HMS Shoreham embarks on ‘goodbye tour’
The Royal Navy minehunter has left Faslane for the final time ahead of her decommissioning. 11th May 2022 at 2:48 pm
HMS Shoreham has left Clyde naval base for the final time as she begins a brief ‘goodbye tour’ of the UK.
The tour will see the Royal Navy minehunter go on a four-day visit to her namesake town of Shoreham-on-Sea, which will include a parade of the ship’s crew through the town.
After navigating through the Channel and up the East Coast, the Sandown-class vessel will end her tour in Rosyth, where she will be formally decommissioned and prepared for disposal.
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The ship was commissioned into the Royal Navy in 2002 and it is the fifth Navy vessel to bear the name HMS Shoreham.
For 20 years, the minehunter has taken part in both training and operations in the UK and in northern European waters.
She has also spent long stints of time in the Middle East as part of the Navy’s Gulf-based forces.
In her two decades of active service, HMS Shoreham has clocked up more than 120,000 nautical miles – enough to take her around the world five-and-a-half times – and visited more than 30 national and international ports.
“To achieve such a high operational output requires a full team effort, including all the engineering, logistics and administrative support that HMNB Clyde has provided,” said Lieutenant Commander Andrew Platt, her final Commanding Officer.
The minehunter returned to the UK last October after nearly three years of operations in the Gulf as part of the UK Naval Support Facility, Bahrain.