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Scott Scans Wider Vista
The Royal Navy's latest survey vessel is not just big in size
- she also thinks big when it comes to performance.
Ocean survey vessel HMS Scott, at 13,500 tonnes, dwarfs her
predecessor HMS Hecla, which at 4,000 tonnes was less than
a third of the size - but carried almost twice as many people.
Scott's size was determined by the multi-beam sounding system
she was designed to deploy, which is housed in two large arrays
along and across her hull.
The Sonar Array Sounding System - SASS IV - is capable of
collection depth information over a strip of seabed several
kilometres wide.
This means the ship can accurately survey 150 square kilometres
of ocean floor every hour, a task which would have taken her
predecessors months to achieve.
In order to provide a stable platform for surveying, Scott's
hull is deep-ballasted with 8,000 tonnes of water - so at
deep ballast, the ship draws more water than an Invincible-class
aircraft carrier.
Information is displayed in real time as a three-dimensional
image of the sea bed, allowing surveyors on watch to monitor
the quality of the data being gathered.
It is then processed and checked before being submitted to
the Hydrographic Office in Taunton,
The ship's surveyors are also responsible for collecting and
processing navigational, gravity, magnetic and swath bathymetric
data, which is gathered by means of three gravimeters, a towed
proton magnetometer and an Aquashuttle shallow oceanographic
profiler.
The ship's main propulsion is provided by two Krupp nine-cylinder
diesels, and the ship's machinery is protected by a comprehensive
surveillance system which allows Scott to operate with unattended
machinery spaces - a concept that is new to the Fleet.
The draft and trim of the ship, which is vital in the successful
operation of the surveying sensors, is controlled by pumping
water ballast through 23 connected tanks.
A powerful retractable bow thruster is brought into play when
slow-speed manoeuvering or precise station-keeping is required.
Scott has been built to merchant standards, providing a high
standard of living.
Almost everyone has their own cabin, with a maximum of two
people to one bathroom.
Senior and junior rates have their own separate communal areas,
and there are two activities rooms fitted out with sports
equipment for recreation.
The ship has been designed by BAeSEMA to spend at least 307
days a year at sea, and to match this requirement the ship's
company operates on a rotation basis, with around two-thirds
on board at any one time.
Scott was handed over the the Navy less then 30 months after
the initial order was placed, and following her commissioning
last September her Commanding Officer, Capt Bob Mark, took
her across the Atlantic for her first major voyage.
A fortuitous spell of bad weather allowed Scott to prove the
quality of her equipment, gathering good data in conditions
which would have defeated HMS Hecla.
The ship spent some time at Port Canaveral in Florida, fine-tuning
the system, conducting equipment trials and training for the
ship's company.
There was also a chance for the ship's company to host a number
of VIPs, both British and American, to watch HMS Vigilant
on Trident missile firing trials, and to see three rockets
and a shuttle launched from Cape Canaveral.
Members of the ship's company managed to fit in a week-long
expedition to the Smoky Mountains, and a group assisted in
the building of a house for a sheltered housing project.
Scott was scheduled to sail last month on their first surveying
period, returning home to Devonport in the summer.
Ship Name is Tribute to Polar Explorer
Three - or four - ships have now honoured the name of
Antartic explorer Capt Robert Falcon Scott, who died in 1912
on his way back from the South Pole.
The first HMS Scott was a First World War destroyer, of the
Admiralty Large Design.
Built by Cammell-Laird with a displacement of 1,801 tons,
the ship's main armament was five 4.7in guns, with six 21in
torpedo tubes.
She was completed in 1917, but her career with the Royal Navy
was short-lived, as she was torpedoed on August 15 1918, probably
by the submarine UC-17, in the North Sea off the Danish coast.
The second Scott, along with sister ship HMS Shackleton, began
life in the Admiralty Estimates as a fleet minesweeper in
1937, but by the time she was completed in July 1939 she was
officially a survey ship.
Displacing 1,260 tons fully-loaded, with a complement of 84,
the ship was built by the Caledon Shipbuilding and Engineering
Co Ltd, Dundee.
In contrast to her predecessor, the second Scott enjoyed a
long life, finally being broken up in 1965.
A fourth Scott, a trawler, was requisitioned by the Admiralty
in 1914-15.
(Ship of the Month March 1998)
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