Admiral Gordon Launched

The Parkol Marine Engineering yard in Middlesborough launched the new 27.3m Interfish beam trawler Admiral Gordon PH 330 last week, ahead of final fitting out and commissioning.

Expected to be completed within the next few weeks, the vessel will then steam to the Parkol base in Whitby, where final trials and handover are expected to take place in April.

Parkol said: “Congratulations to the vessel owners on the launch of Admiral Gordon PH 330. It has been a pleasure working with you all – best wishes from everyone at Parkol.

“Admiral Gordon is the first over-20m beamer to be designed and built in the UK for 30 years – a massive achievement to all involved – British manufacturing at its best! A special thanks to the designer SC McAllister as well as our landlord Port of Middlesbrough, Sarens crane company and all of our employees and suppliers who worked on the project.”

The Admiral Gordon is expected to sail to Plymouth on completion, where she will be named and take on gear. She joins a number of vessels operated from the port by Interfish, which also operates a state of the art pelagic processing factory in the city.

The man behind the name: Admiral Gordon

The Interfish fleet has long named its demersal vessels after successful British admirals, and generally with the same series of PLNs: PH 220, PH 330, PH 440 and so on. Admiral James Gordon, ‘the last of Nelson’s captains’, was a Scot who progressed from midshipman at the age of 14 to admiral of the fleet.

His earlier career was marked by a series of high-profile successes in battles against Spanish and French fleets where he was seriously outgunned. He fought with Nelson at the Battle of the Nile, destroying French colonial ambitions in Egypt, but was taken seriously ill and was ashore convalescing during the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805.

He died and was buried at the famous Greenwich Hospital in 1869, where he had also acted as principal. The hospital operated as the Dreadnought Seamen’s Hospital until 1986.

This story was taken from the latest issue of Fishing News. For more up-to-date and in-depth reports on the UK and Irish commercial fishing sector, subscribe to Fishing News here or buy the latest single issue for just £3.30 here.

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