RFA Fort Victoria bombing
| RFA Fort Victoria bombing | |
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| Part of The Troubles | |
RFA Fort Victoria
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| Location | Harland and Wolff shipyard, Port of Belfast |
| Coordinates | 54°37′07.38″N 5°53′42.24″W / 54.6187167°N 5.8950667°WCoordinates: 54°37′07.38″N 5°53′42.24″W / 54.6187167°N 5.8950667°W |
| Date | 6 September 1990 |
| Target | RFA Fort Victoria (A387) |
| Weapons | 2 explosive charges |
| Deaths | none |
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Non-fatal injuries
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none |
| Perpetrator | Provisional Irish Republican Army |
The bombing of RFA Fort Victoria took place on 6 September 1990, when a unit of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) planted two bombs aboard the Royal Fleet Auxiliary replenishment ship at Harland and Wolff shipyard in Belfast, Northern Ireland, where the vessel had been launched four months before. One of them exploded in the engine room, causing flooding and serious damage. The second device didn't explode and was defused several days later. The attack resulted in a two-year delay before Fort Victoria became fully operational.
One of the first IRA attacks on British ships since the Irish War of Independence was carried out against the Royal Navy fast-attack patrol boat HMS Brave Borderer, which was damaged by gunfire from a Boys anti-tank rifle in September 1965 while paying a visit to Waterford, Republic of Ireland. Another noteworthy operation against a British ship took place in April 1971, when the Royal Navy survey launch HMS Stork was towed outside the port and blown up by the IRA off Baltimore, also in the Republic.
In Northern Ireland itself, two civilian coal ships, Nellie M and St Bedan, were boarded, bombed and sunk by the Provisional IRA between 1981 and 1982 in Lough Foyle.
Fort Victoria is a 31,565 ton fleet stores ship and tanker of the Royal Fleet Auxiliary which had been ordered from Harland and Wolff on 24 April 1986, and eventually launched on 4 May 1990. The name of Fort Victoria was officially bestowed by The Duchess of York, on 19 June.
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