north-west coast, the trust went into liquidation and had to shut her.
Now another trust called Warship Management Ltd is striving to find her a home.
Ron Lansley, 64, from Fareham, who served in Plymouth from 1980 to 1982, said: 'She is not a hulk rusting somewhere, she is in good condition and would be a fitting legacy for the Falklands conflict.
'As a Plymouth ship, she would be best placed there, but if it was a choice between losing her and moving to Portsmouth we would obviously love to have here.'
For more on the Save Our Ships campaign, click Next Page.Campaign
The Save our Ships campaign aims to prevent historic naval ships from going to rot.
With the Heritage Protection Bill due to be debated when Parliament sits in the autumn, we are calling for ships to be included alongside permanent buildings.
Ships are vulnerable as they have no formal listed status, meaning vessels can be altered or partly demolished in a way protected houses cannot.
With greater legal protection, the road would be open for heritage groups to bid for lottery cash with more security.
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Thursday 24 May 2012
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