The following photo of Fort Grange at Plymouth in the early 1980s just prior to Falklands shows the wooden deck (the monkey island in naval speak) quite clearly. The photo also depicts the ship still with green decks, lifeboats in full white, the funnel with broad black top and the flight deck and ELP both with the then new combined Wessex/Seaking deck markings. Note also the velly derrick forward (who ever invented that should be shot) is pivoted/hinged towards the aft end of the foredeck and NOT on the foremast to which is was NEVER connected. Also note that the comms dome is still not fitted.
The next photo is of Fort Grange in 1986 at Pearl Harbor – with black funnel band reduced!!, lifeboats & boats in grey, decks in dark grey. Also note that the post Falklands fits are in place. The comms dome is in place as was on Fort Austin, the SCOT platforms taken over with 20mm guns fitted and that 20mm guns fitted on top of the forward RAS cabs.
The next photo is of RFA FORT AUSTIN in the late 1970’s and is an ideal view showing Seaking helicopters simultaneously operating from the two “spots”. The one on top of the hangar was the ELP (Emergency Landing Platform) and was used only for that purpose and the odd training session to get pilots used to it. The photo clearly shows the metal decks throughout including above the bridge etc. Note also the comms dome is already fitted ahead of the main mast.
Next photo is of RFA Fort Austin in January 1982 not long before Falklands and clearly shows the white lifeboats, the white comms dome fitted and lack of any 20mm gun platforms. Also obvious is the rather ugly large black funnel top. We were all glad when they went.
So all in all referring to the Falklands Ships PDF by Kelvin the models shown of the Fort Class in his report are pretty much all in error, as most show incorrect features or combinations of wrong colours etc. Look at the flight deck markings, numbers of lifeboats, colour of top deck, comms domes etc. The only one that shows the velly derrick correct is the seevee model. The VCB carried on the Port side midships was soon changed for a Pacific rib. Worth noting here that both ships had only FIVE lifeboats, three on the port side and two on starboard side, but carried a Cheverton captains launch stbd forward.
The ships changed over the years with additions and a few bits deleted. By 2012 the Fort Austin no longer had markings on the top of the hangar. She entered refit at Liverpool after being towed from Portsmouth 2011 looking a bit of a wreck totally unmanned as in the first photo below. She looked a bit like that when I joined her with three other officers. She was gutted internally and then we completely rebuilt her inside and out. The second photo was taken just as I was leaving her in July 2012 after handing over command of the ship to a new captain as I retired from the RFA. When I left her she had no less than 25 positions for close-in self defence weapons including two Phalanx on the Monkey Island.
Another point to note with the early Fort Class was that they were not compatible with Merlin helicopters so could not operate them. Also worth noting on the same point that Rover class could not land Seakings despite one being used as an advert for a Sea Harrier!! At Greenwich.
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