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The Rhin : a mobile
logistics support vessel
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The
Rhin was launched in 1964. She belongs to a serie of five vessels to be used
as a mobile logistics support force within a fleet supply force. The
Rhin is a MSLF vessel specialized in electronics and usually as a stock of 60
torpedos. She has sailed in the Mediterranean up to the early 1980s. Towards
1982, as the concept of fleet supply force was outdated, three similar vessels
- Rhin, Rhone and Garonne were deployed overseas to maintain vessels operating
far from the mainland arsenals. The Rhin was sent in the Indian ocean where
she was assigned with the multipurpose workshop vessel Jules Verne. She lost
her electronic specificity and was devoted to the maintenance of other vessels.
She was turned into a MSLF ship alternately maintaining the maritime forces
in Djibouti, Mayotte and La Réunion. After many years spent in the Indian ocean
she definitely left the aera in 1995 and is now supporting the forces that have
taken station in the West Indies and Guyana.
The crew of the Rhin is made of two distinct entities : - 70 specialists
regular sailors from the crew of the fleet with an adequate training in metropolitan
arsenals. Their job is to run the workshops; - 90 crew members in charge of
providing the float with energy.
To carry out her mission, the Rhin needs :
- adequate industrial equipement (test rigs, machine tools);
- spare parts (10,000 items permanently stored aboard);
- raw materials (timber, various metals).
The required equipement are gathered on the request of the Navy command staff
according to the composition of the force to be supported and the vessels to
be maintained.
How it works : There is an organization office in charge of coordinating the
logistic support. Its main tas are :
- to get the list of the works to be done on the supported vessels;
- to manage the order of spare parts necessary to planned support operations;
to supply the stock with new raw materials.
The spare parts are managed in a storeroom thanks to a computer network. The
storeroom is part of the supplying system of the Navy, which is under the aegis
of the "Direction des constructions navales". The storeroom, directly connected
with a central computer system in France, contributes to the resplenishment
of the Navy units. Besides, the Rhin carries out regularly her own maintenance
on the very aera of her deployment. Every five years she goes back to France
for a thorough careening.
Her missions : The Rhin supports destroyers, patrol biats or other small
units. She also takes part in more classic and permanent missions : presence,
safety and public services, which are the usual duties of any naval vessel.
Thus she can successfully make up for the lack of heavy support infrastructure
in this part of the world.
| More about the Rhin :
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BSM type ships :
- A615 : Loire
- A617 : Garonne
- A621 : Rhin
- A622 : Rhone
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She was not the first vessel to bear this name.
A frigate took part in the battle of Trafalgar on 21 October 1805 as
a spotted and signal repeater. Then a propeller carriage, built in Rochefort
in 1854, was used to convey troops in the Pacific area and along the coast of
South America. She was laid in 1886.
From 1924 to 1942 another carriage - the ex Tourville - was assigned
to the training of officers in the Mediterranean till the scuttling of the fleet
in Toulon in November 1942.
There was also a little unarmed 2455-ton colonial cargo built by the
Paquet company. First chartered by the special services of the Ministère des
colonies, she was offered to the Royal Navy by PERI - her radio telegrphist
officer who had captured her. She then became HMS Fidelity and in 1941 was twice
sent on special assignements; to drop agents on the French and Algerian coasts.
The following years, after the loadingof two sea planes and the reinforcement
of the DCA she was sent to transport commandos to Indo-China. On 30 December
1942 as she was part of a convoy, she was intercepted by German submarines.
After coming under two torpedos she sank with lieutenant-commander Langlais
(Peri's new name) aboard.
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Rhin is a river too :
Le Rhin est aussi un fleuve qui s'étend sur 1320 km à travers la Suisse,
où il prend sa source, l'Autriche, l'Allemagne et la France et les Pays
Bas où il va se jeter dans la mer. Sur l'emblème du Rhin, on le voit dompté
par le dieu Wotan, "Odin la Fureur", dieu de la guerre, de l'écriture,
de la magie et de la poésie, à l'ombre du château de Katz.
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Captains
of the Rhin
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| CF
Riboulot |
8
septembre 1962 |
| CC
Candela |
24
janvier 1964 |
| CC
Balleyguier |
22
juillet 1965 |
| CC
Lavole |
14
janvier 1967 |
| CC
Barnouin |
5
janvier 1968 |
| CC
Reul |
4
juillet 1969 |
| CC
Franiatte |
10
juillet 1970 |
| CC
Perisse |
2
juillet 1971 |
| CC
Tortuaux |
8
décembre 1972 |
| CC
Rouault |
14
juin 1974 |
| CC
Vinot |
20
juin 1975 |
| CC
Graffin |
21
juin 1976 |
| CF
Dubrulle |
30
juin 1977 |
| CF
Eychenne |
3
novembre 1978 |
| CF
Moutard |
12
novembre 1979 |
| CF
Moulins |
6
mars 1981 |
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Main
Caracteristics
- Class : M.L.S.F. vessel
- Crew : 12 officers 63 non-commissioned officers 90 ordinary ratings
- Length : 102 meters
- Breadth : 16 meters
- Draught : 4.5 meters
- Displacement : 2,500 tons
- Propulsion : 2 SEMT diesel engines, Pielstick type 16 PA2 each develloping
1,500 CCS on a single shafting Speed : 15 knots
- Equipement : 3 40 mm guns
- 3 12.7 mm machine-guns
- Storerooms : 900 m2 1.700 m3
- Aircraft equipment : Helicopter and platform for 2 helicopters (Alouette
3 type)
