HMS BRONINGTON THE KINGS SHIP

Описание: Enthusiasts are staging a final bid to save ‘Prince Charles’ warship’ HMS Bronington.
The minesweeper, which was commanded by the-then Lieutenant Wales for ten months in 1976, sank at her mooring on Merseyside eight years ago.

The recently-formed HMS Bronington Preservation Trust Ltd believes there is a last chance to save the ship – now nearly 70 years old – before the elements finally take their toll.

It’s looking to raise around £5,000 for a dive survey – the first stage in a grand plan to raise Bronington, pump-out the flood water and then turn her into a working ship once more through continued fund-raising, sponsorship and grants.

The trust wants to see the wooden-hulled ship used to deliver yachting and diving courses, teach navigation, be hired for fishing/diving trips, filming, and used by Sea Cadets and the Prince’s Trust.

If those goals prove too much due to cost and unavailability of equipment, then Bronington would revert to becoming a static display alongside or in a dry dock, open to the public, similar to her successful years as a museum ship on the Manchester Ship Canal.

World-famous Merseyside shipbuilder Cammell Laird has agreed to take Bronington into their dry dock for restoration under their apprenticeship scheme in stages if the funding can be found.

Bronington is one of around 120 Ton-class minesweepers built in the 1950s. With hulls of mahogany, the Tons were among the last wooden warships built for the Royal Navy before it switched to today’s plastic-hulled minehunters in the 1970s.

The minesweeper served for nearly 35 years, finally decommissioning in 1988 after which she became a museum ship firstly in Manchester, then on the Wirral Peninsula.