Article by Chief Officer Chris Locke

On a grey and overcast day in October RFA GREY ROVER finally succumbed to her inevitable fate and passed the Round Tower for the last time.

This had been the third attempt at towing the ship to Liverpool for re-cycling; the first cancelled at the very last moment by the tug Captain due to his sudden concerns over weather conditions and the second, new tug and new skipper, due to surveyor’s concerns with towing arrangements.  So it was at 1450 on 14th October 2009 that Grey Rover finally slipped her moorings under tow from the tug Braveheart for the four day tow to Canada Dock in Liverpool.

Many would say that the breakers yard came too early for such a fine ship and there was ‘life left in the old girl yet’.  A true statement perhaps, although with the ever increasing stringent regulations concerning Single Hull Tankers significant alteration and modernisation to the ship would have been necessary.  However, it is worth mentioning that during her decommissioning and preps for disposal she was prepared for a Government to Government sale for use by another navy and not for scrapping.

The purpose of this article is to sound out amongst the many who sailed onboard Grey Rover if there is enough interest and material to write a small book about the ship, and more importantly about the crews that sailed and lived aboard her.  The book would also cover the re-cycling process, a fascinating area particularly pictorially.

Most people have heard of stories from famous ships like Victory, Hood or Endurance however, this would be the story of just an ordinary ship and her crew and an account of life at sea and how it changed during the 36 years of her service.
If you (either retired or still serving) have sailed in Grey Rover or been associated with the ship and would be prepared to forward anecdotal stories and accounts, which could then be woven into the ship’s history I would be pleased to hear from you.  A fine example I already know about is Grey Rover meeting a Russian Foxtrot Class submarine on an Easter Sunday in the Faeroes Iceland Gap. Other stories include a passage through the Beagle Channel and around Cape Horn and more recently, drug seizures in the Caribbean, all of which would have a place within the pages of such a book.  However, recollections of happy memories on the ship or other experiences which are less dramatic but perhaps give more flavour of life on board such as the account of a past Captain who joined Grey Rover as his first ship in the RFA as a Junior Officer and has fond memories of those early days.  Shipboard life memories might include barbeques on the flight deck or experiencing stormy seas in the South Atlantic.


If you would like to contribute to the Grey Rover story then please contact me at   thegreyroverbook@googlemail.com This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it     The more pictures the better.