A lifesaving relationship involving one of Fife’s biggest employers was given the royal seal of approval on Saturday.
Princess Anne, the Princess Royal, was at Rosyth to formally name the MV Forth Hope, which has been commissioned to transform the health of some of South America’s most vulnerable people.
Operated by the Vine Trust charity, the former ferry has undergone an extensive refit at Babcock Marine’s Fife dockyard on the Forth and will travel to Peru in the coming weeks, where it will act as a floating medical centre.
Reverend Willie McPherson, the Vine Trust’s chief executive, said that the vessel would play a significant role in assisting remote communities over a two decade period.
“It’s the first-ever purpose-built medical ship for the Vine Trust and will deliver healthcare in the Amazon,” he said.
“It’s the first one we’ve had refitted at Rosyth and Babcock and the team have been outstanding.
“Over the next 20 years this little ship will treat more than 2 million patients with a primary healthcare service.
“It’s not a hospital ship but like a little health centre going into the villages of the Amazon, literally tying to a tree and then people can see doctors, dentists and eye surgeons that they might never have seen in their life.”
The Princess Royal arrived at a very wet Rosyth to carry out the naming of the Forth Hope in her capacity as patron off the Vine Trust.
The Edinburgh-based charity carries out international development work, supporting communities in both Peru and Tanzania, East Africa.
Originally designed as a Solent Ferry, travelling for five-minutes at a time between Gosport and Portsmouth, the Forth Hope now finds itself on the brink of a 7,000 mile journey to the other side of the world.
Saturday’s event marked the start of a five-year relationship between Babcock and the charity, with the company offering its employees the opportunity to travel to Tanzania to help construct housing for some of the country’s most impoverished families.
John Howie, chief executive for marine at Babcock, said: “The people who go out there will raise money before heading out and that will pay for some of the building materials and we will provide them with the time off.
“We get development opportunities for graduates and young people and the charity is getting labour and support to help build houses.
He added: “We sincerely hope Forth Hope, and our contribution to its development, will help change the lives of Amazonian River communities.
“Working on the vessel has offered our people here a chance to be part of a legacy of hope.”
Day of double celebration for Babcock
It was a day of double celebration for Babcock, who also welcomed Princess Anne to officially open its latest investment within Rosyth dockyard.
The William Rankine Building, a state-of-the-art engineering centre, has the capacity to accommodate 450 staff and will centralise the firm’s engineering teams in Fife.
Mr Howie said: “Our history has been refitting Royal Navy warships but in recent years we have been really successful in moving into offshore renewables, oil and gas and other commercial markets.
“As the business expanded we needed more space to grow our engineering teams.
“This will be the place we site our teams and grow Rosyth for the future.”
