HMS Portland has been welcoming members of the public on board as it visited its namesake port this weekend.

The type 23 anti-submarine warfare frigate is one of the youngest type 23 frigates in the Royal Navy and was commissioned in to the Royal Navy in 2001.

The ship has many affiliations with the area including with the Earl of Portland, Weymouth and Portland Borough Council and Portland Town Council as well as Weymouth Lifeboat.

Captain Simon Asquith, commanding officer on HMS Portland was happy to be back visiting the island.

He said: “We’re delighted to be back. Our last visit was in November and its terrific, it's wonderful to be back now in the spring to renew those relationships with Weymouth and Portland and the wider Dorset area.”

The ship spent Saturday getting stocked and fuelled in preparation for heading back out to sea on Tuesday.

The visit included opening up the ship to the public on Sunday and Captain Asquith said just how important that is.

He said: “To give the general members of the public the opportunity to come meet us and for us to explain what we do for them is a great opportunity for us but also for the people of the area who pay our wages to come and visit and see what they get for their money.”

He had hoped that more than 1,000 would visit the ship during its visit.

The ship most recently visited Portland in November to support Remembrance Day parades in both Weymouth and Portland.

Although the vessel does not currently have any plans to visit the port again this year, Captain Asquith is hopeful she will.

He said: “We don’t currently have another visit to Portland booked this year but I hope there will be an opportunity to bring the shop back here before the end of the year.”

As part of the visit on Sunday, HMS Portland’s commanding officer had honorary membership conferred on to them by the Royal Dorset Yacht Club.

Captain Asquith collected the honour but the honorary membership will be passed down to the next captain when he moves on.

Royal Dorset Yacht Club Commodore Adrian Crook said: “It’s our 140th anniversary this year and we thought, what a great way to start the celebrations and the events.

“It’s been excellent. We are very grateful that the ship’s captain has been able to come down, as he’s obviously very busy.

HMS Portland has spent the past few months performing exercises to prepare her for her role as the lead Anti Submarine Warfare platform as well as a number of National Maritime Security Operations.

The ship and its crew has also been supporting a number training exercises including spending seven days around Norway acting as a challenging target for trainee submarine Commanding Officers.