Background HMS Kellington

When the Ton Class ships where originally designed they where all allocated the designation of “Auxiliary mine sweeper” at this point all the ships where to be named as part of the “Insect class” The first order for the ships was placed in 1950.

Between September 28th 1951 and February 14th 1952 the insect name was deleted and each ship was just allocated a official number, at some point in 1953 the “TON” names started to be used. The first instance of a ship been launched with a official ton name was 17th March 1953 when HMS Crichton was launched.

The HMS Kellington was one of three Ton-Class ships built by Wm Pickersgill at Sunderland, allocated the official No CMS 54. Following the tradition of naming the Ton-Class vessels after towns ending in Ton, she became the HMS Kellington. Kellington been the name of a small village in the NE England. Launched in 1954 by Mrs. R Hooper the then managing directors wife of the yard. Completed in November 1955 where she sailed from Sunderland to HMS Dilligence at Hythe where she was fitted with her mine sweeping equipment. On completion of this fitting out she was then sent to Pool for preparation for the reserve fleet. She was towed back to Hythe in the February 1956 to get her first commission. 1956 temporary commission with 108th mine sweeping squadron based in Malta.

On the 14th March 1956 the Kellington sailed for Malta in the company of HMS Hexton and HMS Tarlton, On the 23rd March the Kellington encountered force 9 gales and had to take shelter in the Bay of Tunis, finally arriving in Malta on the 24th March 1956.

From March to June 1956 the HMS Kellington was to be involved in patrols round Cyprus until June 30th 1956 when she once again set sail for the UK. from Malta to spend the next 5 month in Portland until the January 1957 when the Kellington arrived back in Hythe to join the reserve fleet.

In the July of 1962 the HMS Kellington was towed to Devonport Dockyard for refitting, after the refitting was complete the Kellington sailed back to Hythe in the summer of 1963. In November 1964, the decision was made to convert the HMS Kellington to a mine hunter. This conversion also incorporated the replacement of the old Mirrlees engines to Deltic engines and also gained a enclosed bridge. She was then towed from Hythe by the tug Bustler. On 5th May 1967 the Kellington arrived at Chatham for the conversion to Hunter Class.

On 6th June 1969 the Kellington was re-commissioned at Chatham to join the Fisheries Protection Squadron based at HMS Lochinvar at port Edgar. It was worked out that in the previous 14 years the Kellington had traveled only 13,000 miles, but after her conversion she was a completely different vessel. On the 31st July 1969 After trials taken at Portsmouth the HMS Kellington reached her new home at South Queensferry. From 1969 to 1975, the HMS Kellington was put on constant patrol around the UK. As well as this duty she was also involved in mine counter measure exercises and Foreign visits. After the closure of HMS Lochinvar, the Fisheries Protection Squadron moved to Lochinvar Block at Rosyth. The HMS Kellington in 1976 was transferred to Sussex Division RNR prior to starting a re-fit at Portsmouth Dockyard. As part of the Channel group of the RNR, HMS Kellington was involved in all NATO and National mine counter measures exercises including those based in Gibraltar. The Kellington was returned to the Royal Navy on April 1st 1985, and in 1993 The HMS Kellington was decommissioned and became the headquarters of the Stockton sea cadets originally on a five year loan.

The decommissioned HMS Kellington arrived at Stockton on the 23rd August 1993. In order to get her to the allocated berth, parts of her superstructure had to be removed before floating down on low tide, even after this it still scraped the underside of the Princess Diana Bridge

Since April 2005 there has been three reports raised on the TS Kellington that we have managed to gain access to (see appendix), We where informed by Stockton MP Frank Cook there was a further report which we have not seen as yet. After checking with the MOD we where told we had all reports and no later reports where ever done by the MOD as of a structural nature.

The original H&S Report dated Tuesday 29th March 2005, and conducted by Mr. H Simpson the Northern Area Health and Safety Advisor. The report mentions 22 different faults with the conclusion and closing statement of the report as follows. “ From the above it can be clearly seen that the ship is uninhabitable and totally unsafe from any use never mind Cadet Training and it is strongly recommended that all SCC activities cease immediately “. This resulted in the sea cadets been moved to the TA centre in Thornaby and water activities to be started from the sailing club. Item 22 of this report stressed that a survey should be carried out on the ship.

A further Advisory survey was carried out by Commander I M Bartholomew of the MOD Defence logistics Organisation on January 30th 2006 stating six main areas of concern and a further five further hazards onboard. Two of these hazards are, flaking paint and the correct disposal of fire alarms. Out of all the issues, the severest seems to be “A scaffolding pole under the starboard access catwalk is chaffing the hull. A collision could cause this to penetrate to the hull, recommend that tires are used to hold the vessel off the pipe.

A survey by the MOD’s Salvage experts conducted on the 10th – 12th October 2006 one and a half years after the initial H&S report. The reports cover letter concluded that the salvage operation be pursued as a matter of priority. The letter also states that “You will also note that the report suggests that a good deal of the cost of salvage would likely be covered by the scrap value of the vessel on disposal”

The earliest report in the Evening Gazette on the demise of the Kellington is a report dated July 8th 2006. With the heading “Ship Fears” this is followed up by an “Evening Gazette Our Say” on the same date. From this date, all following newspaper articles appear to be a version on the same lines. The local papers which include The Middlesbrough Evening Gazette, The Northern Echo, The Sunderland Echo and the Herald and times. All carry the story at different intervals, but all on the same line as the first. Other newspapers have also carried the story again the same wordings are used.

One of the main objectives would appear to be who is going to pay for the vessel to be scrapped?