JavaScript is disabled in your web browser or browser is too old to support JavaScript. Today almost all web pages contain JavaScript, a scripting programming language that runs on visitor's web browser. It makes web pages functional for specific purposes and if disabled for some reason, the content or the functionality of the web page can be limited or unavailable.

Sunday, March 30, 2025

More pro­tec­tion for coun­try's bor­ders

TTS Nelson II hits high seas

by

20151110

Com­man­der Ja­son Kelshall and his crew will of­fi­cial­ly start their task of pro­tect­ing the coun­try's bor­ders to­day, aboard T&T's lat­est naval ship, the TTS Nel­son II.

The ship will be­come op­er­a­tional in T&T wa­ters for the first time since its ar­rival from Chi­na last month.

Kelshall, 43, is the son of re­tired rear ad­mi­ral Richard Kelshall, who him­self had cap­tained T&T's very first T&T Coast Guard (TTCG) ship, the "Trin­i­ty," from the Unit­ed King­dom, cross­ing the At­lantic Ocean in 1967. In 1973, the se­nior Kelshall again cap­tained yet an­oth­er ves­sel, the "Ch­aguara­mas," al­so from the UK.

Speak­ing with the T&T Guardian yes­ter­day, the se­nior Kelshall said he stood a proud fa­ther to­day be­cause of his on­ly son's achieve­ments.

"My achieve­ments were com­plete­ly over­shad­owed. Ja­son crossed three oceans–through the Chi­na Sea, the In­di­an Ocean and At­lantic. This sure­ly would have cov­ered more mileage than my two trips," Kelshall said.

While his last of three chil­dren was out there work­ing on bring­ing the ves­sel to T&T, Kelshall ad­mit­ted he was wor­ried be­cause of the dan­gers that ex­ist­ed for his son and his crew.

"The whole thing took 35 days, which is a very long time for him and some of the guys who were part of the crew. Most of his men were ac­cus­tomed pa­trolling with the sight of land and to be out there for them would have been an ex­pe­ri­ence," Kelshall said.

"They went through some dan­ger­ous wa­ters that ex­ist in the world where there are pi­rates, and on one oc­ca­sion I was told that my son (Ja­son) had got­ten a call about three o'clock one morn­ing and it was a pi­rate who had called to ask what type of ves­sel they were in and when they were told a naval ves­sel they (the pi­rates) stayed away.

"So when it wasn't pi­rates they had bad seas to pass through, which is an­oth­er risk by it­self, but thank God, Ja­son and his crew proved their worth and ac­com­plished this tremen­dous achieve­ment for the coun­try."

Asked if he got the op­por­tu­ni­ty to go aboard the ves­sel, the se­nior Kelshall replied: "Yes."

He de­scribed the ves­sel as a very good ship. "There was a lot of talk about the ship and it com­ing from Chi­na, but the ship jour­neyed from Chi­na to T&T trou­ble free. It is a very good ship."

Kelshall's daugh­ter, Tri­cia Lee Kelshall-By­noe, al­so ex­pressed pride in her broth­er's achieve­ment.

"I am be­yond proud of the achieve­ment of the en­tire crew in­clu­sive of my broth­er. This was not a trip de­void of dan­ger. They nav­i­gat­ed through pi­rate-rich wa­ters in the Malac­ca Strait, as well as en­coun­tered very tur­bu­lent stormy seas.

"These men and women left their fam­i­lies be­hind to do their du­ty and serve their coun­try by bring­ing this pro­tec­tive ves­sel to Trinidad," Kelshall-By­noe said.

She added, "As a fam­i­ly mem­ber it was a month-and-a-half of nail-bit­ing and wor­ry, as the sea is its own mas­ter and obeys no laws. We are re­lieved, thrilled and filled with pride, not on­ly proud of the suc­cess­ful trip but al­so proud of the lev­el of skill, ex­cel­lence and pro­fes­sion­al­ism with which it was un­der­tak­en. I con­grat­u­late the en­tire team."

More In­fo

The TTS Nel­son II cost ap­prox­i­mate­ly US$35 mil­lion and is ex­pect­ed to play a crit­i­cal role in the fight against drug and hu­man traf­fick­ing.

Dur­ing his con­tri­bu­tion at the ship's ar­rival cer­e­mo­ny, T&T Coast Guard Com­mand­ing Of­fi­cer Hay­den Pritchard thanked the gov­ern­ment of Chi­na for sup­ply­ing the ves­sel to the T&T Gov­ern­ment, not­ing it would make a sig­nif­i­cant con­tri­bu­tion to the safe­ty, se­cu­ri­ty and sta­bil­i­ty of T&T.

Pritchard said the 79-foot sea ves­sel would be de­ployed in sup­port of a num­ber of op­er­a­tions the Coast Guard was cur­rent­ly en­gaged in.

"These in­clude search and res­cue, fish­ery pro­tec­tion, an­ti-drug smug­gling, nar­cotics in­ter­dic­tion, hu­man traf­fick­ing, an­ti-pira­cy op­er­a­tions, crit­i­cal in­fra­struc­tur­al pro­tec­tion, en­vi­ron­men­tal pro­tec­tion and sci­en­tif­ic re­search on train­ing, just to name a few," Pritchard said.

"This ves­sel has good sea-keep­ing qual­i­ties and will make an ide­al plat­form for what we call Care­free Op­er­a­tions in the out­er­most lim­its of our ex­clu­sive eco­nom­ic zone."


Related articles

Sponsored

Weather

PORT OF SPAIN WEATHER

Sponsored