AFTER completing her refit at the Maaskant Shipyard in Stellendam, in The Netherlands, Her Majesty's Bahamian Ship Bahamas arrived the Royal Bahamas Defence Force's Coral Harbour Base on Saturday.
The 24-day journey took the ship's company from The Netherlands through the English Channel, and west of the coasts of France, Spain and Portugal to the former Portuguese colonies of Madeira, near Morocco, and Cape Verde, near Mauratania; both small archipelagos off the west coast of North Africa.
After making port of calls in Funchal, Madeira, and Mindelo, Cay Verde, the 200-foot HMBS Bahamas made the trans-Atlantic voyage covering over 6,000 nautical miles. The first transAtlantic voyage by RBDF patrol craft was made 40 years ago when the 103-foot HMBS Marlin and Flamingo were purchased from Vosper Thornycroft in England in 1978.
Since that time all four of the 140-foot Legend Class vessels built by the Dutch shipbuilding company, Damen Shipyards, have made the ocean crossing between 2014 and 2016.
The RBDF flagship is under the command of Commander Gregory Brown. It has a maximum crew capacity of 60 officers and marines; however, a skeleton crew of 31 crewmembers, along with three Dutch advisors made the trip. Upon arrival at Coral Harbour Base, the ship will undergo final assessment prior to being officially handed over to the RBDF and returned to service.
Comments
Sickened 6 years ago
I give it two years before its run aground again just outside the coral harbor base - in high tide no less.
Bonefishpete 6 years ago
"Don't Mash My Boats"
sheeprunner12 6 years ago
That makes 10 RBDF ships in the fleet ........... millions of gallons of fuel bills for what????
Five planes for far less could do a better job ......... and a few drones or rent a US satellite.
cx 6 years ago
Agreed and the cost of even one of these boats they could have gotten 5 planes.
bogart 6 years ago
Dese boats.....are working....nations SUPPOSED PRIMARY PROTECTION boats..........FIRST LINE DEFRNCE...PRORECTION....Defence...is critical.....how in the world.... Bahamas...ever did buy ....Critical defence force patrol boats....to save da nation......FROM WAY CROSS DA PLANET AN ONE BIG OCEAN AWAY..........erry time seems need fixing have to go way cross the ocean....taking like almost...whole Defence Fprce to man ship....taking....weeks to travel back .....an forth......using....how much fuel and provisioning...Mussey enuff... to travel round entire Bahamaland... 20 times over........out of business from Bahamas patrolljng......like dey intended for....???????...... Dis....dese boats needs to be sold....buy boats from da US...!!!....built in the US.....serviced by easy transport parts...servicepersonel.....just hpurs away in the US....shoudda been done in da firdt place...!!!.....who bought dem big boats anyhow from way cross da ocean....didnt even know any Bahamian spoke Dutch language no how.......
cx 6 years ago
I am curious what happened to the sister boat Nassau. Pretty sure I remember reading there was a serious flaw with these they had to go back to the original builder with to have them repair. I hope we aint get another defective boat.
The_Oracle 6 years ago
Refit? Come on Tribune, "Repair Damage done" would be more accurate. All these boats have crossed the Atlantic due to DAMAGE DONE! Question: Did we also have to hire a EU pilot to get the boat safely thru the English Channel? Or did England donate one, to preserve their own maritime safety?
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