Military May ’23

The River Thames in London receives lots of different military vessels paying a port call to one of 5 common mooring locations.

During the month of May 2023 six military vessels of six different vessel classes and from four different counties were noted visited the capital.

The first of three Royal Navy vessels was Archer-class patrol boat HMS Exploit (P167) which actually arrived on 30th April and spent just over a week undertaking various activities on the Thames including acting as guard/photo ship for the arrival of HMS Diamond.

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  HMS Exploit P167

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  HMS Exploit P167

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HMS Diamond D34 spent a few days moored at Greenwich over the Coronation Weekend acting as a venue for receptions and providing a visible security presence for the weekend’s events.

The third of the trio of British vessels was a UK Government operated vessel (supporting the Royal Navy but not a commissioned warship) that operates as an experimental research vessel for new technologies and was paying it’s first visit to London having only just entered service and it spent nearly two weeks alongside HMS President RNR in support of a Sea Power conference.

The XV PATRICK BLACKETT is a commercial off-shore support vessel that has been modified to support various trials works undertaken by the NaxyX team including the development of NAVYPODS – a system of using standard cargo contains to carry different mission equipment that can be rapid changed and deployed to meet different mission needs.

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The vessel is also interesting in that it carries a QR code on the sides that links to the trials unit’s Twitter page that then explains some of the science and technology work they do.

The following Tweet shows off the look and sound of the vessel as it was seen heading down the Thames after its visit to London.

Having spent nearly 2 weeks in #London it was time for @RNNavyX vessel XV PATRICK BLACKETT to head back down the #Thames.

Not only does it look special – it sounds great too!!!#XVPATRICKBLACKETT #X01 #NavyX #PTBK #NavyPODs #dlr_blog pic.twitter.com/HWmLw66S1N

— Andrew Christy (@AJBC_1) May 24, 2023

The next visitor was the French Navy Minehunter FS Croix du Sud (M646) – first time I had seen this vessel on the Thames but the ship class are regular visitors as they are used by a number of NATO navies. This vessel went to moor alongside HMS Belfast.

Arriving the same day as the French Warship was the Irish Naval Service Samuel Beckett-class Offshore Patrol Vessel LÉ George Bernard Shaw (P64) and it went to moor in West India Dock.

The Irish Navy are infrequent visitors to London so always nice to see a different one one of their patrol vessels paying a visit.

The final vessel was minelayer FNS Hameenmaa (02) operated by the Finnish Navy – Finland have recently become a member of NATO. This vessel moored alongside HMS Belfast replacing the French Navy vessel that had departed the previous day.

This vessel is one of two Hämeenmaa-class minelayers and in addition to it’s primary role of laying mines it can also act as an escort or transport vessel and the ships have a strengthened hull to be able to operate in ice.

The vessel is armed with a 57mm cannon, anti-air missiles and machine guns along with a quantity of naval mines and depth charges.

🇫🇮 FNS Hämeenmaa, a coastal minelayer operated by @Navyfi, heads down the #Thames after visiting #London.#FNSHameenmaa #puolustusvoimat #Merivoimat#dlr_blog pic.twitter.com/ywwit2jAtm

— Andrew Christy (@AJBC_1) May 26, 2023

Check out this link for other posts related to naval vessels.

Thames patrol on board HMS Example

London gets a fair amount of naval visitors to the River Thames (see here for some examples) and among these the Archer Class Inshore Patrol Vessel are probably the most frequent visitors.

A few years ago I did a blog about HMS Example on one of her previous visits to the Thames and today, thanks to Totally Thames and the Royal Navy, I was not only given the opportunity to go on board HMS Example but also have a trip from HMS President up river under Tower Bridge and then down river to North Greenwich before returning again to HMS President.

As we headed past the Old Royal Naval College at Greenwich it would have been rude not to take a picture, even though it was directly into the bright midday sun.

We also got rocked around a bit by the many Thames Clippers that were running their river bus service along the river.

As we came round Blackwall point one of the Thames Seals was having a nice nap in the sun on the sandbank – not at all interested in the Royal Navy passing by.

Then it was back alongside at HMS President to moor next to HMS Explorer that is also part of the current deployment.

The Archer Class patrol boats are the most numerous class of vessels serving in the Royal Navy but they are quite small being just under 70 ft in length and about 19 ft wide but this, combined with their shallow draft, means that they can visit many more ports then their bigger sisters can.

The role of these vessels has also changed in recent years, they were originally focused on providing training opportunities for university students to provide an introduction to life in the Royal Navy but in recent years the vessels have taken on a wider maritime security responsibility by not only “flying the flag” in British coastal waters but also taking part in major NATO maritime exercises.

A video taken during the voyage can be seen below:

Thanks again to Lt Napier and the crew of HMS Example and the members of the Northumbrian Universities Royal Naval Unit for being excellent hosts (including providing tea & biscuits) and for answering all the questions – definitely fine ambassadors for the Royal Navy.