Cammell Laird celebrates launch of £200m research vessel

Launch of RRS Sir David Attenborough

Birkenhead shipyard Cammell Laird has celebrated the launch of the £200m polar research ship, Sir David Attenborough.

The 92-year-old broadcaster launched the eponymous vessel when the hull of the 10,000-tonne ship slipped into the Mersey on Saturday afternoon.

He declared the occasion “the greatest possible honour” to be its namesake.

To applause from onlookers on both sides of the river the vessel created a huge wave as it slid, stern first, into the water, shepherded by four waiting tug boats.

Prior to pressing the launch button, Sir David spoke of the importance of this vessel, and the work that British, and other scientists, will carry out on board.

“Our future will be affected by what people working on this ship will be discovering in years to come,” he said.

“When 100 years ago this country sent people down to the South Pole, we were the pioneers in exploring the Antarctic.

“When we did so, I suspect the reason we did was the South Pole seemed as far away as it could possibly get to be on this planet.

“Now, 100 years later, we realise that remote place is, in fact, key to the whole understanding of the planet. What goes on down there affects the whole of the Earth.”

Cammell Laird project manager John Drummond likened the vessel to building a model: “She’s like a giant Airfix model.

“She’s being put together with one million pieces of steel, 30km of piping, 5,000 valves, and 450km of cabling.”

Following the launch the tugs manoeuvred the ship to Laird’s ‘wet basin’ a short distance down the river.

It is here that shipyard workers will spend the next few months attaching six upper decks, and carrying out internal fittings on cabin and laboratory areas.

Hand over, following completion of the fit-out, is expected to take place at the end of the year, when the RRS Sir David Attenborough will begin sea trials and head for her maiden expeditions to the Arctic and Antarctic.

Prof Dame Jane Francis, director of the British Antarctic Survey, said: “We’ve now got a real state-of-the-art ship and so we’ll be able to do a lot more science.

“We’ll be able to go into more remote areas. We’ll be able to do bigger projects; we’ll be able to do a lot more science. We really will be able to do frontier science that we haven’t been able to do in the past.”

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