No sail past event took place today, and no one is committing to a date. Such an important event is usually well publicized, certainly for a ship that has such a distinguished career. A paying off ceremony usually includes a sail past at HMC Dockyard, for a formal salute, and the ship is dressed and flies a paying off pennant.
The pennant, by Royal Navy tradition, is the length of the ship plus one foot per year of service.
By my strictly unofficial calculation, that would make a pennant of 426 ft plus 42 ft (if the date of the ship's first commission is used) = 468 feet.
Although I do not know if the RCN has ever done this, some navies have used balloons to fly the long pennant.
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A great career for a very fine ship.I was privileged to work 4 years on her and enjoyed every minute of it.I was disappointed to hear she is not going to have a sail past.I was waiting a long time to do that honour of seeing her off.I still hope they have a big decommissioning ceremony because she certainly deserves it...
ReplyDeleteAs a serving Navy CPO and one who did 2 tours on Iroquois (83-86, 01-04) I can let you know she will NOT be conducting a sail past. She has been stripped of emergency gear equipmnet to due the sail past. We were informed Wednesday. Sucks, but she is alongside, less ug moves for good. Thus why RCN is quiet.
ReplyDeleteRichard