CHALENGER

Entering Portsmouth 24 Aug 1984

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Details from Wikipeda

HMS Challenger was a unique vessel in Royal Navy service — she was purpose built to support deep sea operations and saturation diving. However, she was commissioned in 1984, during a time when the Royal Navy was cutting back on expenditure, with the consequence that the Challenger was seen as an extravagance that the Admiralty could not afford. As a consequence, after less than ten years service, the ship was laid up and offered for sale. The ship was purchased by a company called Subsea Offshore, to be converted for work decontaminating hazardous waste dumped in the Baltic Sea and North Atlantic.

In 1993 the ship was purchased by a company called Subsea Offshore, to be converted for work decontaminating hazardous waste dumped in the Baltic Sea and North Atlantic.

The vessel was later bought by the Namibian Minerals Corporation (NAMCO), and fitted with equipment to recover diamonds from the sea floor. The ship was converted at the Nauta Shipyard in Gdynia, Poland, and made its first diamond recoveries in December 2000. The ship was bought by De Beers in April 2003 for US$20 million

 

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