RV Triton berthed alongside HMS Belfast in the Pool of London | |
History | |
---|---|
United Kingdom | |
Name | RV Triton |
Namesake | Triton |
Ordered | August 1998 |
Builder | VT Group |
Cost | Circa £20m (incl. £13.5m from VT) [1] |
Launched | 6 May 2000 |
Acquired | August 2000 |
Fate |
|
Status | As of 15/2/22 she is currently moored in Hull behind the Siemens Windfarm Blade factory. [2] |
Australia | |
Name | ACV Triton |
Acquired | December 2006 |
Decommissioned | 2015 |
In service | 2006–2015 |
Identification |
|
Fate | Sold and returned to UK |
Status | Laid up as of 2017 |
General characteristics | |
Tonnage | 2,236 GT [3] |
Length | 318 ft 3 in (97.00 m) |
Beam | 73 ft 8 in (22.45 m) |
Draught | 10 ft (3.0 m) |
Propulsion | Diesel-electric propulsion, single shaft |
Speed | 20 knots (37 km/h; 23 mph) |
Range | 3,000 nmi (5,600 km; 3,500 mi) at 12 knots (22 km/h; 14 mph) |
Complement | 14 crew and up to 28 customs officers (Australian service) |
Armament | 2 × .50 calibre heavy machine guns (Australian service) |
The Research Vessel Triton is a trimaran vessel owned by Gardline Marine Sciences Limited and a former prototype British warship demonstrator for the UK's Defence Evaluation and Research Agency (later QinetiQ). She was built as a technology demonstrator ship for the Royal Navy's Future Surface Combatant, and has been used to both prove the viability of the hull-form and as a trials platform for other QinetiQ innovations. [4] The ship was used by the Australian Border Force's Marine Unit, and was for a time moored in the River Fal near the King Harry chain ferry. Up until July 2019 she was moored on the River Yare, Great Yarmouth in Norfolk, England. [5]
In August 1998, the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) awarded a contract to Vosper Thornycroft to construct the trimaran, at a cost of £13.5m [1] RV Triton was launched at Woolston in May 2000 and delivered in August 2000. Triton then began a two-year risk reduction trials programme for the UK MoD and the US Department of Defense.
The vessel's three parallel hulls are reflected in her name which refers to the maritime god Triton who carried the three-pronged spear, the trident. The outriggers are thinner and much shorter than the dominant central hull.
Triton was designed as a demonstrator to prove that the trimaran concept would work successfully in a large warship. Following her launch in 2000, the ship began an extensive series of trials in 2001, which covered general ship handling, performance, sea-keeping behaviour, but also areas more specific to its design for which the Royal Navy had no experience. For example, a series of docking manoeuvres were undertaken by the pilot boats of HMNB Portsmouth to determine the problems of docking a large trimaran, and the ship underwent underway replenishment alongside HMS Argyll and the tanker RFA Brambleleaf to ascertain the characteristics of a trimaran and a monohull replenishing at the same time.[ citation needed ]Triton also undertook the first helicopter take off and landing on a trimaran. [4]
In January 2005, Triton was sold to Gardline Marine Sciences, a UK company based in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk. Triton was used for hydrographic survey work for the civil hydrography programme (CHP) on behalf of the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA). The vessel was fitted with a sensor suite which includes the Kongsberg Simrad EM1002 multibeam echo-sounder, a GPS attitude/heading system, surface navigation and ultra-short baseline sub-surface acoustic tracking system, Gardline Voyager5 integrated survey system and Caris post-processing system. The vessel was enhanced by Gardline by installing a bowthrust unit, additional accommodation and survey equipment facilities. In 2009, two new MTU engines were fitted; MTU 16v 4000 M40B. Output 2,080 kW (2,790 hp) each.
In December 2006, Gardline contracted Triton to the Australian Customs and Border Protection Service to patrol Australia's northern waters as one of the service's fleet of patrol vessels. Australian Customs Vessel Triton has been fitted with two .50 calibre heavy machine guns and carries up to 28 armed customs officers. The vessel is also equipped with two 7.3 m (24 ft) high-speed rigid hull inflatable boats (RHIBs). The ship arrived from the UK in mid-January 2007 and started operations immediately. Austere accommodation is provided for 100 embarked persons in addition to conventional accommodation for 45.
A multihull is a boat or ship with more than one hull, whereas a vessel with a single hull is a monohull. The most common multihulls are catamarans, and trimarans. There are other types, with four or more hulls, but such examples are very rare and tend to be specialised for particular functions.
A naval ship is a military ship used by a navy. Naval ships are differentiated from civilian ships by construction and purpose. Generally, naval ships are damage resilient and armed with weapon systems, though armament on troop transports is light or non-existent.
A trimaran is a multihull boat that comprises a main hull and two smaller outrigger hulls which are attached to the main hull with lateral beams. Most modern trimarans are sailing yachts designed for recreation or racing; others are ferries or warships. They originated from the traditional double-outrigger hulls of the Austronesian cultures of Maritime Southeast Asia; particularly in the Philippines and Eastern Indonesia, where it remains the dominant hull design of traditional fishing boats. Double-outriggers are derived from the older catamaran and single-outrigger boat designs.
