Every minute counts when natural disaster strikes, whether it is a hurricane, earthquake, tsunami, volcano, fire or other catastrophe.

Britannia Maritime Aid is a registered charity which aims to deliver emergency aid and ocean advocacy while also helping to train the next generation of British and Commonwealth seafarers.

Our intention is to operate a British-built merchant ship, manned by UK and Commonwealth seafarers, which will operate as a disaster relief platform and a sea training vessel for cadets, apprentices, and non-seafaring trainees.

It will provide an effective and regular means of directly delivering UK overseas humanitarian aid and skills training on a year-round basis to UK overseas territories communities in need, and when required to provide direct, fast and cost-effective emergency response to disaster hit islands and coastal commonwealth countries.

Our senior project team consists of highly qualified and experienced maritime experts and enjoys the support of influential figures from the maritime world, politics, industry and society.

Emergency relief vessel

A unique ship design, specifically produced for Britannia Maritime Aid by ship design experts and consultants Leadship. The multi-role vessel has an LOA of 135m, a Breadth of 23.4m and a Draft of 5.2m. It has a speed in excess of 18 knots and a range of more than 6000 nm. It can remain on station unsupported for 21 days.

The ship is designed to handle roll-on/roll off wheeled cargo, containers and pallets and can deploy landing craft to deliver aid across a beach.

With over 12000m3 of adaptable cargo space that can transport more than 2000 tonnes of aid, it can be used to support ocean cleanup projects, host trade exhibitions, or even provide austere accommodation when evacuation from disaster hit areas is required.

It has flexible accommodation for crew and 200+ persons including Cadets, Trainees and VIP’s and can support helicopter and UAV operations.

Equipped with technically advanced energy-efficient machinery, the vessel is designed to be able to take advantage of future green technology development and become ever more environmentally efficient throughout its lifetime.