Rocking the Boat
On 24 August this year, a Spanish trawler poaching in British waters was chased 380 miles from St Kilda to the Mull of Kintyre by the Scottish Fisheries Protection vessel Westra, which couldn't catch it. This miscreant was finally arrested only after a Royal Navy frigate, HMS Ambuscadi, diverted from exercises and took up the chase. It appeared to the rest of the maritime world as if Britain had had to call out the Flying Squad to catch a shoplifter.
Ironically, whilst Britain does not have the right ships to protect its off-shore waters, a British design for just such a vessel is now being built in Denmark.
Michael Rodd tells the saga of Osprey and the uncomfortable effect it is having in Whitehall.
Film editor ALAN CUMNOR-PRICE Research DAVID DUGAN
Producer PHILIP GEDDES Editor MICHAEL BLAKSTAD