HMS Chatham is being sold by the Ministry of Defence
by Jenni Horn
Medway's adopted warship is being
sold by the Ministry of Defence.
HMS Chatham, the last Royal Navy
ship commissioned in Chatham, is one of four Type 22 frigates up
for sale.
HMS Campbeltown, HMS Cumberland and
HMS Cornwall are also on the market.
They are being sold either for
reuse, for sinking to create an artificial reef or for
recycling.
The closing date for bids is
Wednesday, January 23, and interested parties will be able to view
the vessels at Portsmouth, where they are docked, between February
25 and March 15.
HMS Chatham, decommissioned in
2011, is no longer in working order. Parts of the vessel have been
removed by the MoD including three of the engines and most of the
interior fittings.It was built in Wallsend in 1989.
The following year it became the
first warship to be commissioned outside a Royal Naval
establishment. The ceremony took place in Number One basin - now
called Chatham Docks. Only six years earlier, the naval dockyard
had closed, ending Medway’s 400-year link with the Royal Navy.
Since she first left Medway in
1990, HMS Chatham has had a long and distinguished history -
firstly as the main naval presence when Hong Kong was handed back
to China, and then as the ship that fired the first rounds in the
second Gulf War.
In November 2010 HMS Chatham
visited Medway for the last time, to mark 20 years of service, and
in February 2011, thousands of people lined the streets when ship’s
crew marched through the Towns.
16/01/13
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