Video of Ship Launch today.

[Alistairr]

A short video of the Launch of our latest warship HMS Defender at 1520hrs today.
Sorry about the poor quality, all taken with phone and into the sun.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JqA09DQQxf0

And some stills.





Cheers

Al.

[silver_boy]

I was there too! Was in the actual shipyard, at the other side of the ship from the photos. Very impressive stuff. I'll try to post some pics/video up later.

[Alistairr]

Fantastic, yours will be a lot better with the light behind you.

Cheers

Al.

[AndieMac]

Al........Not having seen a large ship being launched before, how do they stop her at the end of the ramp run and what appeared only a couple of boat lengths into the water.....there is a fair bit of momentum going on.

[Bajansailor]

Here is an interesting dissertation about all the calculations and preparation work required before launching a ship - http://www.nautica.it/superyacht/527.../launching.htm

They usually have some heavy chains attached to the ship to slow her down before she bashes the bank on the other side of the river.
I watched one of the last steel warships (maybe a Type 42?) launched from the Vosper Thorneycroft yard on the River Itchen in Southampton in the 80's - very impressive, but she would seem like a dinosaur now when compared to HMS Defender.

[AndieMac]

Originally Posted by Bajansailor

Here is an interesting dissertation about all the calculations and preparation work required before launching a ship - http://www.nautica.it/superyacht/527.../launching.htm

They usually have some heavy chains attached to the ship to slow her down before she bashes the bank on the other side of the river.
I watched one of the last steel warships (maybe a Type 42?) launched from the Vosper Thorneycroft yard on the River Itchen in Southampton in the 80's - very impressive, but she would seem like a dinosaur now when compared to HMS Defender.

Crikey Martin....there's a lot of scientific calculating that goes into a ship launch all right (informative link..thanks)

[Alistairr]

Very Interesting link, Bajansailor.

Andy as said they had very heavy duty steel cables welded to the side of the ship near the bow, I have circled these, and the cables were hung down the length of the ship ready for launch, circled again.


Also if you watch the video again, you will see them going taugh at the bow at 33secs into the clip.
Quite a sight.

It doesn't always work though, a few years ago they launched a ship there, and it kept going and hit the land on our side, resulting in a huge dent it the back, and a while in the dry docks getting repaired afterwards.

Cheers

Al.

[Alistairr]

Another good clip here.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QK47056lLa8
and
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_KU6-s6v4_E

Cheers

Al.

[AndieMac]

Thanks for that Al....shame it wasn't a bit darker for the kids watching the fireworks, bit hard to launch ships in the dark though!

[Bajansailor]

Following on from Al's photos above, here is an interesting video that was emailed to me showing how ships are launched sideways into a narrow canal - they are literally trundled to the edge of the quay and 'tipped in'!

[AndieMac]

Great video Martin....