The “chummy ship” is a long-standing Royal Navy tradition- where two ships’ companies develop a special friendship. RML 497 is going to have the best possible chummy at The National Museum of the Royal Navy in Hartlepool – because the museum is also home to HMS ‘Trincomalee’, a 19th century frigate built in Bombay by the Wadia family of shipwrights. Extraordinarily, ’Trincomalee’ still has 60% of her original timbers – because she was built from Malabar teak, a very strong wood with a high oil content, which has protected her for over 200 years. Now, she floats in her own dock – and it’s a thrill to go on board, feel her move with sea around her, and know that the deck you are treading on once resounded to the slap of sailors’ feet as they rushed to make sail!
CHUMMY SHIP
02 December 2019
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About Rob
Rob is a TV producer, reporter and camera operator with 30 years’ experience at the BBC, Channel 4 and ITN, in news, factual and documentary production. He is a four times award winner, whose awards include a coveted Royal Television Society award for his work on Channel 4 News. His association with The Maritime Foundation goes back to 1995, when he won the first Desmond Wettern Maritime Media Award for a series of reports that led to a major documentary on the loss of the bulk carrier Derbyshire.