HMS Liverpool returns to Portsmouth

HMS Liverpool returns to Portsmouth

A Grand view from Semaphore Tower as the Portsmouth-based Type 42 destroyer was welcomed home by over a thousand friends and family members as she sailed into Portsmouth this morning, 7 November 2011.

Secretary of State for Defence Philip Hammond was on board to congratulate the ship's company on their latest deployment.

HMS Liverpool sailed to the Mediterranean at the end of March to support NATO's Operation UNIFIED PROTECTOR, where her tasks included enforcing the no-fly zone and conducting embargo operations to prevent arms from reaching pro-Gaddafi forces by sea.

Commanding Officer of HMS Liverpool, Commander Colin Williams, said:

"For the past seven months HMS Liverpool has been at the sharp end of Royal Navy operations, spending 360 hours controlling aircraft, firing hundreds of rounds and spending long periods at action stations. We became the first ship to be fired upon in 30 years, and my ship's company responded by putting their training into action, returning fire in self-defence and destroying enemy positions ashore."

Photographs by RNA Lensman Nigel Hackling