RMAS Lodestone (A115) was a Magnet-class Royal Navy degaussing ship. She was completed in 1980 by the Clelands Shipbuilding Company. [1]
The Magnet-class was developed to replace the Ham-class minesweepers that had been converted for degaussing. They are 828 gross tonnage (GT) and have a top speed of 14 knots. They measure 55m x 12m x 4m. [2]
In 1997 she was sold to an Italian millionaire and towed initially to Devonport for conversion to a luxury yacht, [3] the Bleu de Nîmes (IMO 7813913). [4]
The extensive rebuild in Turkey was completed in 2005. Another rebuild in Italy completed in 2020 increased her length by 16 metres to 72.25 metres (237 ft). [5]
In February 2022 she was chartered by the government of Mauritius for a fifteen day expedition to the Chagos Archipelago following international court rulings that Mauritius is sovereign there. [6] [7]
Diego Garcia is an island of the British Indian Ocean Territory, an overseas territory of the United Kingdom. It is a militarised atoll just south of the equator in the central Indian Ocean, and the largest of the 60 small islands of the Chagos Archipelago. The Portuguese were the first Europeans to find it and it was then settled by the French in the 1790s and transferred to British rule after the Napoleonic Wars. It was one of the "Dependencies" of the British Colony of Mauritius until the Chagos Islands were detached for inclusion in the newly created British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT) in 1965.
Mauritius, officially the Republic of Mauritius, is an African island country in the Indian Ocean, approximately 2,000 kilometres off the southeastern coast of East Africa, east of Madagascar. It includes the main island, as well as Rodrigues, Agaléga and St. Brandon. The islands of Mauritius and Rodrigues, along with nearby Réunion, are part of the Mascarene Islands. The main island of Mauritius, where most of the population is concentrated, hosts the capital and largest city, Port Louis. The country spans 2,040 square kilometres (790 sq mi) and has an exclusive economic zone covering 2,300,000 square kilometres.
HMS Mauritius, pennant C80, was a Fiji-class light cruiser of the Royal Navy. The ship was built by Swan Hunter, Newcastle upon Tyne. She was named after Mauritius, which was a British colony when she was built and entered service in 1941.
The Royal Maritime Auxiliary Service(RMAS) was a British Government agency which ran a variety of auxiliary vessels for His Majesty's Naval Service (incl. Royal Navy, Royal Marines) and the Royal Fleet Auxiliary. The service from 2009 has been run by Serco and is known as Serco Marine Services.
The Chagos Archipelago or Chagos Islands is a group of seven atolls comprising more than 60 islands in the Indian Ocean about 500 kilometres (310 mi) south of the Maldives archipelago. This chain of islands is the southernmost archipelago of the Chagos–Laccadive Ridge, a long submarine mountain range in the Indian Ocean. In its north are the Salomon Islands, Nelson's Island and Peros Banhos; towards its south-west are the Three Brothers, Eagle, Egmont and Danger Island(s); southeast of these is Diego Garcia, by far the largest island. All are low-lying atolls, save for a few extremely small instances, set around lagoons.
Peros Banhos, Pedro dos Banhos or Baixos de Pêro dos Banhos in old maps, is a formerly inhabited atoll in the Chagos Archipelago of the British Indian Ocean Territory, also claimed by Mauritius.
The Chagossians are an African ethnic group originating from French slaves brought to the Chagos Islands, specifically Diego Garcia, Peros Banhos, and the Salomon island chain, in the late 18th century. Most Chagossians now live in Mauritius and the United Kingdom after being forcibly removed by the British government in the late 1960s and early 1970s so that Diego Garcia, the island where most Chagossians lived, could serve as the location for a United States military base. Today, no Chagossians are allowed to live on the island of Diego Garcia, as it is now the site of the military base dubbed Camp Thunder Cove.
