HMS Tamar Visits Pitcairn And Makes Safe Old Explosives

Patrol ship HMS Tamar has spent five days in and around the Pacific island of Pitcairn.

Specialists from Tamar carried out the first stage of neutralising old explosives left on Pitcairn for nearly half a century by carrying out a series of controlled explosions.

Elsewhere, sailors helped provide muscle to help with the ongoing construction of Pitcairn’s new community centre, offered advice on the boats used to ferry stores between visiting supply ships and the harbour.

Pitcairn lies 1,350 miles from Tahiti more than 3,000 miles from New Zealand and 9,000 miles from Tamar’s home base of Portsmouth but is a UK Overseas Territory.

Pitcairn recently opened a marine science base to investigate the impact of climate change and the health of marine bio-diversity in what is one of the last remaining fully intact marine eco-systems left on the planet.

The arrival of HMS Tamar effectively doubled the Pitcairn population overnight and the sailors immediately knuckled down to community tasks in and around the sole settlement, Adamstown.

Two experts from the Royal Navy’s Portsmouth-based Diving and Threat Exploitation Group dealt with decades-old explosives.

They found more than 1,100 detonators and over three kilometres of detonating cord, left over from construction of the island’s small harbour in the 1970s, which was in a dangerous state and needed disposing; that was carried out with controlled explosions in a sheltered bay.

The explosive experts also found around three and a half tonnes of high explosive ammonium nitrate fuel oil, once used during quarrying mining operations on Pitcairn. A specialist team will return to the island in due course to make it safe.

Commenting on the visit, High Commissioner to New Zealand, and Governor of Pitcairn HE Iona Thomas OBE said:

“The last time islanders welcomed a ship from the Royal Navy was when HMS Spey delivered COVID-19 vaccines to the island. The visit this year, while with a different purpose, was just as welcome.

“As one of the most remote inhabited islands in the world, the visit from HMS Tamar was incredibly important as a connection to the UK and to help with projects on the island.

“I was glad to see work on the new community centre as well as beginning to clear up decades old explosives to make them safer for the community.

“While only a small island, Pitcairn plays a frontline role in marine conservation science and climate change as it plays host to the largest marine protected area in the world. By continuing these visits, we support that work.”

https://bit.ly/TamarPitcairnStills
Photography from HMS Tamar’s visit to the Pitcairn Islands

https://bit.ly/TamarPitcairnVideo
Extensive rushes of HMS Tamar’s visit, plus a short video of the disposal of old ordnance

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