The former survey vessel of the
Royal Navy, HMS BULLDOG has suffered yet another fire in Port Nelson,
where she has lain, or rather languished, since a fire three years ago in
the New Zealand port.
She was launched on 12th July 1967 at Brooke Marine, Lowestoft and
commissioned into the Royal Navy on the 21st of March 1968
She was decommissioned on 26th July 2001 and subsequently sold to Hong
Kong millionaire Wing-cheung Fung who began a multi million dollar refit
to convert her into a luxury yacht. He planned to replace his yacht ALYSSA
M and rename BULLDOG to ALYSSA M II
However his plans suffered a setback on 2nd April 2004 when a welding
spark began a fire that spread through the vessel. It was not only the
ship that was gutted, so was her owner after spending so much cash on her.
He announced she was up for sale at a vastly reduced price, but there
were, unsurprisingly, no takers.
Since then she has awaited whatever fate comes her way, and only last week
it was announced that she was to be towed to China to begin a new life as
a floating venue, but, says the Newspaper Nelson Mail, smoke was seen
billowing from her once more at 2.30pm today (16th February, NZ time).
Fire crews quickly got the blaze under control. It is not known how much
damage has been caused on this occasion.
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