HMS Daring Bound for International Fleet Review in Australia

Royal Navy Type 45 destroyer HMS Daring is on her way to join the Royal Australian Navy’s 100th anniversary (RAN100) celebrations in Sydney on October 4. The Royal Australian International Fleet Review is a celebration of the centenary of the first entry of the Royal Australian Navy fleet into Sydney in 1913.

More than 40 warships and 16 tall ships, plus 8000 naval personnel from 19 nations are due to attend from October 3 – 11.

Commanding Officer of HMS Daring, Commander Angus Essenhigh said:

“HMS Daring is the first of the Type 45 destroyers to make the journey to Australia, it is a privilege and an honour to be representing the Royal Navy at RAN100 and we are looking forward to it immensely.”

HMS Daring sailed from Portsmouth in May for a nine-month global deployment which has so far seen her stop at Puerto Rico, sail through the Panama Canal, visit San Diego, Pearl Harbour in Hawaii, and Kwajalein in the Marshall islands as part of her regional engagement with partner nations.

Daring has also taken part in several training exercises with Royal Fleet Auxiliary Wave Knight, which is deployed in the Caribbean, with gunnery serials and helicopter drills using her onboard Lynx Mark 8 helicopter.

Members of the ship’s company had also gone on board the RFA to deliver chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear and damage control training.

The Type-45 destroyer is the first in her class to have passed through one of the world’s busiest chokepoints – the Panama Canal – and operate in the Pacific.

Starting at 6.30am in mid-June, Daring began the 44-mile transit by first negotiating the Gatun Locks, passing through three chambers to climb to 26m above sea level and then entering Gatun Lake.

Officer of the Watch Lieutenant Becca Brown said:

“I was privileged to be able to stand in for the Navigator for part of the transit and drove the ship through a section of Gatun Lake and the famous Culebra Cut; it was an amazing experience which will be a highlight of my career for a long time to come.”

And Leading Physical Trainer Si Radford, whose job also includes driving the ship from the bridge, said:

“It is an immense achievement for me, last year I was at the helm taking Daring through the Suez Canal for the first time and now I can say I was the first to drive a Type 45 through the Panama Canal.”

Daring then followed up her ‘firsts’ with a Replenishment at Sea with the US Naval Ship Henry J Kaiser providing her with fuel – the first non-UK ship to do so during the deployment.

Her arrival in San Diego saw her provide the perfect platform to commemorate the 70th Anniversary of the Battle of the Atlantic and host a number of trade delegations organised by the UK Department for Trade and Industry.

Commemorations continued at Pearl Harbour in Oahu, Hawaii where 100 members of the ship’s company attended the USS Arizona Memorial for a private ceremony to pay their respects to 1177 officers and crewmen who died during the attack on the harbour in 1941.

[mappress]
Press Release, September 27, 2013; Image: Royal Navy