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Rock patrol boat Scimitar prepares for new life helping Africans
31 October 2024
About to begin a new life saving lives is a former guardian of Gibraltar.
Two years after she left the Royal Navy, fast patrol boat HMS Scimitar has been turned into a small, mobile medical centre to help impoverished Africans – especially those with HIV.
Under her new name MV Lady Jean she will now roam the continent’s largest body of water, Lake Victoria, once final trials and training are completed in her new home port in Tanzania, after completing an epic journey by sea and land from Portsmouth Harbour.
The vast lake – three times the size of Wales – is home to nearly 1,000 islands, well over 140 of them in Tanzanian territorial waters and many without access to regularly, high quality health care.
Built in Portsmouth, Scimitar began life as the Grey Fox and was used to patrol the waters of Northern Ireland during the final years of The Troubles.
In 2003 she was transferred to the Rock to become one half of the new Gibraltar Squadron as HMS Scimitar, alongside her sister HMS Sabre.
The pair helped safeguard territorial waters and project warships entering and departing the naval base until they were replaced in 2020 and decommissioned two years later.
Scimitar was snapped up by charity Vine Trust which provides life changing medical, home building and care support to vulnerable families and children in severe poverty in Tanzania and Peru.
It saw potential in the fast patrol craft in a more sedentary role, serving as a floating medical vessel/GP surgery, visiting isolated communities and islands in Lake Victoria.
With a lifespan of another 20 years thanks to her refit, Vine Trust is confident MV Lady Jean and her crew can provide medical aid and assistance to 50,000 people a year – one million souls over two decades.
The boat underwent a comprehensive revamp/conversion for her new mission courtesy of Babcock/UK Docks in Gosport – indeed her innards were largely replaced including the obsolete engines (she’s now powered by a truck engine), a new galley, medical kit and air conditioning (the average temperature all year round is roughly 28°C).
Once completed and recommissioned, the boat was shipped to Mombasa by container ship, then made a 500-mile journey on a low-loader from the port to Kisumu on the northeastern shore of Lake Victoria and finally by water another 250 miles to the city of Mwanza which will serve as its home base.
From there, when it begins its medical duties later this year, the boat and her crew will provide treatment, counselling and consultation for isolated communities, in particular supplying life-saving medication (antiretrovirals) for people living with HIV.
You can follow the boat’s progress – and support the charity – via www.facebook.com/vinetrust