One of the Royal Navy’s most-advanced warships, HMS Dauntless, has been awarded the Freedom of the Borough of Great Yarmouth to honour the town’s naval heritage.
To mark the award – the highest the borough can make – members of the crew and guests joined an open-top bus tour of Great Yarmouth before a ceremony at the Town Hall to officially present the Freedom of the Borough.
The Type 45 air defence destroyer has been affiliated with Great Yarmouth since she joined the Fleet in 2010 after being built at Govan on the Clyde in Scotland.
HMS Dauntless, which cost more than £1bn to build, is the second ship of the Daring Class and is one of the Royal Navy’s six Type 45 destroyers – which are among the most advanced warships ever constructed.
Marine Engineer Officer Lieutenant Commander Lyndsay Oldridge MBE said: ‘’HMS Dauntless recently completed an eight-month deployment – including visits to Australia and Japan – and transited through some of the most dangerous and contested waters in the world projecting stability wherever she sailed.
‘’However, behind every sailor stands a network of families, friends and supporters whose strength sustains us through long periods away from home, and now we are proud to include Great Yarmouth among those who stand with us.’’
Members of her crew visited the town on Thursday, April 23, and HMS Dauntless was officially awarded the Freedom of the Borough at a special meeting of Great Yarmouth Borough Council.
Following the meeting, the crew joined guests and members of the council for a formal presentation at the Town Hall where the Mayor of the Borough of Great Yarmouth, Councillor Carl Annison, spoke about why the award was so important.
Councillor Annison said: ‘’It is an enormous honour for Great Yarmouth to be affiliated with one of the Royal Navy’s most important ships.
‘’Great Yarmouth has a long and proud tradition of being associated with the Royal Navy, and Admiral Lord Nelson in particular. He visited the town and was enthusiastically welcomed by huge crowds.
‘’During his visit Nelson was granted the Freedom of the Borough so it seems entirely appropriate to, once again, make a similar award to one of the Royal Navy’s most modern ships.
‘’We were delighted to welcome the crew and it is a privilege for us to be able to grant the Freedom of Borough and show our support for the vital work HMS Dauntless and the Royal Navy carries out on behalf of the United Kingdom.’’
HMS Dauntless is noted for her versatility and, outside of her air defence role, she has the ability to carry out a huge range of war-fighting and other roles – from counter-narcotics boarding operations, acting as a task group flagship or providing humanitarian aid and disaster relief.
Equipped with the Sea Viper anti-air missile system, she defends her fellow ships from enemy attack and was the first of the Daring Class of vessels to fire the missile, which travels in excess of the speed of the sound.
Great Yarmouth’s links to the Royal Navy and Lord Nelson include the formation of a special fleet in 1801 to threaten the Baltic states which had recently formed into an ‘Armed Neutrality of the North’ and placed an embargo on British ships.
Nelson was the second-in-command of the fleet that left Yarmouth for Denmark, resulting in the Battle of Copenhagen on April 2, 1801. It was the second of Nelson’s three great victories and the most hard-fought. Following the battle, Nelson returned to the town, landing on July 1, 1801.
After Nelson’s death at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805, a pillar was built in Great Yarmouth in his memory. The Nelson Monument was completed in 1819 and pre-dates London’s Trafalgar Square column by more than 20 years.
A well-attended service is held every year at the Great Yarmouth Nelson Monument to mark Trafalgar Day.
