There continues to be speculation in the British Press that HMS Endurance could be scrapped.

Two articles and a paragraph or two quoted from The News (Portsmouth’s unoriginally named daily newspaper)

“HMS Endurance May Be A Total Write-Off”

“The navy is considering scrapping HMS Endurance because of the damage she sustained in a flood, The News can reveal…..

and here in a different article “Endurance Fears Worry Islanders“:……..

“People on the islands are worried because HMS Endurance plays a big psychological role. Always on people’s minds is what happened when the last HMS Endurance was going to be taken out of service – shortly after that Argentina invaded.

Cllr Mike Summers has now given an interview to the Falklands News, saying, amongst other things:

The Navy have been very, very clear, I think, to say in their public pronouncements that no decision of any sort has been made about the ENDURANCE. That leads us, obviously to think that there is a distinct possibility that the Navy might try to NOT repair the ENDURANCE if they regard it as too expensive, or not replace it. And, from our prospective that would be a very bad move indeed. We all know – the historians all know – the Foreign Office knows – the Navy knows what happened in 1982 when the wrong signals were sent to the Argentines about the withdrawal of the ENDURANCE. And, we certainly would not want that sort of thing to happen again.

…it has tried in the past to say that the ENDURANCE is not part of their central defence commitment – it’s really an agency of the British Antarctic Survey and the Foreign Office – so – “Why should we be paying for it – Let’s get rid of it.” That has been thought in the past by agencies of the British Government. But I have little doubt – to be honest with you – that those same arguments will take place again – that the Navy will say – “We can’t afford to repair this thing – we suggest we get rid of it.”

The next time that TheEye blogs on this subject, it needs to be good news. Otherwise there will be swearing and much fury.