Dictionary of Royal Fleet Auxiliary ships from 1905

Royal Fleet Auxiliaries (RFAs) are UK Government-0wned ships on non-commercial service, built in accordance with Lloyd’s Register rules and complying with International Maritime Organisation (IMO) conventions and regulations. In terms of appearance, they mostly resemble trade tankers and dry cargo vessels. However, replenishment at sea capabilities, ammunition, enhanced communications, radar and self-defence capabilities add a military element to these essentially civilian-manned vessels whose complements are often supplemented by naval personnel. Nowadays, RFAs work more closely with the Royal Navy than ever before, undertaking many duties, especially on foreign stations, previously the remit of warships. Indeed, on occasions, such as the permanent support of British Overseas Territories in the Caribbean, duties have been undertaken by a RFA working alone; closer to home, tankers have been used to shadow Russian ships through the English Channel. Thomas Adams is an acknowledged authority on this subject. His previous book, The Royal Fleet Auxiliary: A Century of Service (with James R. Smith) was a chronologically arranged history which was published in 2005 to mark the centenary. This book is divided into two parts. There is a short introduction which informs the reader of the diverse range of tasks undertaken over the years by RFAs in addition to supplying RN ships with liquid replenishment and dry stores. These have included damage and repair support, humanitarian assistance and disaster relief, amphibious warfare and sealift and many more. The bulk of the book is devoted to an A-Z of the auxiliaries which, both for long and short periods of time, have flown the RFA ensign. In some instances, the individual ship did not belong to any class. To give just one example, RFA Polshannon, taken as a War Prize during WWI, had a long career in the service as an oiler transport before being sunk by Japanese aircraft in 1942. Other names and classes will be instantly familiar and lengthy entries cover a range of background information much of which you will not find published elsewhere. Thus, the primary role of Bay Class landing ships dock (auxiliary) is for the tactical sealift of troops, vehicles, stores and equipment. As landing ships they can undertake humanitarian tasks as well as constabulary, ceremonial and diplomatic duties. The procurement of the four ships, dating from 2000, was intended to replace two of the aging Sir Class LSLs. But Adams explains that the project has not been without setbacks with delays, technical problems, even ‘incompetent performance’ by the lead yard. This is a wonderfully informative reference book. The author is to be commended for arranging his material in a uniformly logical sequence so that one can follow the story of a particular class of ship from concept, through procurement to service and perhaps eventual disposal. All entries are treated with the same thoroughness according to the information to hand. We find, for example, RFA Mollusc, an Admiralty-designed mooring vessel which served as a tender to the Auxiliary Patrol Base on the River Humber. Her rather undistinguished career is nevertheless recorded and referenced in exactly the same way as other more famous and well-known wearers of the blue RFA Ensign. Reviewed by Jon Wise