Cardiff was launched by Vickers at Barrow on 22 February 1974 but labour shortages and priority allocated to nuclear submarines and HMS Invincible meant that little progress was made on outfitting. In February 1976 she arrived at Hebburn for completion by Swan Hunter.

I sent some time on her, Dennis.

I spent a couple of years on her as well and enjoyed every minute. She was in a poor state when delivered and needed quite a bit of remedial work before getting started. Also I remember there was some nice graffiti which hinted at the fact that we were short of fathers in the North East.

Poor state indeed. We found beer bottles in a lot of the pipes with messages inside that didn't say merry christmas to all on Tyneside. I think it's safe to say that the ship was stripped and rebuilt on the Tyne.

I had quite a lot to do with the paint in the fuel tanks. All the tanks needed repair as the paint job was really bad.also I remember vickers sending over hundreds of seats that they had made only someone had the idea of giving them a nice new coat of paint which unfortunately covered over their identity number. Being almost impossible to identify it was necessary to remake most of them.

Well it all makes work for the Working Man to do!