Recent happenings around the Ross Revenge.
Updated December 2010
|
 Throughout
2009 and 2010 work continued on repainting the exterior of the
ship. A lot of the high level superstructure, in particular the
funnel area has been chipped back to bare metal, re-primed and
repainted. This is a very difficult area to work around, due to
it's curvature and access, even with our scaffold tower, and it
all took much longer than expected. We also chipped and repainted
all of the main deck “mushrooms” and hatchways, the
rear deck engine rooms hatches, and many others parts of the
exterior of the ship. During the summer of 2010 our neogtiations
for a new public mooring started to show promise, and in
prepaartion for any potential move, and in associatiuon with our
insurers we commissioned a marine inspector to undertake a survey
of the ship. This highlighted many issues, some of which were
fairly trivial, and some of which were more significant. The most
depressing was that the inspector was not at all happy with the
ships broadcast towers, their mountings, stay wires and
structural integrity. This was obviously a major blow, and as we
debated the merits of ultrasound surveys, dismantling the towers
for further structural analysis and possible rebuilding, we
received a phone call out of the blue. A long time and ardent
supporter, upon hearing of the potential problem with the towers
offered to donate us a brand new tower. On his owninitiative he
contacted several tower manufacture, negotiated prices, and
offered to pay for the whole lot. To say we were somewhat taken
aback is to put it mildly, and if all goes to plan, the Ross
Revenge will take on a whole new silhouette duruing 2011. See our
2010 update page for further details and pictures of this years
restoration progress.
|
|
 Despite
optimistic hopes of getting out of Tilbury Docks onto a public
mooring during the summer of 2008 we were again disappointed by
the slow wheels of grinding beauracracy. However, on the bright
side, it has given us another summer to work on the outside of
the ship and improve her appearance. The trawl wnch has been
given a long overdue makeover, both sides of the bows have been
taken down to clean metal for repainting, the side gunwhales have
had similar treatment. Internally further work has has taken
place on refurbishing the cabins and accomodation areas, more
areas of the ship have been rewired, the fire alarm system has
been upgraded with further zones added, and automatic smoke
detectors installed. Substantial items of the ships broadcast
equipment have been rented out to a movie company some of the
income from which has been spent on further engineering materials
and paint and several new volunteers have come forward to offer
their services as crew members. Some weekends we have had as many
as 17 crew onboard! Full details of work in 2008 is available on
this webpage
|
|
|
 The
Summer
of 2007 saw the crew hard at work renovating the portside of
the hull and superstructure. She was located in the old barge
dock within Tilbury docks, which has the superb advantge of
having a concrete quayside right down to water level. Indeed at
times the quay can be an inch or so under water. This has allowed
the crew to chip off and clean the rust spots right down to the
waterline, and repaint. As well as the exterior of the hull, we
have also tackled the outside of the superstructure, from the
exit in the old "dog
kennel", along the exterior walls of the mess room,
galley and engine room upto the main winch. As this area has
traditionally not been accessed during tours it is many years
since a co-ordinated effort has been made to paint and clean it.
|
|
|
 Time
has also been spent overhauling some of the ships toilet and
shower facilities during 2007 to make these more efficient and
pleasant to use as well as the general day to day repairs and
maintenance. Work continues on refurbishing the ships electrical
systems, and further improvements to the fire alarm and emergency
lighting systems have been made.
Over the Winter of 2006/07
work continued of the crews cabin areas, and all of these bar one
have now been re-painted, varnished, re-wired and generally
smartened up. The final cabin will be tackled over the winter of
2007/08.
Lots of pictures and more details of work in 2007 can be found
here.
|
|
|
She
spent the summer of 2006 in Berth 21 before moving to the old
barge dock in November. She was moved into Berth 21 in January
from Berth 12 adjacent to the cement works. Both Berth 21 and the
old barge dock meant we had less cement dust covering everything
- which was something of a relief. During the move we took the
opportunity to turn her round, so her starboard side was against
the quay. Throughout spring and summer, work throughout 2006 has
been to repaint the starboard side hull and the stern end whilst
we are along a quayside.
|
|
See Easter
2006 , May
2006 and Summer
2006pages for lots of pictures. Note these pages are very
large - several megabytes long so allow time for downloading.
|
|
 During
the winter months of 2005/06 work continued inside the ship, the
main focus of attention being refurbishment of the messroom and
some of the crews cabins.
|
|
See here
for more messroom pictures.
|
|
 Prior
to that, in late summer 2005 the port side of the hull (which was
then along the quayside) was stripped down to bare metal,
reprimed and repainted in bright red gloss. To reach the hard to
reach parts we hired a cherry picker for a weekend, and thus
managed to painted the bows and repaint her name.
Full details here.
|
|
Before the hull painting, one of our first jobs after arriving
in Tilbury docks was to refurbish and repaint the back deck.
|
|
Whilst all these major jobs have been going on, lots of other
work has been taking pace too. Lot's of re-wiring has been done,
the ships PA system has been repaired, improvements to the
central heatng have been made, and all the little ongoing
day-to-day repairs and tasks have been tackled.
|
|
One notable achievement was the donation of a substantial
quantity of high quality engine oil by the good people at
Valvoline Oils. Our Chief Engineer Peter Clayton has recommenced
work on the main engine, and we are all looking forward to the
day when all that new oil and hydraulic fluid can be put to good
use. Of course, before we could store the fresh oil we had to
clean out the oil tanks which was not a particularly pleasant
job.
|
|
 More
Pictues
Before the move into the docks in May 2005 we
spent ten very productive months moored alongside the ferry
landing stage at Tilbury. During August and Spetember 2004 the
ship once again hosted the programmes of Radio Caroline, to a
local audience on a "Restricted Service Licence" (RSL)
on 1278khz AM, and to the larger and world wide audience via the
stations regular satellite, worldspace and internet feeds. During
this time the ship was opened up to the public and welcomed
thousdands of visitors from all around the world. Once the RSL
was finished, broadcasts and open days took place on the ship one
weekend per month throughout the autumn of 2004 and into 2005.
A
whole load of pictures from the RSL can be found
here.
|
|
Prior to the move to Tilbury in July 2004, the Ross Revenge
spent a little over a year at on the Medway at Rochester in Kent,
and before that 4 years at Queenborough on the Isle of Sheppey.
|
|
More pictures from Rochester here.
|
