Construction and Naming
Vidal was built at Chatham Dockyard, and was the last surface vessel, and the last oceanographic survey vessel built at the Dockyard. She was also the first small ship designed to carry a helicopter. She was launched on 31 July 1951 and commissioned into service in 1954. In common with most of the survey ships of the period, she was named after an influential surveyor or explorer of the Royal Navy. In her case, this was the nineteenth century surveyor Alexander Thomas Emeric Vidal, who had surveyed much of the coast of Africa, and ranged into the Atlantic to survey the tiny islet of Rockall. So far she has been the only ship of the Navy to bear the name.
Read more about this topic: HMS Vidal
Famous quotes containing the words construction and/or naming:
“No real “vital” character in fiction is altogether a conscious construction of the author. On the contrary, it may be a sort of parasitic growth upon the author’s personality, developing by internal necessity as much as by external addition.”
—T.S. (Thomas Stearns)
“See, see where Christ’s blood streams in the firmament!
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—Christopher Marlowe (1564–1593)