His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales on board HMS Bulwark

Prince of Wales visits Devonport
First time as Commodore-in-Chief


The Prince of Wales toured HM Naval Base Devonport yesterday – his first in his new role as Commodore-in-Chief of the Royal Naval Command, Plymouth.

His visit included a Royal Navy warship, disaster training, newly-built accommodation, an alcohol free bar and a submarine refit centre run by contractor Devonport Management Limited.

The day began with his Royal Highness welcomed on board HMS Bulwark, one of the Royal Navy’s sophisticated two assault ships used to land Royal Marines and their equipment ashore. In July 2006 the ship was used to evacuate 1,300 UK registered citizens from Beirut to safety in Cyprus. During HRH’s tour he will visit the ship’s bridge where he met members of the ship’s company and presented Operation Telic medals to sailors following their deployment in Iraq last year.

His Royal Highness then visited the disaster exercise area used as a training site for ships’ companies to take part in humanitarian incidents. There he spoke to sailors from HMS Chatham while they underwent disaster relief training under the direction of Flag Officer Sea Training staff.

The disaster training area is a mocked-up village in the Naval Base that has been ‘devastated’ by a natural disaster such as a hurricane. Here sailors are taught how to treat injured and frightened villagers, put out fires, restore essential supplies and rescue people from collapsing buildings.

The ship’s company of HMS Chatham put her emergency response training into use for real in 2005 when the frigate was sent to Sri Lanka to help in the aftermath of the tsunami that hit the region on Boxing Day 2004.

Some of the major improvements being made to the living accommodation for the sailors who live on the base in HMS Drake were also shown to the royal visitor. The £500 million pound Armada Project is bringing modern, single-living, en-suite living accommodation as standard for all ranks within HMS Drake. The first building to be completed was the conversion of the Grade 2 listed drill shed into the Warrant Officers and Senior Rates Mess. HRH The Prince of Wales visited this building and previewed of some of the new a submarine-themed juice and Internet bar for the junior sailors.