Navy Warship Bows Out After 25 Years Service
Veteran Royal Navy warship HMS Dumbarton Castle returns to her Portsmouth home for the last time this week before retiring from service.
The patrol vessel, which joined the fleet in 1982, sails into the Naval Base on Thursday (22/11) after completing her last deployment as the Falkland Islands guardship.
She has been protecting the islands and UK territorial waters – in rotation with her sister ship Leeds Castle – since the end of the Falklands conflict. She left Portsmouth for her last deployment in 2004.
In keeping with tradition of RN ships returning to their home port for the last time, Dumbarton Castle will fly a decommissioning pennant as she passes through the harbour entrance.
Her Commanding Officer, Lieutenant Commander Ian Lynn, said: “It has been a huge honour being the final captain of this historic vessel. Her utility and capability are a credit to those who built her and operate her.
“We have had a fantastic deployment conducting our business in some of the most picturesque locations on the planet – it has been immensely enjoyable and exceptionally rewarding. However, it will be great to be back in Portsmouth.”
With Leeds Castle retiring from the fleet in 2005, Dumbarton Castle has been replaced in the South Atlantic by the Navy’s newest vessel HMS Clyde which will remain on station for at least five years.
Before she left the Falkland Islanders ensured her name will live on forever, allowing the name to be carved into the shoreline opposite Government House – an honour granted to very few ships.
Members of her 42 ship’s company gave up 250 hours of their spare time to heave 130 tons of rock needed to spell out the name.
Dumbarton Castle began her long journey home, via the Panama Canal, in September and has had various stops along the way including the Caribbean island of Tobago and Dakar, Senegal.
The homecoming brings an end to an eventful and busy life for the ship. Although built to safeguard North Sea oil platforms, the Falklands invasion of April 1982 sealed her fate for the next quarter of a century. Just days after entering service Dumbarton Castle was ordered to store for war and prepare for deployment.
Carrying mail, troops and 90 tons of cargo, she joined the British Task Group at the tail end of the conflict.
In between patrolling the Falklands, South Georgia and the Sandwich Islands during her lifetime, Dumbarton Castle has returned to the UK for refits and a variety of roles including fishery protection duties around the UK coast.