‘Back to the Roots’ for HMS Dauntless

The Portsmouth-based destroyer has spent the past week or so around the Firth of Clyde – first on the loch, then in the city of her birth for a visit to Glasgow.

The Glenmallan jetty – next to the Garelochhead-Arrochar road – has been used by Royal Navy and Royal Fleet Auxiliary ships for nearly two decades, loading and unloading bombs, missiles, shells and other ammunition (they’re stored in underground bunkers three miles away at the MOD’s Glen Douglas armaments depot).

Whilst alongside in Loch Long, many of Dauntless’ sailors seized the opportunity for some adventurous training: skiing, cycling and white-water rafting in some great scenery in Scotland.

Her business at Glenmallan complete, Dauntless sailed 34 miles down Loch Long and up the Clyde to Glasgow’s King George V Dock – roughly half-way between Govan and Scotstoun, where the destroyer was built and fitted out respectively.

The ship spent four days in the city and although she wasn’t open to the public, a hectic programme of private visits was lined up: students from several schools, and youngsters from a good half dozen Sea Cadet and Combined Cadet Force units, plus members of the Glaswegian branch of the Association of Wrens.

In addition, civic dignitaries and other guests were invited aboard for a demonstration of what Dauntless is capable.

For the first two months of the year have been taken up with Operational Sea Training – the demanding assessment which ensures all Royal Navy vessels are fit to deploy around the globe.

Having come through the rigours of OST off Plymouth, the training and exercises around the UK continue for Dauntless, beginning with the latest Joint Warrior war games which begin this week in western Scotland with more than 30 British and foreign warships.

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Press Release, March 24, 2014, Image: UK Navy