HMS Ledbury

On Wednesday 4th June a few of us were privileged to be invited to take part in an exercise out at sea on board HMS Ledbury. The ship, commissioned in 1981, is a Hunt Class Minehunter and there are currently 8 ships of this type in the Royal Navy all named after packs of foxhounds.

We were welcomed on board by the Captain, Lieutenant Commander Paul Russell, and after coffee and biscuits sailed out of Portsmouth harbour naval base at 10.00am. It was a beautiful sunny day and we passed close to the recently returned aircraft carrier HMS Invincible and several other well-known ships.

We were then taken on a tour of the ship seeing some of the extraordinarily sophisticated equipment they have on board. We were told that when this ship was commissioned she cost more per foot length than any other ship in the Navy. 

We were also able to admire the Ledbury fox mask mounted on the wall in the Officers Wardroom!

After about 2 hours sailing around the east side of the Isle of Wight we dropped anchor in Sandown Bay and enjoyed a magnificent sizzling barbeque lunch out on deck.

Later we watched simulated "man overboard" and a "fire below decks" exercises followed by a helicopter overhead demonstration.

After weighing anchor we sailed back to Portsmouth arriving alongside at 3.30pm.

Donald Haden