NAVY NEWS, JUNE 2011


11 Congratulations and celebrations...


YOU wait all year for a bit of a party…


week.


…and then there are three in a One Royal Wedding


(which


actually involved quite a few parties), one freedom parade and one tenth birthday. All in four busy days for HMS


Portland in her namesake port as she returned to sea after a spot of TLC.


The frigate spent an eventful


long weekend in Dorset – chiefly to renew bonds with locals after two years of hectic operations, and march through the streets of Weymouth, the warship’s affiliated borough. Two dozen sailors bomb-


burst around the borough to attend four street parties (one in Portland


itself, three in nearby


Weymouth)… and those on board celebrated in mess decks. It was, said PO Roberts, “a truly momentous British occasion”. He added: “We had a really


great time at all the street parties and would like to thank everyone who hosted us for their generous hospitality. We were able to show our support for the newly-married Royal couple – and get to know people from our affiliated town.” Next up the freedom parade – a mixture of solemnity and celebration, with a service of thanksgiving at Portland’s imposing cenotaph on the hilltop overlooking the harbour, before a march led by Portland Sea Cadets’ band from TS Penn, ending in the village of Easton. A crowd of cheering locals lined the route of the march, with a few hostelry patrons leaving their pints momentarily to step aside and encourage the Senior Servicemen and women.


Once the marching was complete, the mayors of Portland and Weymouth presented the ship’s CO Cdr Mike Knott with a Portland flag… and the officer


with other friends of the ship, was a huge added bonus.” For some members of the ship’s


company not able to attend the meal, there was some consolation: Portland’s affiliated brewery, Palmer’s in nearby Bridport, offered a guided tour.


The


affiliation was, we’re told, “heartily toasted”… Two days later and with the


Type 23 back home in Devonport there was a chance to celebrate the ship’s birthday in the company of loved ones with a families’ day alongside. Steady rain meant the bouncy


castle wasn’t as popular as it might have been, but CH Lee Calver’s ice cream stall in the junior rates’ dining hall did a roaring trade. The day was rounded off a


with birthday dinner dance


at Plymouth’s Holiday Inn and (finally) cake all round courtesy of LCH Russell Keitch at the end of an evening of feasting, music and dancing.


As for the ship herself,


she’s spent the winter months unwinding after a seven-month stint in the South Atlantic (which featured heavily in these pages last year),


followed by eight


weeks of TLC in her home base of Devonport and now a spot of regeneration.


l Under leaden Dorset skies, HMS Portland’s Colours party leads the ship’s company away from Portland’s cenotaph on Tophill at the beginning of the Freedom parade


Picture: LA(Phot) Nicola Wilson, FRPU West


responded by handing over £1,000 for local good causes raised by the ship’s company since their last visit in October 2009. His ship wasn’t open to the general public during her time alongside in Portland Harbour, but a select few were invited aboard,


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groups and schoolchildren. The visit ended with the tenth


notably community


anniversary commemorations (ten years since the frigate was commissioned rather than launched). That was celebrated in company with Lady Brigstocke who sent a bottle of champers smashing into the side of the hull at the Yarrow yard in Scotstoun in May 1999


and was present two years later too when the frigate was commissioned.


were invited to attend a reception on the ship’s


Portland dignitaries – Lieutenant


Dorset’s and


She and other guests – her husband Admiral Sir John Brigstocke, the Earl of Portland, Lord


rather cramped bridge before decamping to the wardroom for a more formal lunch. “I was lucky enough to be at


The quieter period over the winter has also allowed the ship’s company to complete a comprehensive ‘deployment book’ packed with top imagery courtesy of ship’s photographer LA(Phot) Simmo Simpson and news clippings from all over the Americas.


Portland’s launch on the Clyde, so to be the logistics officer on board for her tenth birthday was a real honour,” said Lt Cdr Kara Chadwick. “The fact that the ship’s sponsor could join us in Portland, together


A £2,000 donation from BAE Systems helped with the cost of the publication – keeping prices down for the 180 or so ship’s company, plus affiliates and friends eager for copies. Without the input from the defence firm, Cdr Knott said the cost of the books would have been too expensive to justify.


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