Babcock International has successfully completed a significant work package – including an engine replacement – on Royal Navy ocean survey vessel, HMS Scott.

A 150-strong team – including welders, electricians, slingers, pipe workers, painters, commissioning engineers and fabricators – have worked on HMS Scott since her arrival at Babcock’s Rosyth site in May this year.

The company say that as well as undergoing an engine replacement, four diesel generators were restored on the vessel and the windlass was overhauled. An extensive tank inspection and survey was carried out, and tank rectification work undertaken. The complete vessel was painted, including a full top coat of the outer hull.

Ship’s Staff lived on-board throughout the work, with HMS Scott recently leaving Rosyth for Devonport.

Sean Donaldson, Managing Director of the Rosyth site, said:

“The team working on HMS Scott committed to a programme of long shifts, and went above and beyond to deliver everything required following an increase in the work package.

This was achieved through novel methods such as engineering a connection point for external hoses, which allowed filling of the tanks to take place through the ballast system, rather than the tanks themselves. This reduced the filling time from three weeks to six days.”

Jon Bisby, MOD Cluster Support Team Project Manager/Technical Superintendent, added:

“It very quickly became apparent that the project scope was going to grow significantly to be more than just the planned starboard main engine replacement and Lloyd’s Register special survey work.

All parties worked extremely well together to resolve the challenges. The vessel departed Rosyth in a greatly improved condition to carry out her upcoming programme of training, before returning to tasking in the near future.”