Prince and King visit HMS Liverpool
The Type 42 destroyer is being decommissioned after 30 years in the Royal Navy and will be sailing into Portsmouth for the final time on Monday…
HMS Liverpool training in Norway for NATO's winter war games, Exercise Cold Response [Picture: Crown Copyright/MOD 2012]
The Type 42 destroyer is being decommissioned after 30 years in the Royal Navy and will be sailing into Portsmouth for the final time on Monday flying her decommissioning pennant.
Liverpool’s final task has been to support HMS Illustrious and Bulwark in winter war games in the fjords of Norway on Exercise Cold Response.
The exercise has seen 16,000 personnel from a dozen nations, including the host, Norway, and warships from half-a-dozen navies, play out complex manoeuvres at sea and on land over ten days, practising the art of putting a sizeable amphibious force ashore in the harshest environment imaginable.
As the exercise comes to a close, Prince Charles and King Harald V of Norway have visited HMS Liverpool and her 240-strong ship’s company in the Norwegian city of Bergen. This was the final royal visit aboard the veteran destroyer on her final stop in a foreign port on her final active duty.
Prince Charles and King Harald discussed the ship’s recent experiences during operations in Libya where her main gun fired more than 200 rounds in support of the NATO and UN mission providing protection for the Libyan people.
Prince Charles told the assembled members of the ship’s company:
It’s taken me some time to discover what you were up to out there - and how you were being fired at. It seems a great deal more hairy than we imagined.
HMS Liverpool has visited Bergen for three days, coinciding with an official visit to the country by the Duke and Duchess of Cornwall.
As well as visiting Liverpool, Prince Charles and King Harald toured the M/V Brennholm to see the work the Institute of Marine Research is doing to encourage sustainable fishing, not least replenishing severely-depleted cod stocks.
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