Plymouth’s waterfront echoed to the sound of gunfire this morning as HMS Somerset returned home after three months at sea.
The crew of the Duke Class frigate lined the rails as the ship made its way into HMNB Devonport to be greeted by friends and loved ones.
HMS Somerset was spotted by Westward Shipping News leaving Plymouth on the 27th of December 2024 to shadow Russian warships in the Channel and North Sea.
The 200-strong company sailed over 18,000 nautical miles, tracking mostly Russian vessels on six occasions, and also worked with other NATO allies and took in several port visits in the Netherlands, Norway, Belgium, Germany, and in British waters.
The ship’s Merlin helicopter from 814 Naval Air Squadron spent 100 hours on sorties, gathering vital information on Russian ships but also tracking and simulating attacks on allied submarines during two weeks in the Norwegian Fjords on ‘Exercise Arctic Dolphin‘.
