THE ROYAL NAVY IN THE DOCK

摘要

Thank you for inviting me to speak. I look forward to hearing what is new in the world of drydocks, launching and shiplift. I had an expectation that the safety requirements of moving ships to and from the water had been sorted a along time ago. However, the regular reports of incidents during these evolutions has convinced me that we may be losing our custom and practice skills. The profession has also failed to produce the knowledgeable publications and the training courses needed to deliver a competent workforce in these evolutions. This conference goes some way to raising awareness of the issues. I hope that the conference will meet my expectations of demonstrating a concerned profession able to rise to these old challenges and to ensure crew and ships are kept safe. Let me explain why I'm so sensitive to the issue. As the Chief Executive of the Warship Support Agency I have the responsibility to support the Fleet and ensure its availability and readiness. The size of this management task is easily demonstrated by the following statistics Dockings are carried out regularly as these statistics show. Clearly, the Fleet cannot be available or at high readiness if the ships are held in dock. This is the equivalent of standing in doc for the navy. Many a worthy officer was kept entrapped in dock with their ships whilst the enemy's ships stayed at sea. Therefore my job to ensure the Fleet has the minimum downtime. Despite this priority I have not found a way of eliminating the usefulness of drydocks. Therefore, I must ensure that we use them efficiently and safely. Today drydocks, floating docks, syncrolifts and heavy lift capability all support the Royal Navy in maintaining its world class Fleet. The movement of warships from land to sea and vice versa remains a fundamental requirement of supporting a Fleet.