November 11, 2014

Two warships entered port Saturday morning for port calls. They are still here as of this morning. Although one is Royal Navy, and the other Brazilian, they share some history.

Almirante Saboia (G 25) is a Brazilian amphibious landing ship. It is docked at the pier along the channel in back of our building. You can make out vehicles on her deck in the attached image. I have no idea why the Brazilian navy needs ships of this type – is Brazil planning an assault on Key West? The Canary Islands? Perhaps, thinking more benevolently, the ship is a floating storehouse of supplies to aid victims of natural disasters, hurricanes, tsunamis and the like.

Almirante Saboia began life with the Royal Navy, and was commissioned in 1970 as Sir Bedivere (L3004). I’m not sure if her namesake is the Knight from the Round Table, or the Monty Python character. In any case, she seems to have had a rather charmed life. She supported the amphibious operations in the Falklands War, and in fact avoided damage when a bomb dropped by an Argentine Skyhawk glanced off her side and failed to detonate. She was moored in the San Carlos Water at the time. By the way, John McCain was flying a Skyhawk from the USS Oriskany when he was shot down over Hanoi in October, 1967.

The Sir Bedivere also supported operations in the Persian Gulf, British interventions in Sierra Leone, and operations off Somalia, among others. She was stricken from the fleet, refitted, and transferred to the Brazilian navy in 2009. She is named after a Brazilian admiral, most likely not at all associated with any Round Table.

HMS Dragon (D45) is the fourth of six Daring class anti-aircraft escort vessels. They are the newest ships in the Royal Navy and, a sure sign of the times, are the first to have gender-neutral berthing for the crew. She was commissioned in April, 2012. Some websites like to point out that these ships are superior in anti-aircraft capability as compared to the US Navy’s Aegis class guided missile cruisers. This, while probably true, seems a bit specious – the first Aegis class cruiser (the USS Ticonderoga) entered service in 1981. Nancy Reagan had the honor of smashing the champagne bottle on her bow. Nancy had probably consulted with her astrologer prior to the event.

I thought I might have run into some of these sailors while on my out and about but I have not. They are probably in the museums and not the seedy places I hang out. Of course, I haven’t been on Calle Loiza since the ships came into port. Maybe they’re all there, at some establishment or another.

For more information see Wikipedia entries for HMS Dragon, Almirante Saboia, and Sir Bedivere.