Babcock International has successfully completed a significant work package – including an engine replacement – on Royal Navy ocean survey vessel, HMS Scott. 

A 150-strong team – including welders, electricians, slingers, pipe workers, painters, commissioning engineers and fabricators – have worked on HMS Scott since her arrival at Babcock’s Rosyth site in May this year. 

The company say that as well as undergoing an engine replacement, four diesel generators were restored on the vessel and the windlass was overhauled. An extensive tank inspection and survey was carried out, and tank rectification work undertaken. The complete vessel was painted, including a full top coat of the outer hull. 

Ship’s Staff lived on-board throughout the work, with HMS Scott recently leaving Rosyth for Devonport.

Sean Donaldson, Managing Director of the Rosyth site, said:

“The team working on HMS Scott committed to a programme of long shifts, and went above and beyond to deliver everything required following an increase in the work package.

This was achieved through novel methods such as engineering a connection point for external hoses, which allowed filling of the tanks to take place through the ballast system, rather than the tanks themselves. This reduced the filling time from three weeks to six days.”

Jon Bisby, MOD Cluster Support Team Project Manager/Technical Superintendent, added:

“It very quickly became apparent that the project scope was going to grow significantly to be more than just the planned starboard main engine replacement and Lloyd’s Register special survey work.

All parties worked extremely well together to resolve the challenges. The vessel departed Rosyth in a greatly improved condition to carry out her upcoming programme of training, before returning to tasking in the near future.”

George Allison
George has a degree in Cyber Security from Glasgow Caledonian University and has a keen interest in naval and cyber security matters and has appeared on national radio and television to discuss current events. George is on Twitter at @geoallison

27 COMMENTS

  1. Never ever seen her in the metal, let alone trod her deck plates.

    A very important ship for supporting submarine operations.

        • The most important clients are the Sub skippers. Are they satisfied or dissatisfied with what they’re getting from them. I don’t have a clue but I’ve not seen or heard rumours or more that they aren’t. Does anyone else know ?

  2. Perhaps they will replace Scott with something like Boaty McBoatface. Pretty cheap for such a big ship and, with the added advantage of a moonpool, would give the RN an interesting sub rescue capability +!

    • Didn’t the “Sea Bed Operations Vessel” HMS Challenger also have a Moonpool?

      I’d imagine that ship got up to all sorts of stuff…

    • The RN already has one of the best submarine rescue capabiltys based at Faslane that can be flown out anywere on earth quickly and then be embarked onto any ship with room for a few containers.

      But maybe also a dedicated ship like you said with moonpool would be a great other capabilty but I can’t see the MOD spending the money even though 15,000t Boaty Mcboatface was only 150 million and a bargain if you ask me and it’s a polar class 4 ship so can ice break 3ft of ice. The only real draw back is it has no hangar! A helipad yes but no hangar! Big mistake I think when they could have easily added it on!… But I supose Drones will no doubt be used more these days so maybe not that bad a decision then….

        • My bad ?, I read a paper on RRS Sir David wrong! I thought it said it can land a helicopter but can’t embark one as there is no hangar, but I think that was about a bigger triple engined helicopter as Sir David can only hold small helicopters. Thanks for pointing it out?

          • ? I think we should be looking to buy 2 of them for the RN. One to replace Scott, and the other to replace Protector (she doesn’t have a hangar). Would cover off the survey task, enable continued support to British Antarctica and provide the ability to surge 2 ships to either polar region if required (perhaps to deter/monitor/counter the Russians in the North).

    • The RN already has one of the best submarine rescue capabiltys based at Faslane that can be flown out anywere on earth quickly and then be embarked onto any ship with room for a few containers.

      But maybe also a dedicated ship like you said with moonpool would be a great other capabilty but I can’t see the MOD spending the money even though 15,000t Boaty Mcboatface was only 150 million and a bargain if you ask me and it’s a polar class 4 ship so can ice break 3ft of ice. The only real draw back is it has no hangar! A helipad yes but no hangar! Big mistake I think when they could have easily added it on!… But I supose Drones will no doubt be used more these days so maybe not that bad a decision then….

  3. The benefit of a ship of that size, with a moonpool, is that it would be capable of operating in weather conditions that would defeat most supply vessels with an air transportable outfit. Of course, this would be a supplementary use for a ship that would primarily be oceanographic with a truly global reach…and as you mentioned, an ice busting capability. Who knows what they could get up to?

    • Was “Boaty” built to commercial standards though? How much extra for military grade stuff?

      Suppose Ocean was also cheaper though…and Dilligence and Argus were STUFT.

      • Was Scott built to military grade? Given its potential role I would have thought that commercial standards would be good enough. After all, Ocean was a frontline vessel and, structure wise, an icebreaker would presumably be significantly more robust. It would presumably be adequately protected with isolating bulkheads. Apologies to the naval architects if I am incorrect about this.

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