If it does – salute it! Long-standing Royal Navy joke. Here on Landing Craft Tank 7074, coming back to life in the Ship Hall of Portsmouth Naval Dockyard, there’s no saluting needed. Not least because Martin Hobson, the head of ML (UK) of Portsmouth, who are doing the work, creates the right atmosphere. People just get on with it. And there’s a lot of getting on to be getting on with, as the LCT comes back to life, paint roll by paint roll, brush stroke by brush stroke: camouflaged just as she was on D-Day as she headed for Normandy and Hitler’s Atlantic Wall. In fact, Martin himself has a direct and personal connection with 7074. His grandfather served at Gold Beach during the invasion – so he probably saw the very ship his grandson is now setting to rights.
IF IT DOESN’T MOVE – PAINT IT
25 July 2020
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About Rob
Rob is a TV producer, reporter and camera operator with 30 years of experience at the BBC, Channel 4 and ITN, in news, factual and documentary production. He is a four-time 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.