Captain David T Smith OBE FNI RN, the President of the HMS Trincomalee Trust, has died in Malta after a short illness aged 86.

He had a long and distinguished career in the Royal Navy, starting as a cadet. He had a number of sea-going appointments including being navigating officer on HMY Britannia and Commander on HMS Eagle.

On retiring, he became an Elder Brother of Trinity House and was a full time officer, visiting all the Trinity House’s lighthouses.

He became Chairman of The Foudroyant Trust in 1976, Foudroyant then still being used as a training ship in Portsmouth harbour. In 1987 it was decided to stop using the Ship for training and start the repair and renovation work.

After much research and discussion, he decided that the best place for this work to be done was Hartlepool. In July 1987 he took the risk of spending all the funds the Trust then had to hire a submersible barge to take the Ship from Portsmouth to Hartlepool.

The repair and maintenance of this historic ship then became his main preoccupation and he was dedicated to the objective of restoring her to her former glory.

Her name was restored to her original name of HMS Trincomalee in 1992.

He remained chairman of the ‘new’ HMS Trincomalee Trust and personally oversaw all the very detailed work of restoring the Ship ensuring it was done correctly.

This meant frequent and lengthy visits from his home in Southsea to Hartlepool.

Under David Smith’s chairmanship, The Trust raised more than £10.5m for the work, it took 11 years, at least 750,000 man-hours of skilled work, and over £8m was pumped into the local economy in wages and purchases.

He retired as chairman in 2000, after 24 years, when the restoration was largely complete. 

His work was recognised by an OBE among many other awards but most of all by the many  thousands of visitors who have flocked to Hartlepool since it opened as a visitor attraction.