A year to the day after the destroyer ran aground on Wolfe Rock off the coast of Australia, HMS Nottingham has been refloated at Portsmouth Naval Base.

As the first major refit in the Hampshire base in 14 years, Fleet Support Limited (FSL) see their work on the Type 42 destroyer as the first step towards bringing warship refits back to Portsmouth.

Work began just before Christmas last year, after FSL was awarded the contract in the face of stiff opposition.

Once Nottingham had arrived back at her home port it gave engineers a chance to assess the damage caused by the crash, which happened just off Lord Howe Island in poor weather.

FSL Managing Director Peter McIntosh paid tribute to the ship’s company that kept her afloat: “An absolutely remarkable achievement.”

A year on and more than 15 miles of cable within the warship have been stripped out and replaced, 100 tonnes of damaged steel have been cut from the hull and new plate put in, and both pairs of gas turbine engines – Olympus and Tynes – have been removed.

The first few weeks of repair were spent clearing out the debris from the incident, including tons of concrete, floatation bags, steel ballast, waterlogged furnishings, stores, equipment and so on, allowing access to damaged areas.

Ten major access routes had to be cut into the Type 42’s hull to allow access to damaged machinery and equipment throughout the ship.

Superintendent Fleet Maintenance at Portsmouth Capt Nigel Williams said: “FSL have done well to get this far on time. We are pleased with the progress.”

While praising FSL for their work to date, he highlighted the potential difficulties ahead: “The challenge is setting to work all the equipment inside the ship.

“There’s an awful lot of unknowns – setting to work any ship that has been out of action for a year is always difficult.”

The programme of repair has given opportunity for a series of upgrades to other equipment within the ship, including boilers, sewage plants and accommodation areas, and all areas affected have been given re-preservation treatment, with flooded compartments being blasted back to bare metal before being treated.

Once all the final work has been completed on the warship, HMS Nottingham is expected to return to the Fleet in the middle of next year.

“HMS Nottingham is already unrecognisable from the ship that entered dock late last year,” said FSL Project Manager Barry Stacey. “We’re confident that by next spring she will be ready to be deployed back into the Fleet again and that FSL will have demonstrated its credentials as a centre for excellence for destroyer refits.”