HMS Ledbury, the Port of Dartmouth Royal Regatta guard ship, arrived in the harbour this morning.

She is a Hunt-class mine countermeasures vessel of the Royal Navy. She was launched on December 1979 and commissioned on 11 June 1981, the second ship of her class. She cost £65m at time of building, which was at the time the most expensive cost-per-metre for any class of ship built by the Royal Navy. Most of this cost went into the research and development of Ledbury’s glass reinforced plastic hull.

She is attached to the Second Mine Countermeasures Squadron, based in Portsmouth.

Pictures courtesy of Colin McCrae and Olly Spencer