HMS Reclaim

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Career

Ordered:
Laid down:	April 9th, 1946
Launched:	March 12th 1948
Commissioned:	1949
Decommissioned:	1979
Fate:	Broken up, 1982
Struck:
General characteristics
Displacement:	1,360 tonnes
Length:	66 metres
Beam:	12 metres
Draught:	5 metres
Propulsion:
Speed:	12 knots
Range:
Complement:	92 (including 12 divers)
Armament:
Aircraft:
Boat:
Motto:

HMS Reclaim was a deep diving and submarine rescue vessel of the British Royal Navy. She was originally intended to be a King Salvor Class Ocean Salvage Vessel and was fitted with specialised equipment including underwater television cameras and sonar and echosounding apparatus. She was also equipped for submarine rescue work. At the time of her commissioning (1949), the Reclaim was the Royal Navy's only vessel capable of carrying out deep diving operations. Upon completion Reclaim was attached to HMS Vernon, Portsmouth as a diving tender.

[edit] Operational service

1948: diving from Reclaim, Petty Officer Wilfred Bollard set a world deep diving record of 535 ft.

1951: on June 14th 1951 Reclaim found the submerged wreck of the submarine HMS Affray, missing since April 17th, during which operation her new underwater television apparatus was used. One of the divers from Reclaim working on the Affray was Lionel "Buster" Crabb, who later became famous when in 1956 he disappeared in Portsmouth harbour.

1956: Lt George Wookey of the Royal Navy's Clearance Diving Branch dived from HMS Reclaim to set a new deep diving record of 600 feet in Sor Fjord, Norway on 12th October 1956.

1960: Reclaim's was assigned to HMS Lochinvar, Port Edgar for service as a Mine Counter Measures Support Ship and Diving Trials Ship. From January and May 1961 she carried out diving trials in the Canary Isles. She was later relieved as Mine Counter Measures Support Ship by the minelayer HMS Abdiel, which enabled her to concentrate on her roles as deep diving suuport vessel.

1962: Deep Diving Trials programme begun, culminating in ten dives off Toulon in 1965 to 600 ft.

1968: Reclaim took part in the salvage operation on the Air Lingus Viscount 803 Aircraft EI-AOM, the Saint Phelim, which had crashed into the Irish Sea off Tuskar Rock on March 24th 1968. Over a period of 26 days, divers working from the Reclaim performed 91 dives in depths of 250 ft, managing to salvage a third of the aircraft's wreckage. Unfortunately, when Reclaim attempted to raise the fuselage to the surface using straps instead of nets, the wreckage broke apart upon reaching the surface and sank.