More than 8000 people held their breath waiting for HMS Dauntless, the Clyde-built warship to slip into the water at BAE Systems in Govan.

In the bitter wind of Tuesday 23 January, the Royal Navy Chaplain of the Fleet, the Venerable John Green, had blessed the Type 45 Destroyer and all who sailed in her.

The 7350 tonnes of steel had been formally launched by Lady Burnell-Nugent, wife of the Commander in Chief of the UK Fleet, Admiral Sir James Burnell-Nugent, with the traditional bottle of champagne across her bow. And then there was the pause……till, slowly, the massive vessel moved down the slipway to the waiting river and the flotilla of tugs. The hovering helicopters, the workers on the high flats across the river, the VIPs under the canopy at the bow of the ship, and the balloon carrying crowd on the quayside heaved a collective sigh of relief and shouted in joy and pride as the vessel hit the water.

That emotional minute was the climax of two and a half years of work and many more years of planning. There will be another two years of work ahead to fit out the enormous anti-air warfare destroyer.

The crowd almost never got to see the launch, as water levels in the Clyde were well below what was needed to safely launch Dauntless. A last minute SOS call to Glasgow City Council’s Tidal Weir Operative Robert Lochrie saved the day, as he was able to close the river’s tidal barriers upstream.

Mr Lochrie said, ‘The tidal barrier is normally used to prevent flooding in the city on very high tides. By closing the gates, we raised the water levels by between six and twelve inches. That proved to be the fine margin that ensured another historic Clyde launch could go ahead.’

In 2009 the first of this class of vessel, HMS Daring, will enter service. The following year HMS Dauntless will be ready to go to war. They are the first of an anticipated fleet of eight in a programme costing £6 billion. HMS Dauntless, alone, is costing between £700 and £800 million.

The flight deck is big enough to land a Chinook helicopter, though the ship is scheduled to carry Merlin helicopters. Each vessel in the series has a range of around 7000 nautical miles which means it can go from the UK to New York and back without refueling.

Because of the volume of sophisticated equipment, the warship’s superstructure had to be big to carry it and so the base had to be proportionately large to keep the vessel stable.  It is 152.4 metres long and has a beam of 21.2 metres. The distance from the keel to the tip of its Sampson radar dome is 44 metres – the same height as the Nelson Monument at Glasgow Green.

Shop steward Jamie Webster commented as the crowd gathered, ‘This yard could have been desolate, a waste ground, but we dared to dream and we believed our dream would come true. And it has. Today is the proof. This place is a hive of activity. We recruit 100 apprentices a year and have 500 craftsmen and women working on a full order book for the next ten years. Now, when this ship is seen anywhere in the world, people will know it was Clyde-built.’

Vic Emery, BAE Systems Surface Fleet Solutions Managing Director, said, ‘The success achieved on the Type 45 contract on the Clyde is testament to the innovation, design and engineering skills of our employees and partners. This is the second successful launch on the Clyde in less than 12 months, – an incredible achievement. BAE Systems took over here in 2003 when Clyde shipyards were almost extinct. Now we have a world-class facility.’

Partnership building in modules enabled the bow and the mast sections to be made by VT Shipbuilding in Portsmouth and transported to the Clyde. Scotstoun yard was involved in the building of HMS Daring which was launched last year but Govan yard has completed and launched HMS Dauntless.

Craneman slinger, John Currie has been responsible for ’slinging’ much of the material aboard the launch ship. He’s seen every launch, bar two, since 1978.

After the launch he commented, ‘It’s an emotional moment when the ship starts to move.’