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Displaying items by tag: DSEI17

#navy - The Irish Naval Service are not the only foreign navy so far attending the London Arms Fair as the Belgium Navy are represented with a vessel visiting the international event, writes Jehan Ashmore.

Furthermore to a previous report on Afloat at the weekend, RTE also writes today on the Defence Forces chiefs in defending the decision to send L.E. Samuel Beckett to the Defence and Security Equipment International (DSEI) fair following critism from among anti-war activists. DSEI is the world's biggest arms fair where some 1,600 exhibitors are in place from 54 countries. 

L.E. Samuel Beckett costing around €70 million was built in 2014 by a British shipyard as the first Offshore Patrol Vessel (OPV90) class also referred as the 'Playwright' series. The same yard, Babcock Marine & Technology located in north Devon is constructing a fourth sister to be delivered in 2019 and commissioned into service as L.E. George Bernard Shaw.

As for the DSEI 2017 fair which is been held in the ExCEL Centre in London's east docklands, L.E. Samuel Beckett arrived via the nearby King George V Dock. The OPV was joined by the Belgium Navy in the form of the BNS Pollux. Last year Afloat reported on a NATO flotilla among which BNS Pollux called to Dublin Port. The vessel displacing 569 tonnes is also known as a Ready Duty Ship (RDS).

Sistership, BNS Castor also made a visit to the capital earlier this year following a ceremony to mark the 30th anniversary of the Zeebrugge ferry disaster.

In addition the naval presence at DSEI are those from the Royal Navy. They are HMS Argyll, Cattistock, Mersey,Trumpeter and Puncher.

Published in Navy

Coastal Notes Coastal Notes covers a broad spectrum of stories, events and developments in which some can be quirky and local in nature, while other stories are of national importance and are on-going, but whatever they are about, they need to be told.

Stories can be diverse and they can be influential, albeit some are more subtle than others in nature, while other events can be immediately felt. No more so felt, is firstly to those living along the coastal rim and rural isolated communities. Here the impact poses is increased to those directly linked with the sea, where daily lives are made from earning an income ashore and within coastal waters.

The topics in Coastal Notes can also be about the rare finding of sea-life creatures, a historic shipwreck lost to the passage of time and which has yet many a secret to tell. A trawler's net caught hauling more than fish but cannon balls dating to the Napoleonic era.

Also focusing the attention of Coastal Notes, are the maritime museums which are of national importance to maintaining access and knowledge of historical exhibits for future generations.

Equally to keep an eye on the present day, with activities of existing and planned projects in the pipeline from the wind and wave renewables sector and those of the energy exploration industry.

In addition Coastal Notes has many more angles to cover, be it the weekend boat leisure user taking a sedate cruise off a long straight beach on the coast beach and making a friend with a feathered companion along the way.

In complete contrast is to those who harvest the sea, using small boats based in harbours where infrastructure and safety poses an issue, before they set off to ply their trade at the foot of our highest sea cliffs along the rugged wild western seaboard.

It's all there, as Coastal Notes tells the stories that are arguably as varied to the environment from which they came from and indeed which shape people's interaction with the surrounding environment that is the natural world and our relationship with the sea.