Name HMS Severn Commissioned 31 July 2003 Status in active service Launched 4 December 2002 Endurance 21 days 0 hours | Ordered April 2001 Length 80 m Draft 3.8 m Builder VT Group | |
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Class and type River-class patrol vessel | ||
The ninth and current HMS Severn is a River-class offshore patrol vessel of the British Royal Navy. Named after the River Severn, the ship is the first to bear the name in 56 years.
She was built by Vosper Thornycroft in Southampton to serve as fishery protection units within the United Kingdom's waters along with her two sister ships Mersey and Tyne. All three were commissioned into service in 2003 to replace the five older Island-class patrol vessels.
Service history
Severn was affiliated with the city of Newport in September 2003 and awarded the freedom of the city in June 2006.
In October 2014 it was announced that Severn would be the first River-class vessel to deploy overseas to take up the Atlantic Patrol Tasking (North), a task traditionally assigned to a frigate or destroyer. The ship returned to Portsmouth on 16 July 2015, having visited "all of the British Overseas Territories in the Caribbean - Turks and Caicos, British Virgin Islands, Montserrat, Anguilla and Grand Cayman."
In December 2015, acting on intelligence from the National Crime Agency and DNRED, the ship intercepted the MV Carib Palm off the south coast of the United Kingdom, and escorted the ship to Boulogne-sur-Mer, where it was searched by French customs, and 2.4 tonnes of cocaine were seized with a street value in excess of £350m.
