'Incredible strength' of Royal Navy sailors praised by captain of HMS Diamond as ship returns to Portsmouth for Christmas

HMS Diamond made her triumphant return to Portsmouth Naval Base today having completed her stint bodyguarding the Royal Navy’s £3.2bn flagship, HMS Queen Elizabeth on her maiden voyage.

But the journey has been far from smooth sailing for the £1bn destroyer, which was faced with a disastrous engine failure in July and the difficulties of the coronavirus pandemic.

The breakdown left the ship stranded at an Italian port for weeks while engineers raced to replace its faulty gas turbine.

Commander Matthew Marriott, Diamond’s captain, insisted the breakdown had ‘absolutely no impact’ on the warship’s global mission, with the ship later continuing on her furthest voyage ever, travelling to the South China Sea and joining drills with other nations’ navies.

Speaking to The News, the proud officer said: ‘The deployment has been full of challenges: of weather, of disease, of equipment - but my team have met every single one square on.

‘There have been a huge number of people around the world who have doubted that we can achieve what we have achieved and every single time we have proven them wrong.

‘That is absolutely the quality of a Royal Navy sailor: never ever to back down, never ever to give up - to keep on delivering for the nation even where there are challenges that are ahead.’

As previously reported, about 30 engineers from BAE Systems were scrambled to help replace the broken engine and get the ship back to sea in a matter of weeks.

Cdr Marriott added the feat was a monumental achievement, one he felt few navies could have pulled off.

‘It is an incredible strength of the Royal Navy that we were able to change that gas turbine deployed,’ he added.

‘There are only two nations in the world that can do that, us and the Americans. And for us to do that at such short notice when it’s never ever been done outside of the UK before I regard as an incredible achievement and a real demonstration that we’re able to sustain our navy around the world.’

Diamond was part of a nine-ship task force touted as being Europe’s mightiest naval flotilla.

In October the ship joined a large-scale warfare drill off the Malay Peninsula called exercise Bersama Gold.

Earlier, the Type 45 took part in Operation Shader - the codename for the battle against Islamic State terrorists.

Her deployment took Diamond further east – and south – than ever before in her 10-year career.

However, due to the pandemic, shore leave in many countries were curtailed. It left sailors spending more time on the ship and in their cabins, with morale taking a hit among some of the crew.

To keep spirits high, sailors staged darts nights and social events on the flight deck – as well as opening up their own ‘Club Diamond’ nightclub in the ship’s hangar.

Lieutenant Commander Tom Leonard, the ship’s second in command, was full of admiration for the crew.

The 37-year-old from Fareham said: ‘Our biggest challenge overall was keeping morale up over Covid.

‘The ship’s company has stuck together and worked damn hard. I’m really proud of what they have managed to achieve...They are bloody strong and damn good sailors.’

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