The Royal Navy's T class of diesel-electric submarines was designed in the 1930s to replace the O, P, and R classes. Fifty-three members of the class were built just before and during the Second World War, where they played a major role in the Royal Navy's submarine operations. Four boats in service with the Royal Netherlands Navy were known as the Zwaardvisch class.
The Fremantle-class patrol boats were coastal patrol vessels operated by the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) from 1979 to 2007. Designed by British shipbuilder Brooke Marine and constructed in Australia by NQEA, the Fremantle class were larger, more powerful, and more capable than the preceding Attack class, and the two primary patrol boat bases required infrastructure upgrades to support them. Although up to 30 vessels were planned, fifteen were ordered and constructed, with an unexercised option for five more.
The Armidale class is a class of patrol boats built for the Royal Australian Navy (RAN). Planning for a class of vessels to replace the fifteen Fremantle-class patrol boats began in 1993 as a joint project with the Royal Malaysian Navy, but was cancelled when Malaysia pulled out of the process. The project was reopened in 1999 under the designation SEA 1444, with the RAN as the sole participant. Of the seven proposals tendered, the Austal/Defence Maritime Services (DMS) proposal for twelve vessels based on an enlarged Bay-class patrol boat was selected. Two additional boats were ordered in 2005 to provide a dedicated patrol force for the North West Shelf Venture.
HMAS Larrakia is an Armidale-class patrol boat of the Royal Australian Navy (RAN).
HMAS Pirie, named for the city of Port Pirie, South Australia, is an Armidale-class patrol boat of the Royal Australian Navy (RAN).
PBAT Sentinel, formally HMAS Maitland, named for the city of Maitland, New South Wales, is an Armidale-class patrol boat of the Royal Australian Navy (RAN).
HMAS Ararat, named for the town of Ararat, Victoria, was an Armidale-class patrol boat of the Royal Australian Navy (RAN).
The harbour defence motor launch (HDML) was a 72 ft (22 m) long British-designed motor vessel used for harbour defence during World War II. Nearly 500 were built by numerous Allied countries during the war.
HMAS Broome, named for the city of Broome, Western Australia, is an Armidale-class patrol boat of the Royal Australian Navy (RAN).
HMAS Bundaberg, named after the city of Bundaberg, was an Armidale class patrol boat of the Royal Australian Navy (RAN). The ship was built in Henderson, Western Australia, and was commissioned into the RAN in March 2007. Based at HMAS Cairns, Bundaberg spent much of her career deployed as part of border protection and fisheries protection patrols as part of Operation Resolute. In addition, the patrol boat was involved in several national and multinational training exercises, visited Vanuatu in 2011, tracked a suspected drug-smuggling vessel that led to a multimillion-dollar seizure, and participated in the International Fleet Review 2013. In August 2014, a large fire broke out on the ship while she was undergoing refit. Extensive damage from the fire led to the ship's decommissioning in December 2014.
The Bay class is a class of eight armed patrol boats, built by Austal and used by the Customs Marine Unit of the Australian Customs and Border Protection Service. They entered service during the late 1990s and early 2000s, and are primarily used on border protection duties.
The Marine Unit, formerly the Australian Customs Service National Marine Unit, is a division of the Australian Border Force which acts as a Coast Guard in guarding Australia's coast. The Marine Unit focuses on surveillance and response activities within the Australian Economic Exclusion Zone, and the operation and training of ships and crews to do so.
Austal Limited is an Australian-based global ship building company and defence prime contractor that specialises in the design, construction and support of defence and commercial vessels. Austal's product range includes naval vessels, high-speed ferries, and supply or crew transfer vessels for offshore windfarms and oil and gas platforms.
Australian Border Force Cutter (ABFC) Ocean Shield is an offshore patrol vessel operated by the Australian Border Force. The ship was originally ordered in 2010 by DOF Subsea as an offshore support vessel, and was laid down by STX OSV as MSV Skandi Bergen in 2011. In 2012, the Australian Department of Defence was seeking a short-term replacement for the decommissioned Kanimbla-class amphibious landing ships, and negotiated to purchase the under-construction Skandi Bergen from DOF Subsea. The ship was completed, and entered Royal Australian Navy (RAN) service in mid-2012 as the civilian-crewed Australian Defence Vessel (ADV) Ocean Shield.
North Sea Boats is an international boat-building company specialized in building craft for military, law enforcement, SAR, commercial, and high-performance applications. The company has a presence in Sweden, Singapore, and Indonesia, with its headquarters located at Banyuwangi, East Java, Indonesia. North Sea Boats was founded in 2003 by John and Lizza Lundin as a trading name for PT Lundin Industry Invest.
This glossary of nautical terms is an alphabetical listing of terms and expressions connected with ships, shipping, seamanship and navigation on water. Some remain current, while many date from the 17th to 19th centuries. The word nautical derives from the Latin nauticus, from Greek nautikos, from nautēs: "sailor", from naus: "ship".