Good news today! Last January I wrote what was effectively
a requiem for RMS
St Helena, see:
https://hpanwo-voice.blogspot.com/2018/01/goodbye-rms.html.
The fate of that proud ship looked bleak. She lay tied up in
Cape
Town, decommissioned and silent. I was afraid she
might be simply passed on the breakers for scrap, and indeed this looked like the
mostly outcome; but since then she has in fact been purchased and re-purchased.
She was initially bought up by a company called MNG Maritime who refitted her
as an anti-piracy vessel. Piracy is a huge threat to modern seafaring in
certain parts of the world. Pirates regularly board undefended vessels, stealing
their cargo and sometimes kidnapping crew members or passengers for ransom. Renamed
MNG
Tahiti,
the old RMS sailed to the
Gulf of Oman
to deliver security guards and armaments to merchant ships in the area so that
they would not be raided by pirates. Mark Grey, the CEO of MNG Maritime said:
"I fully appreciate the role this vessel has played in all Saints' lives. It
is not a responsibility we take on lightly. We will continue to treat her in
the manner to which she has become accustomed." Source:
https://www.marinelink.com/news/antipiracy-helena-return436481.
Just after the New Year she was sold on. Her new owners are promoters of "Extreme
E" a new motor racing formula in which all the cars are electric. They
plan to travel the world in the old RMS holding rally car races with all
electric SUV's. The organizers Gil de Ferran and Alejandro Agag are launching
their proposal with a demonstration race in
London.
Source:
https://www.autosport.com/fe/news/141266/extreme-e-unveils-full-concept-for-2021-launch.
I'll have to go along, not just to see the race, but see the RMS. I am truly elated
to find out that that great ship is sailing on. What I wrote soon after the
article reporting the RMS' final voyage has been proven true yet again, see:
https://hpanwo-voice.blogspot.com/2018/01/dont-give-up.html.
I'm sure the Saints are the most happy of all. For those who live on that tiny
remote speck of land the RMS was their lifeblood, delivering almost everything
they needed to exist. Losing it must have been heartbreaking.
St
Helena has changed now. No longer is the island separated from the
rest of the world. It is now just a short hop by airliner from global society and everything that goes with it, and I've discussed that in detail in the
background links below. To see the RMS still ploughing the waves of the world's
oceans is a symbol that there is still hope. The good things of the world have
not been completely destroyed. The bad things do not have the monopoly of power
that it sometimes seems they do. Thank God! May the
RMS
St Helena,
whatever she is named and whichever flag she flies, continue to sail into the
sunset for years and years to come.
