Today it was reported that Cammell Laird’s have secured a multi million pound contract to build the flight deck for HMS Queen Elizabeth one of two new aircraft carriers currently under construction for the Royal Navy. Construction of these ships which will be the Navy’s largest and most powerful in the fleet is being shared between shipyards around the UK with final assembly being carried out at Rosyth in Scotland, the first steel having been cut in July of last year.
It is expected that the first steel to be cut for the flight deck at Lairds will take place in the summer.
It has to be said that shipbuilding is in the DNA of the Wirral and Birkenhead in particular and if it wasn’t for the character and tenacity displayed by the management of Cammell Lairds, the workforce and the People of Wirral then it may well have been a very different story.
After today’s news I am now more hopeful that one day I may realise one of my dreams which is to attend another launch at Cammell Laird.