Blenheim Reef is a partly submerged atoll structure in the Chagos Archipelago, Indian Ocean. It includes the coral reef of Baxio Predassa in its southeastern rim, plus another completely submerged part. It is located in the northeastern part of the Chagos Archipelago. It measures almost eleven kilometres (north–south) by more than four kilometres (east–west), with a total area of 36.8 square kilometres, including the lagoon of 8.5 km², the difference being accounted for the mostly by the reef flat. Only on the eastern side, there are a few sand cays above the water. The largest of them is East Island, which is not quite 200 metres long and 70 metres wide. The other islands in the group are North, Middle and South. Only a few grasses grow on the island. The lagoon is up to 18 metres deep and encumbered with rock. The fringing coral reef has a wide passage in the southwest. The closest land is Takamaka Island in the Salomon Islands Atoll, about 20 kilometres to the southwest.
The United Kingdom, at the request of the United States, began expelling the native inhabitants of the Chagos Archipelago in 1968, concluding its forced deportations on 27 April 1973 with the evacuation of Peros Banhos atoll. The inhabitants, known at the time as the Ilois, are today known as Chagos Islanders or Chagossians.
The Protecteur class of naval auxiliaries for the Royal Canadian Navy (RCN) began as the Joint Support Ship Project, a Government of Canada procurement project for the RCN that is part of the National Shipbuilding Procurement Strategy. It will see the RCN acquire two multi-role vessels to replace the earlier Protecteur-class auxiliary oiler replenishment vessels that were operated by the RCN.
Garden Reach Shipbuilders & Engineers Ltd, abbreviated as GRSE, is one of India's leading shipyards, located in Kolkata. It builds and repairs commercial and naval vessels. GRSE also builds export ships.
USS Mizar (AF-12) was the United Fruit Company fruit, mail and passenger liner Quirigua that served as a United States Navy Mizar-class stores ship in World War II.
The British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT) is an Overseas Territory of the United Kingdom situated in the Indian Ocean, halfway between Tanzania and Indonesia. The territory comprises the seven atolls of the Chagos Archipelago with over 1,000 individual islands – many very small – amounting to a total land area of 60 square kilometres. The largest and most southerly island is Diego Garcia, 27 square kilometres, the site of a Joint Military Facility of the United Kingdom and the United States.
Joan E. Donoghue is an American lawyer, international legal scholar, former U.S. State Department official, and the current president of the International Court of Justice (ICJ). She was first elected to the court in 2010, re-elected in 2014, and elected by the ICJ judges to be president of the ICJ in 2021. She is the third woman to be elected to the ICJ and the first American woman elected as president of the Court.
Sovereignty over the Chagos Archipelago is disputed between Mauritius and the United Kingdom. Mauritius has repeatedly stated that the Chagos Archipelago is part of its territory and that the United Kingdom claim is a violation of United Nations resolutions banning the dismemberment of colonial territories before independence. The UK government has stated that it has "no doubt" about its sovereignty over the Chagos, yet has also said that the Chagos will be returned to Mauritius once the islands are no longer required for military purposes. Given the absence of any meaningful progress with the UK, Mauritius took up the matter at various legal and political forums. The African Union and the Non-Aligned Movement have expressed unanimous support for Mauritius.
The Chagos Marine Protected Area, located in the central Indian Ocean in the British Indian Ocean Territory of the United Kingdom, is one of the world's largest marine protected areas, and one of the largest protected areas of any type on Earth. It was established by the British government on 1 April 2010 as a massive, contiguous, no-take marine reserve, it encompasses 640,000 square kilometres (250,000 sq mi) of ocean waters, including roughly 70 small islands and seven atolls of the Chagos Archipelago.
Type 912 degaussing/deperming ship (ADG) is a type of little known auxiliary ships built in the People's Republic of China (PRC) for the People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN), and this class has several derivatives. As of 2022, Type 912 is the most numerous degaussing/deperming ship in PLAN, and the longest serving degaussing/deperming ships in PLAN, until its successor ype 911 finally begun to appear in early 2010s.
Jagdish Dharamchand Koonjul, GCSK, GOSK, is the Permanent Representative of Mauritius to the United Nations, and was President of the United Nations Security Council in January 2002.
USS Fort Lauderdale (LPD-28) is the twelfth Flight I San Antonio-class amphibious transport dock ship of the United States Navy. The ship is the first ship of the United States Navy to be named for Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
RMAS Magnet (A114) was the eponymous Magnet class Royal Navy degaussing ship. She was completed in 1979 by Cleland.
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