Those Who Stand and Wait and Still Serve – if you thought we had seen the last of the onetime British India managed Knight Class of Landing Ships dating from the 1960’s think again.   The Royal Fleet Auxiliary RFA SIR TRISTRAM, commissioned in September 1967, and which played a vital part in the Falklands adventure, being diverted in April 1982 from Belize to the Falkland Islands for Operation Corporate, and in June while transporting men and equipment to Fitzroy Cove alongside the RFA SIR GALAHAD, was attacked by Argentine A-4 SKYHAWKS which strafed the decks, killing two of the crew, and a 500 lb bomb penetrated the deck, but failed to explode immediately, allowing the remaining crew to be evacuated.     

Following the later explosion, the RFA SIR TRISTAM was abandoned and later used as an accommodation ship by the Royal Artillery, initially in Fitzroy, and later was towed round and moored in Port Stanley, until 1984.   The damaged hull of the RFA SIR TRISTRAM was later recovered from the Falklands by the heavy lift ship DAN LIFTER and extensively rebuilt.   The RFA SIR TRISTAM re-entered active service in 1985, and saw service in the Gulf War, and the Balkan conflicts of the 1990s, and the supported relief operations for Hurricane Mitch off Central America.    In 2000 the ship was deployed to Sierra Leone in support of British operations there, followed by a cruise to the Baltic Sea in support of Minecountermeasure Vessels..    Early in 2001 the RFA SIR TRISTAM returned to Sierra Leone to take over from sister ship RFA SIR PERCIVAL supporting British forces ashore there.      In 2003 the RFA SIR TRISTAM was deployed as part of the largest British fleet for twenty years in support of the invasion of Iraq.    The RFA SIR TRISTAM was decommissioned in December 2005 but continued to be used for training purposes by the Special Boat Service, and more or less disappeared from the vide view.  At some stage the vessel became known as the Training Vessel TV TRISTRAM.

Now in 2013, with ship in the 46^th year of a long career the vessel is to undergo a 60 day refit, employing 50 personnel with the work being carried out in Portland Harbour and comprises the manufacturing and installing a viewing platform throughout the length of the tank deck, which is now used for Special Forces Training.      In addition a new pontoon will be designed and connected to the hull for access for personnel, materials and equipment and be accessed by a newly designed secure gangway system.     Other works involve sewage system tank renewal, repairs to the mooring chain system, renewal of on board electrical generators complete with renewal of the electrical distribution system. Steelwork repairs throughout the vessel will be carried out with substantial deck composition repairs in way.    The vessel will be painted from funnel top to waterline whilst afloat and includes the entire superstructure, funnel, decks and hull to the water line.    UK Docks are the Contractors for this work being a merger of the Tyne Slipway and Wear Docks with their extensive marine engineering facilities.

If and when we get round to having a Falkland Museum if our national heritage in the TV TRISTRAM we have a very suitable candidate for preservation, when the Special Boat Service have finished with the ship which does not now seem to be in the near future.