Ark Royal Is Rocked By Serious Blaze

The Daily Mirror (UK) ^ | Today | Daily Mirror

[Arkinsaw]

ARK ROYAL IS ROCKED BY SERIOUS BLAZE

Feb 13 2003

EXCLUSIVE

By Richard Gray

THE Navy's flagship aircraft carrier was recently hit by "a serious fire", it emerged last night.

The crew of HMS Ark Royal were forced to shut down one of the four engines during military exercises as part of the Gulf build-up.

The 20,000-ton carrier, which is spearheading our naval task force, had to limp along on three-quarters power for three days.

Leaking fuel from one of the gas turbines caused the blaze in the Mediterranean on January 29. Suppressors put it out.

Engineers worked flat out to make essential repairs. Last night politicians and military chiefs were stunned by the news.

One military source said: "The Ark Royal only came out of a major refit in 2001, yet it is suffering serious problems like fuel leaks.

"This is the flagship vessel in the Navy's task force and it will hugely embarrass those in charge."

[Arkinsaw]

Interesting, haven't seen it elsewhere. Need to keep in mind that this is the Daily Mirror.

[ampat]

I was on a new gas turbine destroyer that had two fires in the forward engine room in one week. The ship was only six months old. It's not that unusual.

[spetznaz]

They need to fix it quickly so it can go and give Saddam a taste of British Harriers!

[The KG9 Kid]

British wiring from Lucas Electronics.

Electrical fires aren't news to anyone that's owned an MGB.

[Arkinsaw]

British wiring from Lucas Electronics.

Why do the British drink warm beer? Lucas wires the refrigerators.

MGB headlights have three settings. Off...Dim....and Flicker

Lucas - Lord of Darkness

[ChiefKujo]

Or a TR-6...

[capitan_refugio]

The so-called "Through Deck Cruisers" were a neat design idea for a versatile ship with multiple capabilities. These effective ships should remain in the British naval inventory for a couple of decades more.

The problems they are having with the vessels is most likely due (in my opinion) from the low quality of British marxist unionist labor (or labour, if you are a compatriot of Mad Ivan). 20 years ago, when I worked in private industry for an petroleum exploration drilling company, we would send our London-based offshore drilling vessels to Stavanger, Norway, for repairs. We avoided the British shipyards because of the frequent strikes and general poor quality work. I remember a welder refusing to do his job because another union worker had not done some prep work properly. So the two unions argued several days about a half-day job - so we refused to pay either one of them, and they both filed actions against us. We even had a joke in the office about the stikes. The British press would refer to strikes as "labour actions." We would call them "labour INactions." Occasionally, we would get work done on the North Sea rigs in Aberdeen, Scotland. I visited there on a couple of occasions and found the labor force to be very competent.

That was 20 years ago, and I am sure that things have changed, or at least I hope they have. The British used to have the greatest, most prolific shipyards in the world. But only a handful are left in business. The survivors must be doing something right.

[Jimmy Valentine]

You got that right! I had an Austin Healy and sometimes at night you had to hit the bumps just right so that the fuses swung in and out in the fuse box turning the lights on and off.

Regards,

[AnAmericanMother]

Joseph Lucas's last words: ". . . don't drive at night . . . "

True story: I went to the local rapacious Triumph dealer to pick up a part for our TR-6. Brought the parts box home and handed it to my husband. He looked at it - on one side it said "Made in England" and on the other side it said, "Another Quality Part".

He said, "One of these statements is false."

[thefoyboy]

Well, I can only hope the French carrier de Gaulle doesn't decide to become a giant fry-o-lator with those nuclear power plants. How do you sink a French military vessel?

[AnAmericanMother]

How do you sink a French military vessel?

Uh, I dunno. Run a Zodiac with a German flag down one side, so they all swarm over to surrender and capsize it?

Don't need to worry about the de Gaulle. They can't seem to keep a propeller on the thing.

[AppyPappy]

Two words: oil cooler.

[BluH2o]

Let's hope the current "Ark Royal" has better luck than the British Navy's "Ark Royal" of WWII that was sunk at anchor by a German U-boat at Scapa Flow. Gunther Prien the commander of the U-boat that sank the "Ark Royal" was able to penetrate the harbor defense of Scapa Flow, launch torpedos, and escape. He was awarded the highest order of the Iron Cross for his daring attack, the award was presented by Hitler.

[okie01]

Allow me the rare pleasure of correcting the expert.

Prien's U-boat sank the battleship HMS Royal Oak (not Ark Royal) in Scapa Flow.

The aircraft carrier, Ark Royal, was torpedoed by another U-boat off Gibralter in November, 1941.

[BluH2o]

Prien's U-boat sank the battleship HMS Royal Oak (not Ark Royal) in Scapa Flow.

I stand corrected ... knew there was a "Royal" in there somewhere!

[kabar]

Need to check out how many Muslims are in the crew. Maybe there is another Shoe Bomber lurking in the engine room.

[okie01]

"knew there was a "Royal" in there somewhere!"

Even an "a" and a "k". Just one letter's difference, now that I look at it...