Former HMS Hermes sailor launches £15m bid to convert warship into Portsmouth concert venue

A FORMER sailor has launched a bid to return HMS Hermes to Portsmouth in a reported £15m scheme, it has been reported.
Indian navy ship INS Viraat, formerly HMS Hermes, before she was decommissioned from the Indian fleet in 2016.Indian navy ship INS Viraat, formerly HMS Hermes, before she was decommissioned from the Indian fleet in 2016.
Indian navy ship INS Viraat, formerly HMS Hermes, before she was decommissioned from the Indian fleet in 2016.

The former naval aircraft carrier, which was the Falklands flagship, was due to be converted into a 600-room floating resort in India, complete with five restaurants, a nightclub and swimming pools.

That plan was scrapped late last year, condemning the 24,000-tonne vessel to the scrapheap.

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But now former HMS Hermes sailor Andy Trish has told the Mail on Sunday he plans to pay out £500,000 of his own cash to bring the ship back to Portsmouth.

He wants the ship to be a tourist attraction, play host to concerts and have office space.

‘I want to own the ship as a private concern and I will buy her directly from the Indian government. I am not looking for any money from the UK Government at all. I believe I could make it work as a business,’ he told the newspaper.

According to the national newspaper it would cost £5m to buy, £5m to tow to Portsmouth and £5m to turn her into offices and a museum at the city’s dockyard.