Royal Fleet Auxiliary tanker Tidespring completed a 24 hour visit to St Helena while returning to the United Kingdom after months of supporting the Carrier Strike Group, the Royal Navy stated.
According to the release, she detached from the strike group in the Indian Ocean and continued independently, calling at Cape Town before heading north along the west coast of Africa. St Helena, with a population below 4,500 and more than one thousand miles from the nearest mainland, was unreachable by air until its airport opened ten years ago.
This was the first Royal Fleet Auxiliary visit to the territory since tanker Gold Rover’s stop a decade earlier. The RFA said isolation has shaped daily life on the island to the point where many children had never seen a helicopter before Tidespring’s Merlin appeared overhead. The aircraft is assigned to 814 Naval Air Squadron and has been embarked throughout the deployment to conduct general tasks as well as anti-submarine duties. It flew ahead of the ship to record imagery and give crew members a view of the island.
Tidespring anchored in James Bay at first light because Jamestown’s harbour cannot accommodate a vessel of her size. Captain James Wingrove described the stop as “a brief but fantastic visit, offering the ship’s company a rare opportunity to visit one of the most remote islands in the world, and highlights the UKs commitment to its overseas territories.”
The Royal Navy noted that the ship halted only a short distance from the wreck of RFA Darkdale, sunk by a German submarine in 1941. Wingrove laid a wreath at the island’s cenotaph before attending a reception at Plantation House with acting governor Tasha Harris.
