HMS Glasgow, currently being built on the Clyde, is to be used to ferry passengers between Scottish islands after a request from the Scottish Government due to delays with the ferries being built at Port Glasgow.
According to the Royal Navy here, HMS Glasgow is the first in a new generation of cutting-edge frigates called the City-class.
“HMS Glasgow’s flight deck will be able to accommodate helicopters up to the size of the RAF’s Chinooks, while her loading bay can quickly adapt to hold over 100 people per trip. The result? A frigate empowered to adapt to changing missions, from disaster relief and humanitarian aid operations to embarking military forces or supporting diving operations and in this case, ferrying people back and forward from the Isle of Skye.”
Scottish Government spokesperson Iain Ferrilees said:
“This is ideal really, after issues at Fergusons we’ll have the best anti-submarine warfare ferries anywhere on Earth. Future upgrades will shorten the journey time from 45 minutes to 30 seconds after the new cruise missiles are fitted. These will allow passengers to cruise to their destination at terminal velocity.”
UK Government spokesperson Avril Fuller said:
“We wish we’d have thought of that a few years back after the ‘No-deal Brexit ferry company owns no ships and has never run Channel service’. You remember? Concerns raised over Seaborne Freight, which won a £13.8m contract to operate a Ramsgate to Ostend route, despite them having no ferries. Anyway, let’s not talk about that.”
HMS Glasgow is currently in build alongside River Clyde and is expected to be launched soon.
What’s causing the delay with the ferries?
Ferguson shipyard, which had hoped to take part in the build of new frigates but was unable to due to issues during the build of two ferries, recently announced a further delay to the ferries. It is understood that anywhere between 400 and 900 cables are to be stripped out on ‘Hull 801’ and ‘Hull 802’, some more than 100 metres long.
MV Glen Sannox (referred to as Hull 801) and the unnamed Hull 802 were supposed to be in service 2018 and 2019 respectively but are both are now hoped to enter service around 2023. In update from Ferguson Marine on hulls 801 and 802, Mr Ferryman said:
“This is an April Fools day article, surely you’ve realised this?”
Congratulations and thank you for reading the whole article, this is just an April Fools Day joke. The article above is not true and if anyone is sharing this after the 1st of April, please do remind them of that fact. The purpose of this article, aside from our usual April Fools’ day joke, is to make the point that reading beyond the headline should be the norm every day, not just on the 1st of April.
There’s a large volume of misinformation online, make sure you don’t add to it by sharing articles without reading them. Finally, be careful of the person sharing this article after the 1st of April as they very clearly don’t read what they share.
Haha! 1st April, nearly bit.
Of course it’s a hoax, as we all know it would have been “fitted for but not with” passengers, and thus no one would believe it was a temporary ferry….
AA
Good one.
The serious point being that even at a glacial pace of production T26#1 will be in the water and likely commissioned before these ferries are and it is very likely that T31#2 will be in the water….
Each of these ferries will probably cost the same as a T31 warship but you could have bought at least 5 ferries on the open market for the price paid for two that don’t work and may never work.
Just a thought?
Don’t larf it’s true😎
Will duty free be available and a golden rivet competition for fist travellers to the bonnie isles on Pusser line ferrys George
Its going to be a bit windy on the open deck, oh sorry a gazbo will be in place to help shield the passengers from the wind? 😅
The Grey Funnel Line finally earning its keep !
Yeah i know Its April fools joke but given how bad the Scottish ferries yeah
Moving on from the jokes, and there are some good ones around today, when is Glasgow actually going to be afloat?
I had to double check the date this morning when the BBC claimed that Putin had taken to bathing in blood from severed deer antlers. It’s now April the 2nd. The whole bloodbath thing was so on the nose I found it almost impossible to believe. Had I read it on the Internet I’d have dismissed it instantly, but this was Radio 4, dammit!
And to actually answer the question, this time last year, Navy Lookout tweeted it would be the second half of this year. Covid delays, I think, but whether that’s BAES or the Malin Group (the subcontractor), I don’t know.
Malin’s webpage about the lifting barge says: “Now complete, the 137m barge is now en route, to return to the Clyde later this year.” The planned departure day from Turkey was Feb 28th, so it may already be on the Clyde.
Only just remembered the date.
Actually know the SNP that actually would not suprise me. Funny none the less
Think about it, on the South Coast the RN, Coastguard, Border force and RNLI are acting as Ferries from France.
The Point class act as cargo ships when not being used as troop transport. Ships are taken up from trade in time of war. Building ships for use as ferries that are also specifically designed to be useful in times of war is not an outlandish idea, although the Type 26 wouldn’t be my first choice.
Or here’s an even bigger April fool. More than 1 of the 6 Type 45 Destroyers to actually be operational, seeing as they’ve languished at the dock side for the last 10 year’s courtesy of Northrop Grumman? How much value for money have they given to the U.K Gov? Allot less than 2 prototype delayed ferries.
Would probably be better with the navy running the ferries and probably a whole lot cheaper
Of the April Fool jokes this is not actually a bad idea if only to see the expression on Sturgeons face. Ha it’s good to dream !
During the Second World War, to my knowledge from research about the Loss of my Mother’s Only Brother and Around 180 Ships’ Complement Aboard when Torpedoed in the North Atlantic whilst the Convoy Commodores’ Destroyer Escort,
Given that, where possible, unless Hazards Of Torpedo Attacks were High Risks to the Rescuing Ships being Stationary and Giving An Easy Target to U-Boats Captains, by so doing,
It would seem per International Laws of the Seas, that, Survivors of Torpedoed Ships, Merchant Vessels and Ships of War alike, were Picked Up and Ferried to Convoy Escorts Convoy Destination or Escorts Home Port in case of RN Personnel in Passage, “On Occasion”
And, It would seem, Around 60 Merchant Navy Crew had previously been “Rescued from their own Ships’ Torpedoed Loss” before they were Torpedoed Aboard the Destroyer Escort, with significant loss of lives again,
Not forgetting that the Commodores’ Destroyer Escort had, also, Rescued the Survivors of the U-Boat that the Destroyer had rammed at Maximum Speed on the Surface, after first Depth Charging, following Serious Attacks on their Convoy Ships in Passage from Halifax, Nova Scotia, to either the Clyde or Liverpool Docks.
So, It would seem, “Ramming Carried Risks in sending U-Boats to the Bottom of the Seas”
And, It would seem My Understanding, that, the Admiralty Chiefs of Staff and the Royal Navy Senior Ranks “Forbade Ships of War Ramming Thereafter due to the Heavy Loss of Lives in the HMS Harvester “Action”, As the Events of March 1943 Came to be Known, Thereafter”
I appreciate the time and effort that goes in to the April Fool stories, and certainly they brighten up the morning of 1 April. But revisiting the site two days later they now seem a bit stale and irrelevant, and perhaps misleading for a reader now longer on the alert for foolery. It may be a good idea to delete such stories once the big day is over.