"Officially entered service": Ex-Royal Navy ship begins new adventure as Căpitan Constantin Dumitrescu
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A former Royal Navy ship has begun her new life and is starting a fresh adventure.
HMS Pembroke, now named Căpitan Constantin Dumitrescu, has officially entered the Romanian fleet after reaching Constanța Port. The Romanian Naval Forces issued a statement on social media that the Sandown-class minehunter has “officially entered service”.
They said: “The mine hunter M 271 ‘Captain Constantin Dumitrescu’ entered the Constan itana military port on Monday, November 3, for the first time since entering the service of the Romanian Naval Forces. The ship's crew executed a march of more than 4,200 nautical miles, and during the 41 days, it transited from the North Sea, the English Channel, the Gulf of Biscaya in the Atlantic Ocean, the Strait of Gibraltar, the Mediterranean Sea, the Marmara Sea, the Turkish Straits and the Black Sea.
“It officially entered service with the Romanian Navy on August 4 and carries a crew of 40, commanded by Commander Mădălina Drăgan-Ghigalău.”
British Royal Navy sailors intensively trained their Romanian counterparts in Scotland ahead of the voyage east. They were given the same tests which all UK warships and crew must pass before deploying on frontline operations.
The Romanians received bespoke high-intensity, scenario-based training, building up from the basics of safely operating at sea (navigating, coping with mock breakdowns, dealing with fires and flood) through to the core duty of finding and neutralising mines and full-scale naval combat.
Căpitan Constantin Dumitrescu will be joining the Black Sea Mine Countermeasures Task Group, a multinational imitative which collaborates with Bulgaria, Turkey, and - when conditions allow - Ukraine. It is designed to enhance maritime security by destroying naval mines in contested waters, something which is a growing threat to several nations.
Her sister ship, HMS Blyth, has also been sold to Romania. “The Black Sea continues to be a critical element in regional and international security architecture, and the challenges associated with this operational theatre have become increasingly complex,” the Romanian Navy added.
“Romania, as a river state on the Black Sea and an important member of NATO on the eastern flank, must adapt and modernize its Naval Forces to respond to new types of threats, including in terms of critical infrastructure protection.”