Royal Navy minehunter HMS Grimsby visited her namesake town to exercise her Freedom of the Borough this week.
The ship’s company paraded through Grimsby and a service was held at the Town Hall to mark the warship’s first visit to North East Lincolnshire since 2015.
HMS Grimsby was also open to the public, giving locals a rare opportunity to learn about the minehunter and her capabilities.
"The name of Grimsby will be carried far and wide and next year in the Gulf and around the world." said, HMS Grimsby’s Commanding Officer, Lieutenant Commander Graeme Hazelwood.
Deputy Mayor of North East Lincolnshire, Councillor David Hasthorpe, added: "We are delighted today to re-affirm our respect and our high regard for the men and women of the Royal Navy for their service to our country."
HMS Grimsby is home-ported at Her Majesty’s Naval Base Clyde and after a busy period on operations around the UK, made her way to Humberside.
The current crew have been on board since May and, by the end of September, the Sandown-class minehunter will have completed a second circumnavigation of the UK within a four-month period, having clocked several thousand miles in the process.
She recently made a visit to London and before that supported events in Vlissingen, in the Netherlands, to mark 75 years since the liberation of the country by UK and allied forces in World War Two.
This included providing a guard to open a new memorial and participating in a naval parade of 11 allied ships in the presence of King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands.
After the visit to Grimsby the ship will return to Clyde for a programmed maintenance period and a change of crew before getting ready for a Nato deployment.
