Rosyth Royal Navy Dockard
Between 1984 and 1993 Rosyth Royal Navy Dockard was the UK’s sole location for refitting our nuclear submarines. These days the dockyard still does work on Royal Navy ships and is also the storage location for seven of the eleven decommissioned submarines, which you can clearly see in the satellite picture (the other 4 are at Devonport, Plymouth).
The submarines are: The HMS Dreadnought (the oldest of the UK’s submarines), HMS Churchill, HMS Swiftsure, HMS Resolution, HMS Repulse, HMS Renown and HMS Revenge. You can see a couple in the background of this ground level photo.
The last four made up the fleet of “Resolution class” submarines, which carried Polaris missiles and served as the UK’s nuclear deterrent for over 28 years and 228 unbroken patrols. All seven of the subs have now had their nuclear fuel rods removed but are still potentially dangerous and, worryingly, no-one’s quite sure what to do with them :-/
Thanks: subflux & Matthew
Cant they just sink them in the middle of the Atlantic - or sell them to Iran.
Perhaps they should cut them up into tiny pieces and send a piece to every taxpayer in the country as a return on their investment.
Now they use to repair them in Gibraltar
but Google Local Has no imaginery on them
http://www.euroresidentes.com/Blogs/2005/02/british-nuclear-submarine-in-gibraltar.htm
This was a very important naval base in the UK history. My grandfather’s ship was refitted at Rosyth in the 1940’s before coming to Australia to serve as a boom defence vessel in WWII. It was after his stay here that he decided to imigrate to our beautiful country, bringing his family with him.
I have been trying to trace my grandfather’s naval history and I am pleased that Rosyth is still used by the navy.
It is nice to think that these subs can sit at rest, hopefully never to be used again in war but as a reminder of it, and the Peace that we are lucky to have.
The photo fascinates me. Technology is amazing.