New RNR School Blazer

Junior officers and new entry ratings can get to grips with basic seamanship and navigation on board HMS Blazer, the latest Archer Class patrol craft to enter RNR service.

Run by the Fourth Division RNR Sea Training Centre at Granton in Edinburgh, the £750,000 Blazer was delivered to HMS Claverhouse in March, having been designed and laid down by Watercraft Ltd and competed by Vosper Thornycroft.

Her first deployment took her to the North Sea for two weeks in April. In June she formed part of the escort when the Queen visited HMS Cochrane and HM Dockyard Rosyth as part of the establishment's 50th anniversary celebrations. The Blazer participated in a six-ship steam past as the Queen sailed from Rosyth up the Forth to Leith, Edinburgh.

HMS Blazer may deploy for up to eight weeks and 14 weekends a year in and around the coastal waters of Scotland. Junior lieutenants have the opportunity to qualify to take command.

Many of the junior officers spending their spare time at sea under training are full-time students at Edinburgh's universities and colleges. But the widest cross-section of the community is represented overall. There are men who are unemployed, doctors, van drivers, teachers and lawyers.

This month HMS Blazer will be guardship for the Tay Yacht Week.


The Lock Busters

The first of seven ships bearing the name HMS Blazer took part in the "Expedition" of 1798 to Ostend.

A fleet of 25 vessels sailed with the aim of destroying sluices and lock-gates of the Bruges Canal in a bid to halt an invasion force on its way to England.

The Blazer was under the command of Lieut. D. Burgess. Built at Deptford the year before, she was a gunboat, mounting two 24-pounder and ten 18-pounder cannonades. She displaced 159 tons and had a complement of 50 men.

The Blazer engaged the batteries, which retaliated with vigour. Troops accompanying the fleet are said to have successfully smashed the gates and sluices, but bad weather prevented them from re-embarking and they were forced to surrender. Sixty-five perished.

In. 1801 the Blazer was captured whilst advancing in a British fleet against Copenhagen, but was restored during a short truce arranged by Lord Nelson. Two years later she was sold.

An article of dress worn by the ship's company of the third HMS Blazer is reputed to be the origin of today's name for the man's jacket. The original was part of a rudimentary uniform - of blue and white striped guernseys with jackets - in which the men of the three-gun paddle vessel were kitted out in 1845.

Facts and Figures
Displacement:	49 tonnes
Length:	20m
Beam:	5.8m
Draught:	Aft 1.8m, fwd 0.8m
Propulsion:	Two Rolls-Royce diesel engines
Max speed:	20 knots
Complement:	10

(Ship of the Month August 1988)

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