"I served as a Royal Navy Lieutenant on HMS Monmouth and it’s a sad day to see her being scrapped”

Richard Whalley, who served as a Lieutenant on HMS Monmouth, said it was a sad to see the ship recycled but it was a fitting end for her. The Type 23 frigate left Portsmouth on April 3, bound for a Turkish scrapyard to be disposed of after serving in the fleet for 28 years.

Mr Whalley, currently of the Head of Exports and Sales team at Defence, Equipment & Support (DE&S), said: “It is always a sad day when you see a ship that was a significant part of your life heading for disposal but I am happy at least that the sale of HMS Monmouth for recycling in Turkey will provide an ethical and responsible method of recovering metals and other valuable assets which provides a financial return for the Royal Navy. A fitting end for a ship that has served the nation well.”

After sailing around the world visiting far-flung locations, HMS Monmouth was retired from the Royal Navy fleet as she was beyond her intended lifespan. Repairs for the Duke-class frigate were considered uneconomical, time-consuming and too costly for her to remain in service. She was put up for tender for recycling only.

The DE&S team specialise in the responsible disposal of vehicles, vessels and equipment no longer needed by the Armed Forces, and wanted to see HMS Monmouth disposed of in an environmentally sound manner. Ship recycling company Leyal Gemi Sokum Sanayi Ve Ticaret Ltd Sti won the bidding after the frigate was put up for auction alongside other vessels including HMS Bristol, HMS Walney and HMS Montrose.

What is the history of HMS Monmouth?

Originally commissioned in 1993 as a Cold War submarine hunter, HMS Monmouth was nicknamed the “Black Duke”. During her service, HMS Monmouth helped to provide humanitarian aid during the Sierra Leone Civil War and hunted pirates off the Somalian coast.

She was deployed across the world including the Antarctic, a circumnavigation across the globe, the Persian Gulf and the Indian Ocean. She was briefly used as a harbour training ship but her last major deployment was in 2018 when she accompanied HMS Queen Elizabeth to the USA. HMS Monmouth was taken out of service on June, 30, 2021, after being stripped of her weapons and sensors.

A total of 16 Type 23 frigates were commissioned between 1989 and 2002. Eight new City-class Type 26 frigates, primarily designed to deal with Anti-submarine warfare are being produced as their replacements. Five general purpose Inspiration-class Type 31 frigates are also be constructed, but it will take a number of years for the first of both of these classes of ship to be commissioned into the fleet.