HMS Bulwark ‘reprieve’
This is what was making the headlines in The News on May 4 40 years ago, as the Falklands conflict continued to escalate.
Reprieved, Bulwark to go to the Falklands
Portsmouth Dockyard is standing by to provide 500 men to work around the clock to bring the old aircraft carrier, HMS Bulwark, back into service.
The idea is to sail the 28-year-old carrier to the Falklands to be used as a mobile barracks and airfield for the garrison which will protect the islands when the Argentinian forces have left.
The call-up of the QE2 to take 3,000 men of 5 Infantry Brigade indicates the likely size of the British garrison.
Bulwark could accommodate 2,000 troops and provide essential services including, for example, fresh water.
As a base for Sea Harriers and helicopters, Bulwark could also supply maintenance and repair facilities, releasing HMS Invincible and HMS Hermes for operational work.
A team of engineering experts which recently surveyed Bulwark, until now due for the breaker’s yard, estimated that it would take six months to make her fit for sea.
But, by using 500 men on a round-the-clock shift basis, it is now thought the work can be completed in 16 weeks.
Bulwark, 27,705-tons, paid off at the end of March last year.
She was de-stored and has remained in the Naval Base awaiting her last voyage.
Affectively known as the Rusty B, she was brought out of semi-retirement in 1979.
If the Bulwark project goes ahead it must delay the rundown of the Dockyard, which is due to be completed by April, 1984.
(Note: a later ship survey found that Bulwark was not in a fit condition to go to the Falklands and she was scrapped two years later)