HMS QUORN - Defending Britain's Interests Worldwide

M C Allibon, Lieutenant Commander Royal Navy Commanding Officer HMS QUORN

As I sadly come to the end of my time in command of HMS QUORN, and only just having discovered the existence of this village magazine! I thought some of the readers may be a little interested to hear what their affiliated Ship has been up to for the past year.

It has been a pretty hectic time for QUORN since I took over command from Lieutenant Commander Martin Jones last August. Two weeks after joining we deployed on ARGONAUT 99 which involved us being part of a UK Amphibious Readiness Group on task in the Mediterranean and the Black Sea throughout the Autumn. We started the deployment with Exercise NORTHERN LIGHTS off the West Coast of France, which was particularly successful for us as we found and recovered more mines than any other NATO unit. Visits to Lorient, Malaga and Augusta followed as we made our way east to Alexandria in Egypt for Exercise BRIGHT STAR. Sadly by this stage the Ship was suffering from some major defects and we had to stay alongside for the majority of the exercise while both our main engines were exchanged (no mean feat with Egyptian crane drivers). After Egypt we sailed through the Dardanelles and the Bosphorous to visit Varna in Bulgaria and Constanta in Romania, taking part in Partnership for Peace exercises with their respective Navies. After Romania we started making our way home via Istanbul, Pireaus, the Corinth Canal, Malta and Gibraltar arriving back in Portsmouth on 14 December having covered 8671 miles and completed 11 visits. By then we were certainly ready for Christmas leave and some time with our families!

So far, this year has been just as busy for the Ship. January and most of February was spent alongside in our home port, Portsmouth, completing some much needed maintenance and catching up with many of our affiliations. We were lucky enough to visit the Hunt, call on Mr Graham Perkins, the then Chairman of the County Council, and attend TS VENOMOUS'Annual Inspection. Back to sea in late February we were tasked for OPERATION PIKE off the West Coast of Scotland. This involved us running out of Faslane and Campbeltown practising mine hunting, diving and conducting trials on potential modifications to our equipment. We also managed to-squeeze in a weekend in Ayr!

We arrived back in Portsmouth late March and were able to return some of the hospitality we had received earlier in the year onboard the Ship. The day after Easter leave we sailed for Vigo in Spain to prepare for Exercise LINKED SEAS. The first part of the exercise was conducted working up off the west coast of Spain before we sailed to Porto Santo, an island north east of Madeira, in order to ensure the beach approaches were clear of exercise mines before an amphibious landing. After the exercise we were lucky enough to have a few days recovery time in Madeira!

An uncomfortable passage to Stockholm followed this, the weather not being on our side at all. I'm sure you can remember how windy Bank Holiday weekend was and sadly we were passing through the Channel at the same time (Yes the Captain does suffer from sea sickness!). After an interesting passage through the Kiel Canal we finally arrived in Stockholm, some 11 days after leaving Madeira. An extremely successful visit, the Ship's Company certainly found the Swedes very friendly! Sadly, the Wardroom and I seemed to spend most of our time in briefings and preparing for our current exercise.

As I write this we are off the Danish island of Bornholm having just started Exercise US BALTOPS. This is a Partnership for Peace exercise involving the navies of USA, Germany, Denmark, Poland, Estonia, Latvia, Finland, France, Sweden and Lithuania. This mixture certainly makes for some challenging and entertaining co-ordination problems!

We are due to complete this in mid-June when we passage through the Kattegat and Skagerrak, across the North Sea and round the top of the UK to Oban. Here we start our involvement in the RN's "Meet Your Navy" programme, also visiting Belfast, Larne and Avonmouth. I suspect some of you will have seen coverage of this in either local or national press. Further taking conducting underwater survey operations along the South Coast follows this, with the Ship finally returning to Portsmouth during the last week of July, completing another full 3 months away.

Sadly for me, it is during our visit to Oban that I hand over command to Lt Comdr. Jason Scott. Jason is a former QUORN Ops Officer and I know he is very excited about coming back to the Ship as Captain. The programme is generally UK based after Summer Leave and the Ship is very keen to visit and strengthen the connection with the village later this year. Perhaps a Football or Cricket match (with a social event afterwards) may provide a suitable excuse for all of us to get together. Any ideas gratefully received.

I hope this short article has given some of you an idea of what your Ship gets up to when she disappears over the horizon. We have been particularly lucky with the programme over this period but it has sadly not provided us with the opportunity to visit. I hope this can soon be remedied.