HMS ''Exploit'' is an (or P2000)

patrol A patrol is commonly a group of personnel, such as law enforcement officers, military personnel, or security personnel, that are assigned to monitor or secure a specific geographic area. Etymology The word "patrol" is derived from the Frenc ...

vessel of the

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. * British national identity, the characteristics of British people and culture ...

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the naval warfare force of the United Kingdom. It is a component of His Majesty's Naval Service, and its officers hold their commissions from the King of the United Kingdom, King. Although warships were used by Kingdom ...

, built in Woolston by Vosper Thornycroft and commissioned in 1988. She is assigned to the Royal Navy Coastal Forces Squadron, carrying out a range of activities both in the U.K. and overseas. The ship's company consists of a permanent staff of the commanding officer, two senior rates and two junior rates, but can take up to twelve students with training officers usually embarked when conducting navigational training. Whilst at sea, students are able to put into practice navigation and seamanship skills they have learnt in the classroom during weekly training nights. These include chart planning, acting as Officer of the Watch, using the ship's radar and carrying out seamanship evolutions from anchoring to securing alongside. Instruction is given in engineering, firefighting, damage control and ship handling. The ship is based in HMNB Portsmouth.

Operational history

Royal Naval Auxiliary Service

XSV ''Exploit'' was originally ordered for the now defunct Royal Naval Auxiliary Service (RNXS) and had a distinctive black hull like other RNXS vessels. On 19 March 1994, a serious machinery space fire occurred on ''Exploit'' approximately 30 miles off Lundy island as she was being transferred to Portsmouth from

Greenock Greenock (; ; , ) is a town in Inverclyde, Scotland, located in the west central Lowlands of Scotland. The town is the administrative centre of Inverclyde Council. It is a former burgh within the historic county of Renfrewshire, and forms ...

as part of the managed run down of the service by RNXS crew. The Padstow lifeboat and the RAF SAR Helicopter from Chivenor, were scrambled, and a tanker on route to

Milford Haven Milford Haven ( ) is a town and community (Wales), community in Pembrokeshire, Wales. It is on the north side of the Milford Haven Waterway, an estuary forming a natural harbour that has been used as a port since the Middle Ages. The town was ...

was diverted to help, but were not needed. The fire was later attributed to a major mechanical failure of the starboard main engine, resulting in a large hole in the

sump Sump may refer to: * An infiltration basin used to manage surface runoff water and recharge underground aquifers * Sump (cave), a permanently flooded section of a cave, where an underground flow of water exits the cave into the earth such that t ...

casing. The fire spread quickly to the air ducts, igniting various rubber coolant pipes causing thick acrid smoke.

Royal Navy

In June 2017, ''Exploit'', in company with HM Ships , and , deployed to the Baltic to take part in the

NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO ; , OTAN), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental organization, intergovernmental Transnationalism, transnational military alliance of 32 Member states of NATO, member s ...

BALTOPS exercise, the first time that Royal Navy P2000s have been involved in such an exercise. In the early 2020s, ''Exploit'', along with other ''Archer''-class vessels, was given a more operational role as part of the reconstituted Coastal Forces Squadron. In early 2024, ''Exploit'' and three of her sister ships deployed to northern Norway as part of the NATO exercise "Steadfast Defender".

Affiliations

* * * TS ''Blackcap'' -

Birkenhead Birkenhead () is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral, Merseyside, England. The town is on the Wirral Peninsula, along the west bank of the River Mersey, opposite Liverpool. It lies within the Historic counties of England, historic co ...

Sea Cadets * TS ''Minerva'' -

Rhondda Rhondda , or the Rhondda Valley ( ), is a former coalmining area in South Wales, historically in the county of Glamorgan. It takes its name from the River Rhondda, and embraces two valleys – the larger Rhondda Fawr valley (, 'large') and t ...

Sea Cadets * TS ''Sutton Coldfield'' -

Sutton Coldfield Sutton Coldfield or the Royal Town of Sutton Coldfield ( ), is a town and civil parish in the city of Birmingham, West Midlands County, West Midlands, England. The town lies around 8 miles northeast of Birmingham city centre, 9 miles south of L ...

Sea Cadets *

Hereford Cathedral School Hereford Cathedral School is a private, co-educational boarding and day school for pupils of ages 3 to 18 years, from nursery to sixth form. Its headmaster is a member of the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference. The school's premises a ...

CCF * The

University of Birmingham The University of Birmingham (informally Birmingham University) is a Public university, public research university in Birmingham, England. It received its royal charter in 1900 as a successor to Queen's College, Birmingham (founded in 1825 as ...

* 845 Naval Air Squadron * The town of

Berkeley Berkeley most often refers to: *Berkeley, California, a city in the United States **University of California, Berkeley, a public university in Berkeley, California *George Berkeley (1685–1753), Anglo-Irish philosopher Berkeley may also refer to ...

* Brownhills

Girl Guides Girl Guides (or Girl Scouts in the United States and some other countries) are organisations within the Scout Movement originally and largely still for girls and women only. The Girl Guides began in 1910 with the formation of Girlguiding, The ...

Walsall Walsall (, or ; locally ) is a market town and administrative centre of the Metropolitan Borough of Walsall, in the West Midlands (county), West Midlands, England. Historic counties of England, Historically part of Staffordshire, it is located ...

Notes

References

External links

* * Archer-class patrol vessels {{UK-mil-ship-stub