I WAS HOPING TO PHOTOGRAPH THE USS MESA VERDE
As already mentioned, I visited Sir John Rogerson’s Quay as I had expected to see the USS Mesa Verde docked here but unfortunately it was elsewhere and it was in a restricted location.
The P61 was completed and floated out of the shipyard in November 2013, delivered in April 2014 and commissioned for service in May 2014 The vessel was “twinned” with Cork city in a ceremony held on 7 June 2014.
In late 2015 Samuel Beckett was deployed to the Mediterranean as part of Ireland’s contribution to the humanitarian response to the European migrant crisis. During the ship’s cruise, more than 1,000 migrants were rescued. In one event, 111 people were rescued in a United Nations operation off the coast of Libya.
The vessel was redeployed to the area in 2016, and on 17 November 2016 rescued 50 migrants who were on a rubber boat 25 Nautical Miles North-west of Tripoli. This brought the number of migrants rescued by the Samuel Beckett to 2310.
In March 2020 the Naval Service provided the vessel to the HSE as a testing centre to be docked at Sir John Rogerson’s Quay as part of Irish response to the coronavirus pandemic.