laststandonzombieisland

The 1,200-ton HMS Saxifrage is the last of 112 Flower-class sloops constructed during WWI, the last of 366 Q-Ship “Special Service Vessels” from the same conflict, and only one of three remaining British warships from the era.

After the war, she then spent a full six decades, from 1922 to 1988, as a floating Royal Naval Reserve drill ship, HMS President, including training gun crews during WWII.

As such, she was the last Royal Navy warship to wear Victorian battleship livery of black hull, white superstructure and buff yellow funnel and masts.

In 2014, as part of the First World War commemorations, her hull was covered once more in a distinctive ‘dazzle’ design, courtesy of artist Tobias Rehberger.

After being decommissioned and serving as a floating venue on the River Thames for decades, she was moved to Chatham Docks in Kent in 2016.

Sadly, her life has come to an end.

We profiled her a full decade ago, when she was already on the bubble, and in those past 10 years, nothing concrete came to pass.

Because the site operator requires the berth for redevelopment, the absentee owner and site operators arranged to have her towed and dismantled at a scrapyard in Erith.

She was delivered to the breakers over the weekend.