HMS ''Mersey'' is a of the British

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against F ...

. Named after the

River Mersey The River Mersey () is in North West England. Its name derives from Old English and means "boundary river", possibly referring to its having been a border between the ancient kingdoms of Mercia and Northumbria. For centuries it has formed part ...

, she is the fifth RN vessel to carry the name and the first to be named ''Mersey'' in 84 years. Various tenders were renamed ''Mersey'' during their service with Mersey Division Royal Naval Reserve (HMS ''Eaglet'') between the early 1950s and late 1970s. ''HMS Mersey'' was built by Vosper Thornycroft in

Southampton Southampton () is a port city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. It is located approximately south-west of London and west of Portsmouth. The city forms part of the South Hampshire built-up area, which also covers Po ...

, England to serve as a fishery protection vessel within the United Kingdom's waters along with her two

sister ship A sister ship is a ship of the same class or of virtually identical design to another ship. Such vessels share a nearly identical hull and superstructure layout, similar size, and roughly comparable features and equipment. They often share a ...

s and . All three were commissioned into service in 2003 to replace the five older s. She was commissioned into the Royal Navy on 28 November 2003. At that time, ''Mersey'' was not expected to commence duties until February 2004. ''Mersey'' was the last Royal Navy ship to be launched from Vosper Thornycroft at its Woolston

shipyard A shipyard, also called a dockyard or boatyard, is a place where ships are built and repaired. These can be yachts, military vessels, cruise liners or other cargo or passenger ships. Dockyards are sometimes more associated with maintenance a ...

; Jennie Reeve, wife of Rear-Admiral

Jonathon Reeve Rear Admiral Jonathon Reeve CB (born 1 October 1949) is a former Royal Navy officer who ended his naval career as Chief of Fleet Support. Naval career Educated at St Catharine's College, Cambridge, Reeve joined the Royal Navy in 1967 and speci ...

, Chief of Fleet Support, was the ship's sponsor.

Operational history

For the first thirteen years of operation, ''Mersey'' carried out fishery protection duties around the United Kingdom. In May 2012, ''Mersey'' became the first command of

Sarah Oakley Captain Sarah Ellen Oakley (born February 1973) is a British Royal Navy officer, currently serving as commanding officer of the Britannia Royal Naval College, Dartmouth. In the Iraq War, Oakley worked in oil platform protection. Her first c ...

. In October 2013, ''Mersey'' was dry docked in Falmouth. In January 2016, ''Mersey'' became the second River-class OPV to be deployed to the

Caribbean Sea The Caribbean Sea ( es, Mar Caribe; french: Mer des Caraïbes; ht, Lanmè Karayib; jam, Kiaribiyan Sii; nl, Caraïbische Zee; pap, Laman Karibe) is a sea of the Atlantic Ocean in the tropics of the Western Hemisphere. It is bounded by Mexico ...

following on from her sister ''Severn'' in 2015. In May 2016, ''Mersey'' was dry docked in

Martinique Martinique ( , ; gcf, label=Martinican Creole, Matinik or ; Kalinago: or ) is an island and an overseas department/region and single territorial collectivity of France. An integral part of the French Republic, Martinique is located in th ...

as part of her mid-deployment maintenance period. By July, ''Mersey'' had been relieved by and was deployed on migrant patrols in the Aegean via a port call in Gibraltar. ''Mersey'' returned to Portsmouth on 10 February 2017 after 13 months away to resume her fishery protection duties. On 3 January 2019, Defence Secretary, Gavin Williamson confirmed that HMS ''Mersey'' has been deployed to assist UK and French authorities with

illegal Illegal, or unlawful, typically describes something that is explicitly prohibited by law, or is otherwise forbidden by a state or other governing body. Illegal may also refer to: Law * Violation of law * Crime, the practice of breaking the ...

migrant crossings in the English Channel.

Exended service

On 24 April 2017, in a written answer to a question raised by Sir Nicholas Soames, Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Defence

Harriett Baldwin Harriett Mary Morison Baldwin (; born 2 May 1960) is a British Conservative Party politician serving as Member of Parliament (MP) for West Worcestershire since 2010. Prior to her parliamentary career, she worked for the investment bank JPMor ...

stated that ''Mersey'' would be decommissioned in 2019. In March 2018, Baldwin's successor

Guto Bebb Guto ap Owain Bebb (born 9 October 1968) is a Welsh politician and former business consultant who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Aberconwy from 2010 to 2019, having previously lost elections to the Welsh Assembly and the House of Comm ...

revealed that £12.7M had been allocated from the EU Exit Preparedness Fund to preserve the three Batch 1 ships, should they be needed to control and enforce UK waters and fisheries following the United Kingdom's withdrawal from the European Union. On 22 November 2018, Defence Secretary, Gavin Williamson, announced that three Batch 1 River-class ships would be retained in service and forward operated from their affiliated ports. However, the idea of forward basing the Batch 1s was reportedly later abandoned. The ships are now to be retained in service until around 2028. As of late 2023, ''Mersey'' was scheduled to begin a major refit.

Freedom of Borough

HMS ''Mersey'' was affiliated to the

Metropolitan Borough of Sefton The Metropolitan Borough of Sefton is a metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England. It was formed on Local Government Act 1972, 1 April 1974, by the amalgamation of the county boroughs of Bootle and Southport, the municipal borough of Crosby, ...

in 2003 and it was very fitting that in the year of the 80th anniverary of the

Battle of the Atlantic The Battle of the Atlantic, the longest continuous military campaign in World War II, ran from 1939 to the defeat of Nazi Germany in 1945, covering a major part of the naval history of World War II. At its core was the Allied naval blockade ...

that it was granted the Freedom of the

on 13 April 2023.. The Freedom of the Borough is the highest award the Council can bestow on a service unit and the Council resolution stated:

This Council wishes to place on record its high appreciation of, and the debt of gratitude of the Borough to HMS ''Mersey'' and in the light of the long and honourable association between the Borough of Sefton and the Royal Navy, resolves that the Honorary Freedom of the Borough of Sefton be conferred on HMS ''Mersey'' and that it be granted the right, privilege, honour and distinction of marching through the streets of the Borough on all ceremonial occasions with colours flying, bands playing, drums beating and bayonets fixed.

Citations

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Mersey River-class patrol vessels Ships built in Southampton 2003 ships Ships of the Fishery Protection Squadron of the United Kingdom