Harland and Wolff - Shipbuilding and Engineering Works

Became US Navy YFN-70, Norfolk VA.

Was based in Malta 1959-1968, then Portsmouth.

Among service craft types, the open lighter (YC) is the most common. Men of the service craft navy call it the “floating freight car.” Yard tugs act as “engines” for these freight cars, sometimes taking up to four YCs in tow at a time. Shallow drafted and cumbersome, but possessing a carrying capacity ranging from 500 tons upwards, these sturdy steel lighters carry a wide range of Navy items: oxygen bottles, dry stores, scrap metal, engineering spares, gun mounts, aviation replacement parts, steel booms and wooden crates, to name but a few. . Next most numerous is the covered lighter, non-self-propelled (YFN). The YFN is in reality a YC hull with a large metal shed which covers most of its deck to protect its cargo from weather or pilferage.

Scrapped August 1972

National Maritime Museum, Greenwich ADFB0176 (YC327 Plan)