4 NAVY NEWS, DECEMBER 2010


HMS Daring HMS Sabre/Scimitar


HMS Cumberland


845 NAS/846 NAS/854 NAS/ FDG/1710 NAS


IMAT


HMS Manchester RFA Wave Ruler


HMS Portland


HMS Northumberland HMS Montrose RFA Fort Victoria 820 NAS FPGRM


HMS Dragon FASLANE ROSYTH HMS Gannet RFA Fort George DEVONPORT


CULDROSE 771 NAS


HMS Ark Royal HMS Clyde 800/801 NAS YEOVILTON


PORTSMOUTH HMS Diamond


HMS Gloucester RFA Black Rover


Plus one ballistic missile submarine on patrol somewhere beneath the Seven Seas


HMS Tireless HMS Somerset HMS Cumberland HMS Enterprise HMS Chiddingfold HMS Middleton HMS Pembroke HMS Grimsby RFA Bayleaf RFA Diligence RFA Lyme Bay RFA Cardigan Bay


Fleet Focus


SO THAT was 2010. Not an especially great year for the Senior Service. We lost more than a dozen Royal Marines to the insurgency in Afghanistan. We lost our flagship, our jump jets and our Type 22s to the defence cuts, not to mention several thousand men and women who are the lifeblood of the Service.


through the Med she saved the lives of several sailors in a tiny RIB (see page 7). Already east of Suez is HMS Cumberland which has relieved HMS Somerset on Telic duties in the northern Gulf (see page 6).


exercises with the USS Enterprise and visited New York for the first time, hosting the Captain of the (Starship) Enterprise, actor Sir Patrick Stewart (see page 9). The sun is rising on Daring’s career; on HMS Sceptre’s it is about to set. We pay tribute to the last of the S-boats (see pages 10-11).


In Type 45 land (it’s just off the M275...), HMS Diamond has begun her inaugural trials under the White Ensign, while ship No.4 in the £6bn programme, HMS Dragon, has put to sea for the first time (see page 6). Meanwhile, the class progenitor HMS Daring has completed


Still at least the year ended with a bang. Several bangs as counter-piracy task forces – HM Ships Montrose and Northumberland, 820 NAS, 815 NAS, RFA Fort Victoria, Fleet Protection Group RM – struck at brigands off the Somali coast (see pages 2-3). HMS Cornwall is heading east to join the effort; passing


Memorable visit to Kent


THERE were occasions celebratory and solemn when HMS Chatham headed up the Medway to visit her namesake town.


The visit of the Type 22 fell


over the Remembrance period, and the frigate’s ship’s company were understandably out in force at events in and around the Kentish town. The ship provided a guard


at Great Lines Naval War Memorial in Gillingham, where Commanding Officer Cdr Simon Huntington laid a wreath, before moving on to Rochester Cathedral for further tributes to the fallen, including turning the pages of the Royal Marines’ memorial book held by the house of worship.


At the same time another


Many of Sceptre’s crew will find themselves serving in HMS Ambush, the second of seven Astute-class boats, which is due to be launched in Barrow this month (see page 10). Prince William visited Faslane to present the first deterrent pins to submariners who’ve served in V and R-boats on strategic defence patrols (see page 23)...


Talent for their commitment on recent patrols (see page 18)... ...And her mother bade farewell to her flagship, attending a


...While his aunt, the Princess Royal, thanked the men of HMS


Group RM, who’ve completed their training of local maritime forces (see page 19). There are encouraging things happening in the world of mine


