A piece of Cumbrian and British history faces the scrapyard

The former HMS Hermes, flagship of the British task force during the Falklands war, is facing conversion to a floating hotel or the scrapyard as she comes to the end of her useful naval life.

HMS Hermes was laid down in Barrow shortly before the end of World War II but with the reduction in forces immediately after the war it was not until 1959 that she was commissioned as a Royal Navy unit.

Following several decades in Royal Navy service she was sold to India and became the INS Viraat (Giant)

The North West Evening Mail reports http://www.nwemail.co.uk/news/barrow/Barrow-built-warship-faces-the-scrapyard-as-naval-bosses-call-for-it-to-become-a-floating-hotel-8d8f67f5-a639-4ebe-a6a3-f12a53e007fd-ds that INS Viraat will embark on her final journey as an Indian navy warship this weekend when she sails for Lochi in southern India. She will be decommissioned later this year but her fate after that has not been decided.

The Indian ministry of defence has called for proposals from several coastal states to convert Viraat into a tourism pad but no concrete plans have been put forward.

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