HMS Montrose returns to Portsmouth to be decommissioned
24th March 2023
HMS Montrose made her final journey into Portsmouth ready for decommissioning on 17 March 2023.
She arrived into Portsmouth for the last time ahead of being decommissioned the following month.
Over nearly 30 years, the Royal Navy’s Type 23 frigate has travelled more than 400,000 miles and taken part in naval operations globally.
She was initially designed as a fast manoeuvrable vessel required to scout ahead of the main fleet.
More recently, Montrose has been deployed to the Gulf as an escort vessel and has seized more than 16 tonnes of illegal drugs conducting ten narcotic boarding missions.
Crowds of well-wishers and family and the friends of the crew turned out to welcome her home into Portsmouth.
Montrose will be decommissioned next month to make way for the Royal Navy’s latest Type 26 and Type 31 frigates.
Laid down at Yarrow Shipbuilders on the River Clyde, she launched on 31 July 1992 by Edith Rifkind, wife of the then Secretary of State for Defence, Malcolm Rifkind, and was commissioned in June 1994.
Photos by Ralph Edwards
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