HMS Charger (P292)

For other ships of the same name, see HMS Charger.

HMS Charger at Bangor in 2006
Career (UK)
Name:	HMS Charger
Operator:	Royal Navy
Builder:	Watercraft Limited, Shoreham-by-Sea Vosper Thornycroft
Launched:	1986
Commissioned:	1988
Status:	in active service, as of 2013
General characteristics
Class & type:	Archer class patrol vessel
Displacement:	54 tons
Length:	20.8 m (68 ft 3 in)
Beam:	5.8 m (19 ft)
Draught:	1.9 m (6 ft 2 in)
Propulsion:	2 shafts, Rolls Royce M800T diesels, 1,590 bhp
Speed:	14 knots (26 km/h; 16 mph)
Range:	300 nautical miles (560 km; 350 mi)
Complement:	5 (RN), 1 training officer (RNR), 12 students (URNU) or 12 (RN)
Sensors and processing systems:	Decca 1216 navigation radar
Armament:	3 × 7.62 mm L7 GPMG (Cyprus Sqn.) (can be fitted with 20 mm cannon on fo'c'sle)

HMS Charger (P292) is an Archer-class patrol vessel built by Watercraft Limited, Shoreham-by-Sea and fitted out at Vosper Thornycroft. She is just over 20 metres long and 5.8 metres wide and powered by two Rolls-Royce turbo engines. The ship is based at the Royal Naval Headquarters (Merseyside) in Liverpool and was commissioned in 1988.

She has four crew plus a Commanding Officer, and sails with a Training Officer and a complement of students. She is attached to the Liverpool University Royal Naval Unit.

Liverpool URNU

Liverpool University Royal Naval Unit (Liverpool URNU) is one of 14 URNUs in the country, and the oldest after the disbanding of Aberdeen URNU. Its mission statement is to 'educate a wide-spectrum of high calibre undergraduates and future opinion formers into the need for and role of the Royal Navy and career opportunities available within the forces'.

Liverpool URNU recruits undergraduates from the Universities of Liverpool, Lancaster and John Moores. Over 50 students attend drill evenings and other activities ashore.

Sea-time

Sea time is combined with time aboard HMS Charger at weekends, when she visits local ports such as Holyhead, Douglas, Preston, Fleetwood, Barrow-in-Furness, Salford, Ellesmere Port, Maryport and Whitehaven and deployments during the Easter and Summer holidays when she visits ports around the UK and Northern Europe. In 2011 Charger deployed to the Baltic, visiting ports in Belgium, Holland, Germany and Denmark and transiting both the Caledonian and Kiel Canals.

Social

There is a social calendar, with formal and informal events which include a formal mess dinner and annual ball.

Liverpool URNU Trafalgar Night Dinner 2007

The ship is affiliated to the Cumbrian town of Maryport and regularly visits the town during deployments and for Remembrance Day ceremonies.

Programme

HMS Charger flies the White Ensign at events such as the Liverpool Spring on the Waterfront, the Mersey River Festival, the Whitehaven Festival, the Northern Ireland International Airshow, the start of the 2007 Clipper Round the World Yacht Race and the Honda Powerboat Championships.

Affiliations

• City of Preston, Lancashire
• Town of Maryport
• HMS Liverpool
• HMS Astute
• HMS Eaglet
• Liverpool University
• Sandbach School
• Merchant Taylors' School
• TS Tuscan
• TS Caesar

External links

• HMS CHARGER on Royal Navy Website