Iron Duke’s sailors enjoy Seawolf for breakfast

If it's fish, it must be Friday. Indeed it is. But not any old fish. The team behind HMS Iron Duke’s Seawolf missile system – plus Commanding Officer Cdr Ben Aldous – are tucking into seawolf. For breakfast. With chips. And peas (disappointingly not mushy though).

When the caterers were stocking up on fresh fish in the Baltic during the Portsmouth-based frigate’s NATO deployment spied the option to stock up with seawolf, it was too good an opportunity to pass.

For readers who aren’t marine biologists (which will be most of you…), the anarhichas lupus ­– known variously as the Atlantc wolfish, Atlantic catfish, devil fish and wolf eel is one of the ugliest fish out there. Loves cold waters – it has a natural antifreeze in its blood to be able to survive. Grows up to 5ft in length. And enjoys munching whelks, cockles, starfish, sea urchins and green crabs.

But what you really want to know is: how does it taste with a dab of ketchup?

“I wasn’t sure what to make of it at first, especially having seen the pictures of what it looked like,” said LET Richard Hoare, who maintains Iron Duke’s Seawolf tracker – the radar which follows any incoming aerial threats to the ship.

“But it actually tasted quite good, certainly better than a Seawolf missile would taste.”

Which is a bit of a relief. The missile system is the principal line of defence for the entire frigate flotilla against attacking enemy aircraft or missiles, although it’s about to be replaced by the new Sea Ceptor after more than 30 years service (which included downing Argentine jets in the Falklands).