A giant Royal Fleet Auxiliary (RFA) tanker has been spotted leaving Liverpool after spending five months in Merseyside.
Tanker RFA Tiderace left the berth in Liverpool's cruise terminal and returned to sea for trials after a five-month revamp.
The 39,000-tonne vessel departed the Cruise Liner jetty on Liverpool’s waterfront to prepare for renewed front-line duties supporting Royal Navy operations around the globe as part of the RFA, the "fifth fighting arm" of the Royal Navy.
The ship spent five months in the hands of Birkenhead’s Cammell Laird shipyard undergoing a revamp which ended with the ship being berthed across the Mersey for several weeks at the city’s prime spot, the cruise terminal, freeing up space over the water at Cammell Laird.
The cruise jetty typically hosts passenger liners, or warships paying high-profile visits to the port.
But with no liners using the berth built specially for them under lockdown, merchant vessels have been using it instead for resupply and maintenance work.
RFA Tiderace is one of numerous RFA vessels being revamped by the Birkenhead yard as part of a ten-year £619m contract to maintain, overhaul and refit the auxiliary flotilla.
Tiderace went into dry dock back in January for work beneath the waterline, such as adding a fresh lick of paint to the 200-metre-long-hull and the task of inspecting the sludge tanks.
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Since then further work has been carried out in Tranmere Basin on the left bank of the Mersey and then Canada Dock in Bootle on the right bank.
Captain Chris Clarke, the tanker’s Commanding Officer said: "Liverpool has, of course, been a strange place of late given the Covid-19 restrictions in place.
"“The cruise berth is normally at the heart of the famous clubs, bars, restaurants and museums of Liverpool. But while it has been strangely quiet, Tiderace has at least given the locals an impressive ship to view."
