It was ‘rush hour’ in the South Atlantic, say the Royal Navy.

Icebreaker HMS Protector linked up with patrol ship HMS Forth.

Although the two ships are frequently found south of the Equator, they seldom meet, and almost never work together, the Royal Navy say here.

“Forth focuses around the Falklands, and Protector mostly around the Antarctic Peninsula. Except on this rare encounter in South Georgia… as Forth conducted one of her longer-range patrols coinciding with Protector on her second and final work period of the austral summer.

HMS Protector performed her primary duty: surveying operations to update maritime charts (South Georgia is increasingly visited by cruise ships due to its stunning vistas and rich wildlife on the Antarctic), using her Multibeam Echo Sounder to scoop up data from more than 1,500 nautical miles of the southern ocean.”

You can read more on this from the Royal Navy here.

35 COMMENTS

    • Hey Frank-if you can only see one ship then it must be the Forth in the foreground and in addition, you need new long distance glasses and you are Red-Green colour blind so can not see the Protector in the background! I had a pal who when we played snooker needed me to show him where the green was! I often wondered if he saw all the balls Green or all Red!! 😁 We shall never know.
      Cheers from Sunny Durban

      • Ha…… “I see no ships”………… 😄…. oh and stop rubbing it in with your “Sunny” bit…. It’s bloody raining here, has been for months and the forecast is rain for the next two weeks….. My right wrist is getting all limp just waiting for some nice riding weather !!!🏍

      • The comments suggesting there is only one ship pictured above are tongue in cheek and designed to show how effective the razzle dazzle colour scheme of Forth is.

      • I have a similar problem to your friend. Quite often I can initially differentiate the red from the green but, very quickly, the dominant colour overwhelms my rods and cones and I suddenly see the balls as only only red or only green. Or what I think is red or green. I gave up driving because traffic lights look like yellow, yellow, and white instead of red, yellow and green (in Australia). I wanted to be an air traffic controller but the narrow minded aviation authority just couldn’t see past my poor colour vision. Or my stutter.

    • Considering just how far they are from the UK I think it quite impressive despite the rush hour quote. How many other nations have a pair of vessels sailing down there with the logistic and base infrastructure to back them up?

      • Good Morning Daniele! Exactly right. South Georgia is on my bucket list although I am running out of time ! I can never get over the amazing fact that Ernest Shackleton travelled in an open boat from the Antarctic and then climbed over that mountain range in above picture, to Grytviken to seek help for his crew stuck on the ice shelf!!😃 I hope you are well my friend.
        Cheers for now

        • I was lucky too be able to visit Shacks grave in 83 and visit the whaling stations around South Georgia got my Passport stamped there what a time capsule it was a lot of lads left their names including me and some took gissits such as explosive,harpoon heads

  1. Off Piste here Edinburgh News headline visitors awestruck as Giant Battleship passes under forth bridge .Ship recognition not their forte it was HMS Queen Elizabeth

  2. Maybe a silly question, but does the RN have any ships stationed permanently or semi permanently up in the Artic area? I suppose that a more for Canada, Denmark, Norway and Iceland?
    I’d be nice to see a Harry DeWolf type AOPVs in the RN, something with a hangared helo UAV ability. I know it’s been discussed before about upgrading the Rivers. They are so darn useful, flexible, long ranged and getting around the globe quite a bit!

    • Hi Quentin.The OPV’s are wonderful ships representing the RN the world over from Pitcairn to to Caribbean to South Atlantic and beyond. Originally billed as the ships the RN did not need nor want! Couldn’t do without them now!

      • It’s a pity they haven’t landed more sales beyond Thailand bulling under license. I thought they might have got a sniff for the RAN here who went for the Arafura class recently reduced from 12 to 6.

    • I not sure if we still do but when I served there was always an ASW Frigate up the “GAP” Greenland/ Iceland or Iceland/Faroe waiting for the peskie Reds too move their subs into the North Atlantic

  3. It does show the upgrade in the size of these iteration of the River Class boats.

    I am impressed with them. They do have their detractors but I do really like them – they are smart little ships.

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