Ship’s visit shows how British sailors live

Ship’s visit shows how British sailors live
By Andrew Scutro - Staff writer
Posted : Thursday Apr 19, 2007 16:59:08 EDT

NORFOLK, Va. — The important stuff first: British sailors are issued three cans or “tins” of beer after work every day. The snack machines dispense Cadbury chocolate bars. A normal lunch is curry and rice. And when a British ship comes into port, the crew’s rugby team goes ashore to scrounge up a game with the locals.

This week and into next, the English amphibious assault ship Ocean is to be in Norfolk for the city’s Azalea Festival, and its crew has been hosting a variety of visitors during its stay.

At 667 feet long and 22,500 tons, Ocean is the United Kingdom’s largest warship. It can carry up to 22 helicopters; four landing craft; up to 40 Land Rovers and their trailers; and six 105 mm light guns for embarked Royal Marines. The ship’s company numbers 400 sailors, along with room for 600 Royal Marines and 300 from the air wing. It was built in 1998 and technically called a landing platform, helicopter.

Besides exotic food and a daily beer ration, the ship itself differs from American counterparts in several ways, very noticeably in the ladder wells. Traffic goes both up and down on double-wide stairs. Passageways around the hangar deck, known as “assault routes,” are very wide to accommodate Royal Marines in full kit. And the aircraft elevator travels between the hangar deck and the flight deck from within the ship, not jutting off the side, as on American carriers.

Berthing for the embarked military force is divided into relatively spacious compartments with racks stacked three high, weapons lockers and a small lounge area with a television and plenty of magazines.

The bridge has windows on four sides, making it very well lit from the outside. It’s manned by an officer of the watch, a communicator, a quartermaster and a boatswain’s mate. A corner of the bridge deck overhangs the flight deck where an air operations element works.

Able Bodied Seaman 1st Class Daniel Heredia-Keay, 24, joined the Royal Navy when he was 19. A warfare specialist, he said that with only a few sailors on the bridge watch at a time, “it’s nice and quiet.”

The Ocean left Plymouth, England in mid-March. After passing down the west coast of Africa, it crossed the Atlantic and did an information-gathering mission in the Caribbean before steaming north for Norfolk.

Cmdr. Robert Gray, who handles logistics aboard the Ocean, said the Caribbean mission is done in conjunction with the U.S. Navy and Coast Guard.

“It’s part of our partnership with the U.S.,” he said.

The Ocean returns to the Caribbean after leaving Norfolk and is expected back in Plymouth by July. The Ocean is the sixth ship in the Royal Navy to bear that name.

Ellie