The commanding officer of pirate-fighting HMS Montrose has praised the support of the Angus community during their action-packed deployment.
Commander Jonathan Lett and his crew visited the county after a successful five months tackling Somali pirates in the Indian Ocean and Gulf of Aden.
The frigate had notable successes against pirates, destroying pirate whalers and freeing the crew of the freighter Beluga Fortune after a piracy attack.
During her five-month deployment Montrose took part in Operation Ocean Shield in a NATO counter-piracy taskforce comprising HDMS Esbern Snare (flagship), from Denmark, USS Kauffman and USS Laboon and ITS Bersagliere from Italy.
As well as destroying pirate whalers, Montrose disrupted large merchant vessels the pirates used as “motherships.”
Commander Lett brought seven crew of all ranks to tour the county yesterday, visiting Angus Riding for the Disabled at the South Bottymyre centre, near Forfar, Montrose care home Dorward House, Rosemount Primary School, Hillside, and Montrose Academy.
“We came back from Somalia in December and this is my second visit to Angus and we’re really keen to keep those links going, not just with Angus Riding for the Disabled, but we had fantastic links with Rosemount Primary School while we were away and Dorward House,” he said.
“Everywhere I stopped from Gibraltar, Malta, Tanzania to the Seychelles I sent postcards back to the school and Dorward House to keep those links going.
“We’re a Plymouth-based ship. It’s quite difficult to get it up to Montrose but if I can’t bring the ship up here it’s not going to stop me because we want to give something back to the Angus community for the support they give us.Proud moniker”There’s a real sense of pride, not only among my ship’s company, of the Montrose name and there’s a real team spirit.
“That does reach through the website and The Courier as well, publicising the good work we do out there, combating pirates or drugs, or whatever it is we’re doing, there’s a real message and that builds the team spirit.”
HMS Montrose also promoted international diplomatic relations, with visits to the Seychelles and Tanzania to give engineering support and training in board-and-search techniques so their defence forces can take a greater role in anti-piracy operations.
“It’s a constant battle against the pirates,” he said. “Are we having success? Yes we hear the pirates are still having some success pirating vessels but we don’t hear in the news how many ships are getting through and how over Christmas the most popular toy was on the shelves; all the food was available.
“We’re an island. It comes by sea so definitely we are having success out there.
“We are preparing for another seven months starting in October this year and we are off to the south Atlantic. We’ll be deterring potential threats to the Falklands and South Georgia. That’s security and defence of UK interests.”
Montrose, commissioned in 1999, has a crew of 199 and has the latest weapons, sensors and communications systems, including the Seawolf missile system for close air defence, a 4.5-inch (114mm) gun, anti-submarine torpedoes, Harpoon anti-ship missiles and a Lynx helicopter.
The crew presented a £500 to Angus RDA and another £500 to Dorward House.