By Andrew Scutro - Staff writer
Posted : Friday Apr 20, 2007 12:54:18 EDT
NORFOLK, Va. — The important stuff first: British sailors are issued
three cans or "tins" of beer after work every day. The snack
machines dispense Cadbury chocolate bars. A normal lunch is curry
and rice. And when a British ship comes into port, the crew's rugby
team goes ashore to scrounge up a game with the locals.
This week and into next, the English amphibious assault ship Ocean
is to be in Norfolk for the city's Azalea Festival, and its crew has
been hosting a variety of visitors during its stay.
At 667 feet long and 22,500 tons, Ocean is the United Kingdom's
largest warship. It can carry up to 22 helicopters; four landing
craft; up to 40 Land Rovers and their trailers; and six 105 mm light
guns for embarked Royal Marines. The ship's company numbers 400
sailors, along with room for 600 Royal Marines and 300 from the air
wing. It was built in 1998 and technically called a landing
platform, helicopter.
Besides exotic food and a daily beer ration, the ship itself differs
from American counterparts in several ways, very noticeably in the
ladder wells. Traffic goes both up and down on double-wide stairs.
Passageways around the hangar deck, known as "assault routes," are
very wide to accommodate Royal Marines in full kit. And the aircraft
elevator travels between the hangar deck and the flight deck from
within the ship, not jutting off the side, as on American carriers.
Berthing for the embarked military force is divided into relatively
spacious compartments with racks stacked three high, weapons lockers
and a small lounge area with a television and plenty of magazines.
The bridge has windows on four sides, making it very well lit from
the outside. It's manned by an officer of the watch, a communicator,
a quartermaster and a boatswain's mate. A corner of the bridge deck
overhangs the flight deck where an air operations element works.
Able Bodied Seaman 1st Class Daniel Heredia-Keay, 24, joined the
Royal Navy when he was 19. A warfare specialist, he said that with
only a few sailors on the bridge watch at a time, "it's nice and
quiet."
The Ocean left Plymouth, England in mid-March. After passing down
the west coast of Africa, it crossed the Atlantic and did an
information-gathering mission in the Caribbean before steaming north
for Norfolk.
Cmdr. Robert Gray, who handles logistics aboard the Ocean, said the
Caribbean mission is done in conjunction with the U.S. Navy and
Coast Guard.
"It's part of our partnership with the U.S.," he said.
The Ocean returns to the Caribbean after leaving Norfolk and is
expected back in Plymouth by July. The Ocean is the sixth ship in
the Royal Navy to bear that name
" as he runs low on fuel... :nono: 
