Posted on 12/09/2016 5:32:03 AM PST by sukhoi-30mki
The Royal Navy will receive two more River-class offshore patrol vessels – and the motto of one appears to encourage her crew to vomit everywhere.
HMS Tamar and HMS Spey were ordered from BAE Systems today as the Ministry of Defence signed the contract for the two ships, with Minister for Defence Procurement Harriett Baldwin pressing the official button to start cutting the first steel.
Both were ordered to take up the slack in naval shipbuilding between now and the eventual start of the construction of the Type 26 frigate. The two new ships, along with the support package for the full class of five vessels, are costing the nation £287m in total.
The Batch 2 River-class offshore patrol vessels (OPVs) are slightly larger than the currently serving River-class ships, being capable of carrying a helicopter on an open flight deck over the stern. The three Batch 1 River-class OPVs will almost certainly be sold off to a foreign buyer.
Current plans are for the first steel on the Type 26 project to be cut by mid-2017, though the government has not yet signed any contracts for that.
Spey’s official motto is “Mack Sicker.” This appears to be a mangled transliteration from Scots Gaelic of the motto of the Kirkpatrick Clan, “I’ll mak siccar.” The story goes that in the year 1306, Sir Roger Kirkpatrick was a retainer of Robert the Bruce. Robert got into a fight with one John Comyn during talks between the two about a plot to usurp the Scottish throne. After having realised that Comyn was loyal to the sitting monarch, the Bruce stabbed him before running out of the church where they had met, shouting that he thought he had killed Comyn.
Kirkpatrick, so the story goes, drew his dagger and said “I’ll mak siccar.” (I’ll make sure).
(First Sea Lord @AdmPhilipJones Dec 8 Introducing the fourth and fifth Batch 2 Offshore Patrol Vessels, the future HMS Tamar and HMS Spey...)
The phrase was memorably used by Alistair MacLean in his classic Second World War historical fiction novel Where Eagles Dare, during the climactic fight scene on top of an Alpine cable car some thousands of feet above a deep valley. MacLean’s protagonist, Major John Smith, who had been shot and wounded while on the roof of the cable car, was trying desperately to evade the Schmeisser-wielding double-crossing British spy Carraciola inside the cable car, who, as MacLean wrote, had climbed out and was “coming to mak’ siccar.”
Previous British warships called Spey have used the phrase as their motto, including the River-class frigate of the Second World War, of which a potted service history can be read here. As only the second ship of the RN to carry the name Spey, it seems likely that her wartime crew foisted the misspelled motto on the ship.
A UK Ministry of Defence spokesman seemed as confused as El Reg when we rang up to ask about the motto. We look forward to hearing from them in due course. ®
There are yachts bigger than this tied up in the South of France.
24 knots. why so slow?
Not a bad looking vessel. Should have more offensive armament though. Medical facilities, a crane, and inflatable boats are nice, but...those are the features of your warships?
But nice looking though.
Good God, didn’t even read the specs there.
24 knots? An opponent might laugh at them as they pull away.
and faster ...
It’s a patrol boat, the Royal Navy does some missions that US assigns to the Coast Guard instead of the Navy. It is designed to fill those kinds of presence patrol, search and rescue, fishery enforcement, etc...
With a 30mm auto cannon if someone decides to get frisky.
The purpose of a patrol frigate is to patrol, not fight it out with major warships.
Hee heee... that's funny.
True. I guess their capabilities and functions are more in line with one of the Bear class cutters, and those are pretty old now, and those are even slower.
I didn’t realize she was as big as she was, thought she was more in line with the Cyclone class boats in our Navy which are far faster and more heavily armed. Interesting that the crew size is almost the same, but if they don’t have all the weapons systems and are using some kind of automated damage control systems (which seems to be all the rage now) I guess that would account for it.
That's what the helo's for.
Can't outrun a helo and a MK46.
LOL, assuming you have that helo on there all the time.
Nah. It was just a knee jerk reaction on my part...the vessel is just bigger than I thought.
Unless if it might be using a Beartrap system.
It needs a WaveMotion Gun...
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