"What's that coming over
the wave? Is it a monster?"
Report by Madeleine Saghir, video
and photos by Patrick Trollope.
REPORTS of a strange aluminium hulled
monster, glistening in the Sun came in on Tuesday, 23 June 2015 as a massive 15
tons 'Amphibious Rescue Craft' LARC-XV, aka Defiant II, powered up
its 600 hp engine on Southport Beach. The craft has recently finished being been
lovingly restored prior to visiting the Woodvale Rally. It was raising funds for
Help the Heroes, over the previous weekend and was about to head home to Fort
Perch Rock in New Brighton. With flags fluttering in the light wind and with a
crew on board, this massive monster was proved hard to miss by both tourists and
locals alike, who flocked over to see it. After departing from Southport Beach,
the 45 by 15 feet amphibious craft then headed to Ainsdale Beach for final
checks before going fully out to sea and back to New Brighton. On its way in to
Ainsdale Beach a small inshore RNLI Rib met up with the vessel, to aid them on
to the shore and to take a closer look at this ex-Vietnam War, American military
vehicle.
As it drove on to the beach, again tourist and locals flocked over to take a
closer look. Plus it allowed the RNLI crew who wanted to have a closer look at
this historic and unusual craft a chance to get on-board and take a look around.
The crew of "Defiant II" said that they want to thank both the
RNLI and also Sefton Ranger Services for their help, both going and returning
from Woodvale Rally. The impressively large vehicle made for quite an unusual
tourist attraction as a result. The vehicle is believed to be worth around US
$1,000,000 and the wheels which are around 1.6002 metres high cost around GBP
£5,000 each, so it is no wonder why people flocked to see it, as not many of
these craft are on our shores! Oddly, this amphibious can also take on around
1,000 gallons of fuel, but this apparently lasts a long amount of time as the
vehicle does not consume much, not bad for a war machine that was built in 1968.
As it was originally used in the Vietnam War and then later sold to the French
Navy, it is not surprising that it also has platforms for machine guns. Sadly
they had not been on show during its adventures. Woodvale Rally was not the 1st
stop for the craft at a large public event, as it had also recently been used to
view the arrival of the Three Queens cruise ship which took place in May.
Unfortunately however, it may have to be re-located due the fact that Wirral
Council is currently arguing that it is "an eye-sore" and would
like it to be moved from New Brighton. Interestingly Defiant II is looking for a
new home and has already proven to be not only an interesting tourist
attraction, but also a useful resource for the rescue community after it helped
with a rescue earlier in the year, off the Wirral Coastline... So saying that it
is "not in keeping with a seaside area" might prove to be a costly
error for the Council. Let's hope we can keep this amazing and valuable resource
on our Merseyside Coastline. If you can help re-home it, by offering a large
enough area for them to carry out upkeep and close enough to the shoreline,
please get in contact with us, at Southport Reporter or get in contact with Fort
Perch
Rock.
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