OK… so it’s raining… and dark… and desolate, in a largely deserted Hartlepool dock area. But that’s not going to stop the National Museum of the Royal Navy and Robert Wynn & Sons from getting RML 497 onto terra firma. The 16 axle SPMT – Self Propelled Modular Transporter – controlled by a single operator with what looks like a PlayStation around his neck, is manoeuvred slowly underneath the cradle supporting the WWII veteran and then the Fairmile B is gently drawn onto the dockside, as the County Durham rain continues give us all a soaking! It’s a stirring sight to see this elegant vessel drift slowly onto the dockside, all the positioning pre-measured with minute care by Group Engineer Sally Weston – including with a tape measure. Computer measurements are just great, but seeing millimetre by millimetre is believing!
NIGHT MOVES
11 September 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.