DefenceSynergia Short History of RFA Ammunition, Food, Explosives and Stores (AFES) by Lieutenant-Commander D C Graham RD RNR
The 5-year time scale for the new Fleet Solid Support (FSS) ships is, frankly, nonsense. However, it is the Treasury that dictates the pace as it releases money in tranches to meet "milestones". There is NO urgency about any defence shipbuilding these days, as is illustrated by the time taken to build a Type 26 frigate.
Up to 1950, the Admiralty simply converted commercial ships to supply stores, spares, food, ammunition and refrigerated supplies. All the WW2 Fort Class ships were 5 hatch cargo ships, and in the case of ammunition, much was done in port using the ship's NSTs, which were akin to small landing craft - stowed on No2 and No4 Hold hatches.
The first move to what today is termed an ammunition, food, explosives and stores ship (AFES) came in the early 1950s with the purchase by The Admiralty of two 14,400-ton 16-knot ships originally destined for the China Navigation Co built by Scotts's SB & Eng in Greenock. These ships became the Royal Fleet Auxiliary (RFA) ships RETAINER and RESURGENT serving as the front line ammunition and stores ships in the Far East.
They took circa 2 years to build, and the conversions after completion, which were extensive, took about 14 months.
In the process, No 3 hold was kept for refrigerated cargo, but all other holds were outfitted to carry all the current ammunition and torpedoes in use in the 1950s/1960s, including cordite [mega dangerous stuff] for RN 6 inch gun cruisers. No 2 hold was a special conversion to carry Red Beard1for Scimitars and Buccaneers. All holds had Electric lifts to the Replenishment at Sea (RAS) points, a heavy jackstay and all self-tensioning winches were electric. The entire accommodation was Nuclear Biological and Chemical Defence (NBCD) capable, and a pre-wetting system, although not extensive, was installed to help counter radioactive fallout and chemical agents. 2They were very successful.
I served in RESURGENT in 1961, my last ship as a Deck Apprentice.
The next class [R Class] were proper AFES, designed by the Admiralty [Director General, Ships] specifically for the task. RFA REGENT was built by H&W in Belfast, and RFA RESOURCE by Scott's in Greenock. They were 22,890 ton ships that could attain 21 knots through their steam turbines, and both ships took only 3 years to build. The following specification is copied from the RFA archives:
These ships were designed to carry high-value cargo of armament [including nuclear depth charges], explosives, naval and victualling stores together with a range of NAFFI stores, medical and survival kits. Designed with a bulbous bow, the hull was of all-welded construction with four decks, a five-tier bridge block midships and a four-tier poop aft with an 80 x 60 foot flight deck and hangar with facilities to operate, maintain and fuel their own Wessex HU5 helicopter for vertical replenishment (vertrep).
There were seven holds with a storage capacity of 4,690 tons. Each hold and the flight deck were served by a cargo lift, and there were 10 derricks. There was a special arrangement rig at No. 7 hold for handling Seaslug missiles deployed in County-class destroyers. No. 3 hold was for refrigerated cargo, and two fresh water tanks contained a total of 378 tons. There were 8 RAS points, some fitted with the advanced GEC RAS rig equipment. All winches were electric, and there were six 2 ton self-tensioning winches at specific RAS points. Internal cargo handling was undertaken by electric fork lift trucks and pallet transporters.
The R class had naval standard NBCD and damage control with pre-wetting and citadel arrangements. They all had extensive fire-fighting and flooding arrangements; degaussing; Agouti measures to reduce propeller noise; Type 182 towed torpedo decoys; and deck stiffening for defensive armament.
It can be seen that even in the mid-60s, RFA solid stores ships were extremely complex, not least because most armament holds are in effect magazines.
Admittedly, the new FSS ships will be much larger at circa 39,000 tonnes and cargo handling will likely be much more sophisticated, but I'm sure fork lift trucks and a large internal alleyway will still feature. Having said that, quite why it should take so 5 years to build them is a moot point; I can see no real reason other than the usual drip feed of funds.
They are, however, far from being similar to, for example, a container ship.
I hope that may be of interest.
In the old days, the RFA, like many British shipping companies, had deck apprentices [indentured to the ship owner] rather than cadets. Not so with engineers, who were always cadets. The main difference was that we could not be made redundant, which in theory, cadets could. One's indenture fee was returned to your parents on completion, three years for some, four for others. The Admiralty believed in promoting us if we were up to it; good idea because it encouraged people to stay after training. I was 4 months into my second year when I left Resurgent to become 3/O of Fort Charlotte. Great experience; my boss was Commodore elect of the RFA [ Capt. A E [Jan] Curtain OBE RD]. I was always a "petrol head", which saw me ashore involved in motor sport from 1966 onwards.
Lieutenant-Commander D C Graham RD RNR.
David joined the RFA in 1958 and the Royal Naval Reserve (RNR) [high commitment List 3] in 1968 when he was appointed to HMS Dalriada - COMCLYDE's War HQ. During that time he qualified as an Intelligence Officer training at Templar Barracks in Ashford. And in 1982, during Op Corporate, he was at Faslane.
His last appointment was Officer I/C NP1020 in MV Northella [1985-Easter 1987].
Following RFA and RNR service, David went to the Falkland Islands as Ops Controller of the then-new FI Fisheries Department. Subsequently, he was involved in Fisheries Monitoring, control and Surveillance in West and Southern Africa, Indonesia and Yemen until retirement in 2008.
He is a founding member of DefenceSynergia.
1Red Beard (nuclear weapon) - Wikipedia
2THE ROYAL NAVY DURING THE COLD WAR 1945-1991 | Imperial War Museums
