| | Echo Class Multi-Role Hydrographic and Oceanographic Survey Vessels |
 | | When the ocean survey vessel HMS Hecla (A133) left service in 1997, she was one of the oldest serving ships in the Royal Navy, having first commissioned in 1965. |
 | | Firstly, at 13,500-tonnes HMS Scott was much bigger than the vessel she replaced and she was also the largest survey vessel in Western Europe. |
 | | Thirdly, HMS Scott was fitted with the very latest equipment and represented a vast technological improvement over her predecessors, capable of working in deeper waters and of processing information at a much greater rate: she could map an area of seabed in a matter of hours, when it would have taken her predecessor several days. |
| www.btinternet.com /~warship/Today/echo.htm (1710 words) |