 | |
| History | |
|---|---|
 United Kingdom | |
| Name | HMSChallenger |
| Ordered | 9 October 1979[1] |
| Builder | Scotts Shipbuilding and Engineering Company,Greenock[2] |
| Launched | 19 May 1981[2] |
| Commissioned | 1983[1] |
| Decommissioned | 1990 (Royal Navy) |
| Fate | Sold, 1993 |
| Notes | In Royal Navy Service, equipped with a Towed Unmanned Submersible (TUMS), and could carry and deployLR5 submarine rescue submersible. |
 Namibia | |
| Name | MVYa Toivo |
| Namesake | Andimba Toivo ya Toivo |
| Operator |
|
| Acquired | 2000 |
| In service | December 2000 |
| Identification | IMO number: 7907697 |
| Status | In active service |
| Notes | Fitted out and operated as a mining vessel (seabed diamond extraction) |
| General characteristics (as built) | |
| Type | Seabed Operations Vessel[2] |
| Displacement | |
| Length | 134.1 m (440 ft 0 in)o/a[2] |
| Beam | 18 m (59 ft 1 in)[2] |
| Draught | 5 m (16 ft 5 in)[2] |
| Propulsion |
|
| Speed | 15 knots, approx. |
| Complement | 185[1] |
| Sensors & processing systems | Sonar: Plessey Type 193M[1] |
| Aviation facilities | Helicopter deck (in Namibian service) |
HMSChallenger (pennant number K07) was aRoyal Navydiving support vessel, operational from 1984 to 1990.
Challenger had asaturation diving system allowing 12 divers to live in relative comfort in a largediving chamber amidships.[4]
In 1979 a paper describing the design forChallenger was presented at anInstitute of Marine Engineering conference.[5]
HMSChallenger was a unique vessel in Royal Navy service, purpose built to support deep sea operations andsaturation diving. Built byScotts atGreenock, the ship was launched on 19 May 1981, but not commissioned until 1984, during a time when the Royal Navy was cutting back on expenditure. The consequence was that the £80mChallenger was seen as an extravagance that theMinistry of Defence could not afford.[1] After only a few years service, in 1990 the ship was laid up and offered for sale. The total cost for the construction of the ship was also increased by various errors and delays during construction.
In 1993 the ship was purchased by a company, Subsea Offshore, to be converted for work decontaminating hazardous waste dumped in theBaltic Sea and NorthAtlantic. By 1996 the ship was still laid up and may never have been used by Subsea.
In following years the navy used other DP diving vessels for its diving work including theMV Seaforth Clansman hired fromSeaforth Maritime, which had been used whileChallenger was being built.[4]
The vessel was later bought by the Namibian Minerals Corporation (NAMCO), and fitted with equipment to recoverdiamonds from the sea floor.[6] The ship was converted at the Nauta Shipyard inGdynia, Poland,[7] and made its first diamond recoveries in December 2000.[6] The ship was bought byDe Beers in April 2003 when it offered US$20 million for several assets, among themChallenger.[citation needed]
