Prince Charles reveals ‘delight’ over efforts to salvage his former Navy vessel

The Prince of Wales has spoken of his “delight” at efforts to salvage HMS Bronington, a vessel he commanded during his final year in the Royal Navy and of which he said he has “many fond memories”.

He told The Telegraph that he was “delighted to learn about new efforts to salvage my old ship”.

The Bronington, a registered historic vessel, sank at its moorings in Birkenhead in 2016. It had been deteriorating for several years after the charity maintaining it folded.

Now, a new preservation trust has been set up which hopes to refloat the former minehunter and return her to sailing condition.

Speaking about that project, Prince Charles told The Telegraph: “I was delighted to learn about the renewed efforts to salvage my old ship from her moorings in Birkenhead. I have many fond memories of my time in HMS Bronington in 1976 and it is a particular pleasure to keep in touch with those who served onboard under my command. I wish the Preservation Trust every success in the endeavour.”

The Prince, then a lieutenant in the Royal Navy, commanded the minehunter for 10 months, eventually being cheered off the vessel with a ceremonial toilet seat hung around his neck, reportedly a reminder from his crewmates of the weight of his future throne.

Mike McBride, of the HMS Bronington Preservation Trust, said he was “absolutely chuffed” by Prince Charles’s support.

The trust has successfully raised enough money from public donations for a commercial dive team to assess the state of the ship, however, any further action is dependent on the findings of the dive.

The survey is expected imminently and will be followed up in June by the Ministry of Defence which plans to use the opportunity to conduct a training session with an underwater drone and remotely operated vehicle.

Should the two surveys confirm that the Bronington is salvageable, the trust will then set about raising further funds, both from the public and heritage grants, to refloat her and move her to the nearby Cammell Laird docks for restoration.

The two-centuries-old shipwrights would then use the Bronington as part of its apprenticeship scheme.

If the reports come back negative, any remaining donations will be transferred to Royal Navy charities.

The trust is taking inspiration from the example set by LCT 7074, a D-Day landing craft which was moored alongside the Bronington as part of the same defunct trust and which also sank. It was refloated and restored between 2014 and 2020 and is now at the D-Day Story museum in Portsmouth.

Its royal heritage gives the Bronington added significance, but it is also a historically important ship in its own right, said Mr McBride.

“She’s absolutely unique with her construction, with a mahogany hull over an aluminium frame,” he said.

Because sea mines are magnetically activated, minesweepers and hunters cannot have steel hulls. Modern equivalents are made of fibreglass or plastic composites, and the Bronington was one of the last wooden ships still in service until her decommissioning in 1988.

She also represents a significant transition in naval technology, said Mr McBride. When she was first built in 1953, she was a traditional minesweeper, towing gear behind her to catch and deactivate mines.

The Bronington and her sister ships were converted to minehunters between 1963 and 1965. “They were the first ships that moved from sweeping mines to finding mines with sonar,” he explained.

While the current funds raised, at around £9,000, are well short of what would be needed to make the Bronington seaworthy again, Mr McBride said he was confident of finding the money.

The trust doesn’t yet have charitable status and the benefits that brings, while the trustees are reluctant to raise any more money until the minehunter is confirmed to be salvageable.

“Once we know that she’s worthy of progressing, that’s when things are going to start sliding into place.”