that moved her slowly out of the hall and onto the new 24000-tonnes capacity shiplift. On December 4th, the shiplift's 108 electric winches lowered the 4200 tons of submarine at 200mm/minute into the water - another first since all previous Royal Navy submarines had been launched dynamically down the slipways.
Launching by shiplift, whilst lacking the spectacle of dynamic launches, is less stressful on the hull, safer and simpler, and offers reductions in build time and cost. It also enables submarines to be 'launched' irrespective of time, tide and weather and to be retrieved from the water as necessary. Triumph was not named at 'launch' but was given her name in a special formal ceremony held alongside on February 16th 1991.
