MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

HMS Endurance begins month long piggy-back journey to Portsmouth

Save from scrapping HMS Endurance begins new life

British Ice patrol HMS Endurance is ready to be piggy-backed from the Falkland Islands to Portsmouth because of a week’s delay in welding her to the deck of heavy load ship Target. She’s expected back in a month’s time.

The 6.000 tons HMS Endurance suffered engine failure and extensive flooding on December last year and was adrift until rescued by Chilean navy support vessels.

The incident occurred at the west exit of the Magellan Strait when she was sailing for Valparaiso. She was first towed to Punta Arenas in the extreme south of Chile and later to Port Williams in the Falkland Islands.

Last January the Royal Navy announced that the ice patrol would be returned to the UK for repair, after at one moment having considered scrapping her entirely.

The Royal Navy has refused to say how much the return or repair will cost the taxpayer, but it is understood to be much less than the £39 million spent on repairing the Portsmouth destroyer HMS Nottingham.

Since the incident in the Strait of Magellan, off the Chilean coast, the navy has remained tight-lipped about how the crisis was averted.

But pictures showing the pumps and pipes used to stem the rapid flow of water testify to the drama that unfolded.

Former naval officer and editor of Warship World Steve Bush said: 'It is estimated that between 1,200 and 1,500 tons of sea water flooded into the ship and it's amazing that she didn't sink.

'The pictures show the accommodation cabins in C Deck up to the waist in water, which would probably not have happened in a warship with a sealable compartment design.'

'But we have never made secret of the fact that a large amount of water flooded into the ship admitted the navy.

The ice patrol vessel spends several months of each year in Antarctica carrying research scientists.

Her mission is: 'To patrol and survey the Antarctic and South Atlantic, maintaining Sovereign Presence with Defence Diplomacy and supporting the global community of Antarctica.

According to reports from Portsmouth with HMS Endurance away from duty, RFA Largs Bay and HMS Clyde will be on patrol in the South Atlantic.