Four French Naval Vessels bound for Cork

cork | anti-war / imperialism | news report Tuesday September 09, 2008 14:49 by John Jefferies - Cork Warship Watch

Four French military vessels will tie up at Cork city's North Custom House Quay next Friday morning (12th September) around 7.30am.

Two of the ships due on Friday

The four vessels, described as Leopard Class navigational training craft, are:

A748 Léopard; A752 Guépard; A753 Chacal, and A 754 Tigre

While these vessels are not heavily armed, they are nevertheless part of an increasing flow of NATO and NATO aligned (France is rejoining the alliance) military vessels coming to Cork port over the past number of years and follow other recent foreign military visits to the harbour including Dutch submarine Walrus, British warship HMS Enterprise, German frigate F209 Rheinland-Pfalz; HMS Westminister; HMS Severn; United States warship USS Mitscher and military training vessel USS State of Maine, warship USS The Sullivans, a number of Belgian and Dutch vessels and several others - all of which have visited Cork Harbour within the last two years alone. This does not count the warships visits to Dublin, Waterford and other Irish ports.