Lady Jennifer Blaker made a nostalgic visit to Portsmouth Naval Base to meet the crew of the minehunter HMS Middleton.

The 82-year-old widow of Lord Peter Blaker, who was defence minister during the Falklands War, toured the ship yesterday and said it was very different from her last visit.

She said: 'I am very grateful to have had the chance to come and see the ship again, I am overjoyed to see her and her ship's company.

'When I first saw her she was up on stilts in a yard on the Clyde in Scotland, and she seemed to swoop way above me.

'It was a very emotional day, I had my family there and she looked so futuristic.'

Lady Blaker, who travelled from near Haywards Heath in West Sussex, was shown around the seventh Hunt class minehunter by commanding officer, Lieutenant Commander Richard Goldstone.

He said: 'This was a state-of-the-art ship when it was launched, the biggest to be made of glass-reinforced plastic.

'It has been a pleasure to welcome Lady Blaker back to see us for the first time since 2001, at a time when we are preparing for a very challenging deployment.'

Middleton and her 47-strong crew will leave for the Gulf around February 16, to relieve HMS Atherstone.

The minehunter will spend three years working in the Gulf, and so she has had upgrades to cope with the desert sands and high temperatures.

Her ship's company is crew four of the minehunter squadron in Portsmouth, and a new crew will take over from them in six months' time.

Lt Cdr Goldstone said: 'Because of the amount of time it takes to get the ship there, and what she is asked to do, it makes sense to have the crew changeovers.

'We have been in refit and now we have better kit to deal with the conditions.

'We've got new filters and seals to prevent sand getting into the equipment, and we've installed cooling units so that the machinery doesn't overheat.

'The temperatures can reach 50 degrees so we've had to adapt a lot, but we've also aimed at improving the ship's performance with changes like the new paint on the hull - it means that organisms can't grow so well on it which means it can move through the water faster for longer.'