LÉ Deirdre (P20)

History
Ireland
Name: Deirdre
Namesake: Deirdre
Builder: Verolme Cork Dockyard, Cork
Yard number: 819
Laid down: 10 August 1971
Launched: 21 January 1972
Commissioned: 19 June 1972
Decommissioned: 2001
Struck: 2003
Homeport: Cork
Identification: P20
Fate: Sold for scrapping
General characteristics
Type: Offshore patrol vessel
Displacement: 972 tonnes max
Length: 56.1 m (184 ft) overall
Beam: 10.42 m (34.2 ft)
Draught: 4.38 m (14.4 ft)
Speed: 33.3 km/h (18.0 kn) maximum
Boats & landing
craft carried:
3
Complement: 47 (6 officers and 41 ratings )
Armament:
  • 1 × 40 mm/60 Bofors
  • 2 × 12.7 mm machine guns

Deirdre (P20) was a ship in the Irish Naval Service. She was named after Deirdre, a tragic heroine from Irish mythology who committed suicide after her lover's murder.

Deirdre was built as a replacement for the Ton-class minesweepers. She was to have longer range and be a more seaworthy ship for work in the Atlantic. Deirdre became the prototype for the later Emer-type vessels.

Deirdre was one of the vessels involved in the 1979 Fastnet race rescue operations, assisting the crews of two yachts - SV Regardless of Cork and SV Silver Apple of Howth.

Deirdre was sold at public auction for IR£190,000. She was purchased by the English yacht chartering company Seastream International for conversion into luxury charter yacht Tosca IV for the company's owner, businessman Christopher Matthews. Speaking on the radio, a Seastream spokesman appeared pleased with their bargain as they had been prepared to bid up to IR£500,000. The auction starting price had been IR£60,000.

The conversion in a Polish shipyard was not completed as the English owner died. In 2007 she was towed to Brazil for further refit and completion.[1] Substantially complete, she arrived at Jacksonville, Florida in September 2012 for final outfitting as Santa Rita I. However, in August 2014, Santa Rita I was towed to Green Cove Springs, Florida, for breaking.[2]

References

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 1/10/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.