Borough's own warship is honoured (From Dorset Echo)

Borough's own warship is honoured

10:40am Monday 2nd November 2009

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Weymouth and Portland’s very own warship was honoured in a freedom march along the seafront.

Crew from HMS Portland marched along Weymouth Esplanade yesterday morning with ‘bayonets fixed, flags flying and bands playing’ to celebrate being awarded the Freedom of the Borough.

Music was provided by the Band of the Adjutant General’s Corps and the event finished with a civic reception at the Pavilion Theatre.

The commanding officer of the 4,900-tonne Type 23 frigate, Commander Tim Henry, said it was a ‘huge honour’, which strengthened the ship’s ties to its home port.

He said: “This is a big thing for any military formed unit, to be granted freedom of the city or borough.

“It’s recognition from the civil authorities that we’ve been accepted and welcomed by the borough and the people of Weymouth and Portland and we’re very much a part of this place now.

“We were actually awarded the Freedom in 2008 but we’ve been so jolly busy, this is the first chance we’ve had to accept.

“The parade along the seafront exercised our right to march through the streets of the borough with bayonets fixed, flags flying and bands playing.”

Commander Henry said the HMS Portland, which featured canons and a helicopter flight deck, was ‘an expensive bit of British property’ that would cost around £300million to rebuild.

There are currently 178 crew on board, including 30 women and two exchange officers from New Zealand and Germany.

During a recent eight-month 50,000-mile trip to the Middle East and Indian Ocean, the crew undertook counter-terrorism and narcotics operations in support of UK efforts in Afghanistan. HMS Portland leaves the borough on Wednesday.

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