Email
Streaming saltwater, seaweed, rust and silt, a monster is rising from the shallows in Liverpool’s docks: Landfall, the last survivor of the fleet of gigantic landing craft built to transport British tanks to the battlelines of the second world war. The vessel is the last of the UK fleet of 800 tank carriers, the last to have taken part in the D-day landings, and one of the last of its kind anywhere in the world.
As divers vanished into the bowels of the ship to carry out last-minute checks and attach flotation bags, and a giant crane arrived on the quayside to help in the operation, people gathered to watch the resurrection of a local landmark, which many remember from her days as a floating nightclub.
Even the most passionate admirers of LCT 7074 would admit that she’s no beauty, and her rising from the water is not a noble spectacle: the ship has all the elegance of a breeze block, and has been lying in three metres of water and mud, partly exposed at low tide.
“These weren’t designed to be beautiful, they were designed to do one job, which they did supremely well,” said Nick Hewitt, of the National Museum of the Royal Navy. He can hardly bear to hear an unkind word spoken against Landfall, and admitted to waking up before dawn on resurrection day feeling as excited as a child at Christmas. “When Churchill said ‘Give us the tools and we will finish the job’, this is exactly the sort of tool he had in mind.”
The enormous vessel, just under 60 metres long and designed to carry 10 tanks, is being refloated by the National Museum of the Royal Navy, six years after she sank on her moorings at Birkenhead, after the collapse of the previous restoration campaign.
Next month, the museum will move her in a giant container ship to Portsmouth, where after restoration the vessel will join the collection of a partner museum, the D-day Museum in Portsmouth. The project is being funded by a £916,000 National Heritage Memorial Fund grant, in recognition of her unique importance, part of the register of National Historic Ships. More fundraising will be needed to complete the restoration work in Portsmouth.
“She’s unique because most of them were worked to death,” Hewitt said. “There were never enough of them, and they were worked very hard, constantly on the move, often working under fire. If they lasted two or three months, you’d got your money’s worth. Very few of them lasted till the end of the war, and most of those were sold off for scrap.
“She is in extraordinarily original condition, because they were such simple ships – although she has lost her engines, almost the entire fabric is original to 1944.”
The ship survived partly because she was back in Liverpool for a refit when the war ended. Decommissioned in 1945, Landfall first became the floating headquarters of the Master Mariners Club in Liverpool – and is remembered by sailors from all over the world who were guests there – and then a club and restaurant at Canning Dock in the 1960s and 70s.
She was bought by the Warship Preservation Trust, which intended to carry out a full restoration but went into liquidation in 2006. On the historic ship register, her situation was described as bleak: “Her immediate prospects are indifferent and her longer-term future unclear.”
Once the ship is afloat again – which is expected to be by Thursday morning – Liverpool will have a month to pay its respects before the plug-ugly but magnificent survivor sets off on a last voyage.
