O F F I C I A L

From Lieutenant Commander S JWhiteRoyal Navy

/ Commanding Officer
HMS HURWORTH
MCM 2 Crew 5
BFPO 300
10September 15

Dear Affiliates and Friends,

I wrote to many of you in June 15 in order to introduce myself as the new Commanding Officer of HMS HURWORTH and I write again to update you on news of your Ship.

We have had a very busy couple of months spending June at sea initially conducting a Regeneration Assurance Visit with inspection staff from Flag Officer Sea Training’s organisation, to ensure we were safe to operate in UK waters. We then sailed to Plymouth to conduct Mine Counter Measures (MCM) operations in the South Coast enjoying some fantastic summer weather and gaining a great deal of training benefit. July was spent alongside in our base port, HMNB Portsmouth, where we undertook a 4 week maintenance period to ensure the sustainability of the hull ahead of a busy period at sea in the Autumn.

Some very well deserved leave was enjoyed with family and friends in August, and as I write we are back at sea conducting training in order to prepare us for an intense period of pre-deployment training in the Autumn which encompasses 2 weeks of Exercise JOINT WARRIOR immediately followed by the rigors of Operational Sea Training (OST). This will involve our ship working together with our sister ships within an exercise conflict scenario undertaking a range of maritime security taskingin order to test all our capabilities, from assisting other mariners, dealing with fires and floods onboard, to mine warfare and diving on exercise mine shapes.

However before that, we have the honour to represent the MCM community and wider Royal Navy at the Defence Security Exhibition International at the ExCel in London, joining other RN and foreign warships with expected visitor numbers exceeding 30,000 people.

It was great to welcome some of you onboard on Thursday 23 July 15 to look around the ship and also visit HMS VICTORY. I hope this is something we can organise again in December once we complete OST, however by that time I will have handed over Command to Lt Cdr James Baker and Crew 3, as we will be flying out to the Gulf and back to CHIDDINGFOLD, our sister ship which we sailed to the Gulf last Autumn.

Many thanks for your continued support and I look forward to hearing from you all soon.

Yours sincerely,

Steven White

O F F I C I A L