Anyone who’s ever owned any kind of ship or boat knows well how fast deterioration can set in if the vessel isn’t being used the way she was intended. Witness the foliage RML 497 has acquired! (Picture.) So the team at the National Museum of the Royal Navy (NMRN) had their work cut out to get her ready to voyage to her new home at their base in Hartlepool – where she’ll begin her new future, telling her and the Royal Navy’s WWII story to a new audience. This last surviving Fairmile motor launch has certainly endured many problems since she was taken out of service down in Devon – The NMRN are working hard and fast to sort everything out – rescuing her just as she rescued downed airmen at sea in her wartime service. Hang in there, 497!!
SAD STATE, BUT NOT LONG NOW!
31 May 2019
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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.