The Marne is the fourth of five Durance class replenishment oiler, originally designed and built for service in the French Navy. Besides the five ships built for the French Navy, a sixth was built for the Royal Australian Navy (Hmas Success AOR 304) and the leading ship of the class Durance now serves with the Argentine Navy under the name Patagonia.
Five ships of the class were built for the French Navy:
Durance (A629), Meuse (A607), Var (A608), Marne (A630) and Somme (A631)
In French service, the ships are dubbed Bâtiment de commandement et ravitailleur (BCR, "command and replenishment ship"): in addition to their role as a fleet tanker, than can harbour an entire general staff and supervise naval operations.
Three ships of the class (the Marne, the Somme and the Var) are fitted out as flagships and can embark and an admiral and his staff.
She is seen here arriving Leith (around 08:30am) today 23 April 2010
Seen here coming on to the Ocean Terminal Berth quite some time later, I think the Pilot was new
Also seen doing their excellent work tying up the ships (with no golf clubs in sight) are the Leith Boatmen.
