The Hermitage Open Days come in the midst of a heat wave, easing a little by Saturday & Sunday.
Hopefully there will be ice creams & ice-lollies available at the regular pop-up-cafe in the Pier House, alongside the usual teas, coffees, cake & cordial.
There is a good chance that Thames fire tender Errington will visit at on Saturday, but otherwise unfortunately we do not have an official visiting vessel this time.
But we do have part of a very big vessel ! – we have on display a watertight bulkhead door that was originally in Royal Navy HMS Hermes, which was decommissioned in 1984 and then recommissioned and refitted to become the Indian Navy’s INS Viraat. Eventually (after several refits) INS Viraat was decommissioned in 2016 and then later scrapped at Alang, Gujarat. This door is being re-deployed as a working bulkhead door again in Dutch barge Nooit Volmaart forward bulkhead.
Brief Vessel History
1944 – laid down in Barrow-in-Furness during WWII as HMS Elephant
1945 – 52 construction suspended
1953 – hull launched
1959 – 1984 service as HMS Hermes, Royal Navy
1982 – flagship of the British forces during the Falklands war
1987 – 2016 Indian Navy, INS Viraat, and their flagship for most of this period
INS Virant pictured below in 2002
