Vital part of Falklands force on final voyage to the breakers' yard
A ship that faced danger in the Falklands war has left Portsmouth for the breaker's yard.
With the green light from the Environment Agency, Royal Fleet Auxiliary Brambleleaf was towed out of the harbour yesterday afternoon.
The 40,870 tonne support tanker was commissioned in February 1980 and has recently been docked in Portsmouth.
But she made her name in the freezing waters of the South Atlantic as she supplied warships on the frontline.
The 171-metre vessel, now bound for Belgium, replenished ships with fuel as they battled Argentina's forces.
Spotters gathered at Portsmouth's Round Tower yesterday afternoon to remember her important role.
Falklands veteran Derek 'Smokey' Cole said: 'You have to remember just how important the Royal Fleet Auxiliary was to the campaign.
'The auxiliaries came with us down to Ascension Island and then on to the Falklands and waited in an exclusion zone while we were in San Carlos water.'
Being removed from San Carlos did not guarantee any safety for the ships.
Mr Cole said: 'They were in a huge amount of danger too, because the only ships guaranteed safety were the hospital vessels.
'The support vessels could have been attacked every day, and we needed to come back out and refuel from them.'
Brambleleaf is understood to bound for the Van Heyghen recycling plant, where HMS Fearless and Rame Head have been towed from Portsmouth in the past 18 months.
Their departures are in contrast to the failed export of the 50,700-tonne Margaret Hill earlier this month. The liquid natural gas tanker docked in Southampton was stopped because it could be carrying hazardous materials to unauthorised disposal facilities.
Jim Barker, the Environment Agency's planning and corporate services manager, said: 'There are rules in place to ensure waste ships do not end up in developing countries, and cause damage to people and the environment.
'The Environment Agency will only give permission for a waste ship to be exported if it is going to an authorised recycling site in a country that wants to accept it.'
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Weather for Portsmouth
Saturday 26 May 2012
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Temperature: 13 C to 24 C
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