Queen of the Severn seas

IT took just five days for HMS Severn to show what she was capable of.

And the Navy will see much more of her in the next five years.

The offshore patrol vessel is the second of three River Class ships the Navy has commissioned in a unique deal with industry.

But the deal which secured the 1,700-tonne ship is only one of the sea changes in thinking which sets Severn and her sisters apart from the venerable Island Class boats they replace.

HMS Severn and her sisters HMS Tyne and the brand-new HMS Mersey which was being handed over as Navy News went to press are all owned by shipbuilders the VT Group and leased to the RN for the next five years – with the option to continue to lease, buy them outright or hand them back to the Hampshire-based defence firm.
Severn herself – the ninth RN vessel to bear the name – is a couple of generations ahead of the Islands, the last of which paid off last month.

Gone are the old voice tubes, old style ship’s wheel and an engine room with engineers constantly checking machinery.

Severn is fitted with the latest communications system, electronic charting and her computer-run machinery means there is no need for a human watchkeeper.

Crew take it in turns to sail the ship. Of the 43 men and women assigned to Severn, one third will be off-ship at any one time either on leave or shore duty.

That system, plus the technological improvements, means the RN can expect to get 320 sea days from HMS Severn every year – a huge improvement on her predecessors.

When they are on board, crew enjoy living standards unsurpassed by most present RN vessels – with the possible exception of HMS Endurance.

Two-berth en-suite cabins are the norm in Severn and her sisters; the class boasts a ward room at least on a par with Type 23 frigates for comfort and size.

All cabins have computer sockets, telephone connections, TV aerial plugs and 240V wall sockets to add to the creature comforts on board.

That, of course, is not what Severn was built for. Her primary purpose is to ensure fishermen of all nationalities abide by international rules and regulations in waters around the British Isles.

But beyond that first function – carried out in conjunction with the Department of the Environment, Fisheries and Rural Affairs, which provides aircraft to assist the RN in its fishery duties – Severn and her sisters serve as general duty patrol ships.

They have been designed with anti-drug surveillance work – in co-operation with Customs and Excise – counter-terrorism, environmental protection duties, search and rescue, and mine warfare support in mind.
On a daily basis, the fishery patrol ships act as the eyes and ears of the RN in home waters.

To assist in those duties, the ship has two Pacific 22 Mk II ribs which are faster and capable of operating in rougher conditions than previous models.

Severn took up active duties in October and within five days of her first patrol, crew caught the trawler Lilly L in the Western Approaches.

The fishing boat was discovered with illegal quantities of angler, cuttle and other fish in her hold., earning her captain a £2,300 fine.

She builds on a reputation begun with a 50-gun fourth rate built in 1695 and culminating in Severn No.8, a submarine which sank the German prize SS Monark during the Norwegian campaign in 1940 and the Italian SS Polinnia in the Mediterranean the following year. She later landed special forces in Sardinia before the Navy paid her off in 1944, converting her for training purposes.

The seventh Severn also served the White Ensign honourably. A monitor originally built for Brazil, when war came in 1914 she was commandeered by the British and proved her value by sinking the German cruiser Konigsberg.

Facts and Figures
Class:	River Class Offshore Patrol Vessel
Pennant number:	P282
Builder:	VT Group, Woolston
Launched:	December 4, 2002
Commissioned:	July 31, 2003
Displacement:	1,700 tonnes
Length:	79.5 metres
Beam:	13.6 metres
Complement:	43, with two thirds aboard at any one time.
Machinery:	Two Ruston 12RK 270 engines developing 4125kW @ 1,000RPM: controllable pitch propellers; 280kW bow thruster; Vosper Thornycroft control and monitoring system
Weapons:	1x20mm BMARC KAA gun, 2 GPMGs
Aircraft:	None, but space on aft deck for helicopters to winch personnel on and off.
Additional equipment:	Two Halmatic Pacific 22 Mk II ribs, top speed in excess of 30kts.
Role:	Fishery protection, general purpose patrol ship, counter-drugs/counter-smuggling operations, search and rescue and assistance for other mariners.

(Ship of the Month January 2004)

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