French Navy support ship BSAM Rhone to visit Portsmouth after Nato polar artic mission - when, times

BSAM Rhone will be travelling from St Helens to the North Corner Jetty West tomorrow morning (September 2). According to the King’s Harbour Master shipping movements, she will sail past The Round Tower in Old Portsmouth - alongside a tug escort - just after 10am.

The city has been known to welcome international naval vessels in the past. Italian aircraft carrier Giuseppe Garibaldi and other ships belonging to UK allies visited the naval base in February before being part of Exercise Steadfast Defender - the largest Nato exercise since The Cold War. The last French visitor was FNS Acquitaine, who arrived in Portsmouth in May. Onlookers watched on to see the frigate leave the city.

BSAM Rhone entered the service of the French navy in November 2017 alongside the FREMM frigate Bretagne. She is among four Loire-class support vessels which are often tasked with rescue missions, environmental protection tasks and work in military ports. They also support larger warships on other tasks. BSAM Rhone was previously used to patrol the Boulogne-sur-Mer to stop migrants crossing from France to England.

In July, she joined Danish and Icelandic navies to complete search and rescue manoeuvres at sea. The 2,960 tonne vessel worked alongside the most powerful icebreaker in the Nato zone Le Commandant Charcot, Danish ship HDMS Triton and Icelandic coastguard vessel ICGV Þór.

Captain Patrick Marchesseau, involved in the mission, told the Polar Journal: “We actually carried out an ice extraction manoeuvre for the first time in order to free another blocked vessel. It’s a very tricky manoeuvre, because you have to get close enough to the ship to open up a channel, without compressing it or squeezing it further by pushing chunks of ice towards it as you pass, or even colliding with the vessel. You need to have perfect control over the power and manoeuvrability of your vessel.”