HMS Scimitar set for new chapter as hospital ship on Lake Victoria

A former Royal Navy patrol vessel that for years served with the Gibraltar Squadron has found a new life as a hospital ship in Africa.

HMS Scimitar was a patrol vessel that served with sister ship HMS Sabre as part of the Gibraltar Squadron, patrolling waters around Gibraltar.

The two vessels were shipped from Gibraltar in September 2020 and, after a stopgap period covered by two P2000 patrol boats, HMS Dasher and HMS Pursuer, were eventually replaced by the purpose-built patrol boats HMS Cutlass and HMS Dagger under a programme to upgrade the Royal Navy’s small boat flotilla.

HMS Scimitar and HMS Sabre were brought back to the UK, decommissioned and sold, with HMS Scimitar being bought by The Vine Trust charity and converted by marine services company UK Docks into a medical ship.

The vessel was renamed the MV Lady Jean at a naming ceremony in Portsmouth.

Once the conversion work was completed, the new look vessel made a poignant final pass by sister ship HMS Sabre, which was bought by a private owner, before being moved to Southampton where she was loaded on to a vessel transiting to Mombasa in Kenya.

Having arrived in Kenya, she is now due to be lifted onto a specialist lorry and moved to Lake Victoria in Tanzania, where she will operate as a mobile medical vessel serving the numerous islands on the lake.

Charles Barley, UK Docks director at Endeavor Quay, said: “It was an unusual and interesting project for us to work on and it brought several challenges we had to rise to as we worked through the conversion but it was really satisfying for the team.

“It was quite touching at the end, seeing her alongside HMS Sabre for the last time but it’s great that she has important new duties ahead of her.

“As HMS Scimitar, she did Royal Naval work which kept people safe, now, as the MV Lady Jean, she’s doing medical work which will protect people’s health.”

The year-long conversion was funded by international defence company Babcock, which contracted UK Docks to undertake the work.

UK Docks offered discounted rates, free lifting of the vessel and free storage during conversion which took place on both Victoria and Endeavour Quay in the company’s Gosport site.

The changes included a new generator, conversion of the wheelhouse and forward accommodation to suit the needs of a hospital vessel and a new galley with fridges, ovens, sink, serving areas and air conditioning unit installed.

There was a total redesign of the aft transom with guardrails, boarding steps and boarding platform put in to allow people to board.

Additionally, a new engine had to be sourced as HMS Scimitar’s former engines were obsolete, UK Docks said in a news update on its website.

UK Docks managing director, Jonathan Wilson, said: “Our company carries out servicing and maintenance of vessels from the North East down to the South Coast and each project is unique in its own way.

“But the conversion of HMS Scimitar into the MV Lady Jean was a particularly special one.

“We would like to thank The Vine Trust and Babcock for entrusting us with the work and we wish the MV Lady Jean many years of successful service on Lake Victoria.”

The Vine Trust is an international development charity that works with long-term Peruvian and Tanzanian partners as they strengthen health systems and implement construction projects in isolated and vulnerable communities in the Amazon and on Lake Victoria.

“The MV Lady Jean will enter into service with the Jubilee Hope Medical Programme towards the end of the year, significantly increasing its capacity to reach patients on the remote islands of Tanzanian Lake Victoria,” the Vine Trust said in an update on the project.

“A significant part of this ship’s work will be to create a new supply chain of life-saving medication (antiretrovirals) for people living with HIV, as well as enhance existing testing, counselling and treatment services provided by the programme.”