Northern Trident ships visit Ferrol

25 June 2009

Located in the Spanish region of Galicia, Ferrol has been a major shipbuilding centre for most of its history. Today, it is home to Navantia, the company responsible for building the hulls of the Navy’s new Canberra class Landing Helicopter Dock ships as well as designing the Air Warfare Destroyer (AWD), or the new Hobart class as they will be known.

Renowned for its seafood and of course Paella, Ferrol and its surrounds were a popular spot for the crews of HMAS Sydney and HMAS Ballarat to do some sightseeing. Many people visited Aَ Coruna and Santiago de Compostela, a small town famous for its church and for being the final destination of the legendary medieval way of pilgrim ship Camino de Santiago (Way of Saint James), now considered by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site.

“The church was built hundreds of years ago and I found it incredible to be standing in something that was so old. The vestibule was inlaid with gold and imagining how many others had stood in the same place, thousands of years ago, was an extremely moving experience,” said Sydney’s LEUT Noel Kirk.

“Northern Trident has been great so far, and the ports that we have visited have really shown just how young modern Australia is. We have also been lucky to be able to visit smaller towns, so we have been getting the real local experience rather than just staying in the larger, better known cities,” he said.

Many members of both Sydney and Ballarat’s ships company enjoyed some famous Spanish hospitality, with plenty of wine bars gladly accommodating the Australians with Sangria and Tapas and even joining in with some amusing renditions of ‘Waltzing Matilda’.

The port of Ferrol provided some well-deserved rest from what has already been a very busy Northern Trident 2009. From Spain, the ships will continue to Plymouth, UK and undertake some tough training with the Royal Navy’s Flag Officer Sea Training organisation (FOST).