Memorandum submitted by the Maritime Steam
Restoration Trust
HMS STALKER—GRANT
APPLICATION
Further to my recent communications with you,
in which I bought to your attention the fact that Pounds—Scrap
Merchants at Portsmouth—had decided to sell HMS Stalker
for scrap to an unknown purchaser, and that an Export Licence
had been issued by the DTI, I am pleased to write and tell you
that the Maritime Steam Restoration Trust of which I write on
behalf of, will in the next few days, be applying for a Project
Planning Grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund for £32,000,
to carry out a feasibility study in preparation for a full application
to repair the ship, and to put her back into full working order.
It is hoped that your Committee will give the
MSRT it's full support whilst these applications are being looked
into, and that you contact the Department of Trade and Industry
to recommend that the export licence be withdrawn until such time
as the Trust has a clearer picture in respect of its applications.
It's essential in my view, that the last steam
driven Landing Ship Tank left in Britain is given a chance of
survival when one considers that this year was the 60th Anniversary
of the D-Day Landings in which many of these crafts took part.
1 November 2004
| 
