HMS LST 3002
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HMS LST 3002 had a short but interesting career which demonstrated the robustness of her design and construction. She was one of the first of her class of tank landing ship (LST).
She was built at Swan Hunter's yard on the Tyne and commissioned in December 1945 after acceptance trials. She sailed from the Tyne through the Pentland Firth to the Gareloch, encountering and sinking a floating contact mine on the way. She took aboard stores and worked up off the Clyde. Sailed for the Far East independently. After passing through the Suez Canal into the Gulf of Suez with a cargo of Scammel tank transporters, she was rammed on a calm night, in good visibility by the Victory ship Poland Victory (VC2-S-AP3) just about midships causing a hole about 44 ft wide on the upper deck and 32 ft wide at the keel and cutting the LST almost in two, leaving just about 10 ft to hold her together. One of the ship's boats was damaged in the collision and the other seemed reluctant to yield to gravity. One crew member lost his life in the accident. The crew of the LST abandoned ship, being taken aboard Poland Victory by rope ladder while she held position embedded in the LST.
LST 3002 was still afloat next morning and a skeleton crew re-boarded her. The rest of the crew were carried off by Poland Victory. The Battle-class destroyer HMS Finisterre (D55) attended until RFAs Prince Salvor (A292) and Salvage Duke (A493) took the LST in tow slowly back to Port Taufiq. There, she was dry docked in the small shipyard for temporary repairs, the skeleton crew remaining on board. Repairs included fitting great strongback girders straddling the hole. Now seaworthy again, but still showing signs of injury, she sailed to Dockyard Creek, Valetta Harbour, Malta to complete the repairs in dry dock. Repairs completed, she returned home, calling in at Gibraltar on the way, paying off pennant flying boldly. She was decommissioned at the Gareloch. Later, she was sold to the Greek Navy to become RHS Ali Akmon (L104).
This incident put the reputation of the LST (Large Slow Target) to be virtually unsinkable to a severe test. Much of the shock of the collision was taken by the tank transporters without which this LST would have been cut in two. Remarkably, the two parts of the partially severed vessel sailed comfortably together, thanks no doubt to the excellence of the design and construction, but also to the skill with which she had been ballasted.
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