25th birthday ceremony for HMS Ark Royal in Portsmouth just days after the shock annoucement of the carrier’s imminent decommissioning (see page 15). Naval Harriers of 800 NAS put in probably their final appearance with the Fleet by taking part in Staff College Sea Day demonstrations (now renamed Maritime Combat Power Visits) in the Solent (see pages 24-25). Sailors and Royal Marines at home and abroad paused – as did the nation – on November 11 to pay their respects to the fallen (see page 14 for a round-up of ceremonies). Bad weather – Hurricane Tomas to be precise – kept HMS Manchester busy in St Lucia; with tanker RFA Wave Ruler, she provided vital aid (see pages 20-21). Bad weather also postponed the return of Britain’s biggest warship, HMS Ocean, to Devonport after her tour of the Atlantic ‘rim’ (see page 5). During Ocean’s stay in Nigeria, she worked with 1 Assault


warfare: there’s the first female clearance diving officer (see right), while one of the doyens of the branch looks at the technology driving the future mine-countermeasures fleet (see page 26). And finally, a Merry Christmas to all our readers and the men and women of the Naval Service, wherever they are this Yuletide.


Blazing a trail for females


LISTENING closely to her instructor, Lt Catherine Ker takes a brief breather on a training vessel on her way to creating a small slice of Royal Naval history. The 28-year-old has become the Service’s first female clearance diving officer, formally passing out of the Defence Diving School on Horsea Island. In doing so she joins a branch with a proud


the fairer sex on medical grounds. That was until experts at the Institute of Naval Medicine in Alverstoke reviewed the health impact of diving.


heritage stretching back to 1952 (although mine clearance diving officers didn’t appear on the scene for another 14 years). “Finding out that I had passed was one of the highlights of my career so far, it has been my aspiration since I joined the Royal in Navy in 2006 to qualify as an mine clearance diving offi cer,” said Lt Ker. “It has been a hard and demanding course, and to succeed as the fi rst female has been a great achievement.


members and instructing staff has been great.” She’s now been assigned to Mine Counter Measures Squadron 1, Crew 7, based in Scotland, joining as operations offi cer and responsible for detecting and disposing of sea mines. The junior officer isn’t the first female in the Naval


Service to qualify as a diver; two wrens passed the port diving course back in the late 80s and there have been female ship’s divers (a function no longer performed).


But otherwise, the branch has remained closed to The support of my fellow course


were at no greater risk of suffering from decompression illness than male divers. That means that the professions of Mine Warfare and Clearance Diving Offi cer


levels are gender neutral, with no reduction being permitted for female candidates,” he stressed. “I believe that such a move is to be welcomed – as


Clearance Diver, are now open to both sexes. The branch is not expecting a fl ood of inquiries from female personnel, but Superintendent of Diving Cdr Chris Baldwin said some ratings had already expressed an interest in joining the branch. “The entry standards in terms of physical fi tness


and, for After a lengthy study they concluded that women ratings,


we must always be able to select from the best and therefore we need access to the widest possible pool of candidates.” The Navies of Canada, the USA and New Zealand also encourage female divers. Britons keen to follow in Lt Ker’s footsteps can fi nd details of the clearance diving branch in 2010DIN07- 056 and BR1066 Article 1603. And finally... No we’ve no idea why the image is monochrome, but it does give it a nice feel...


guard was in Victoria Park, Chatham, where XO Lt Cdr John Patterson performed the wreath honours. Platoons from the Type 22 could also be found in Rainham, Gillingham and Brompton. And on a lighter note... sailors took part in a ceremony handing over the bell from the WW1/2 dreadnought HMS Queen Elizabeth to the new bearer of the name, the future aircraft carrier; the bell eventually ended up in the hands Chatham’s Historic Dockyard Trust, who have donated it to the 65,000-ton leviathan. On the Saturday of the stay in


Chatham, the ship’s gangway was opened to visitors; 2,500 locals took advantage of the hospitality and toured the Type 22. The visit to Kent comes in


Chatham’s 20th year – something which deserves celebrating. A dinner was held to mark the occasion with Lady Oswald, the wife of former First Sea Lord Admiral of the Fleet Sir Julian Oswald, the guest of honour. She and Cdr Huntington were joined by all but three of the ship’s previous captains, among them the current Commander-in- Chief Fleet, Admiral Sir Trevor Soar. Overall Cdr Huntington said:


“This was a truly memorable stay in Chatham – it felt more like a homecoming than a visit.”


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