Charybdis guard ship sinks Iraqi navy vessel

THE vessel that acted as guard ship for last year's Charybdis memorial weekend has reportedly sunk an enemy vessel during a battle with the Iraqi Navy in The Gulf. HMS Chatham was said to be undamaged.

The Devonport-based warship had been guarding the key port of Umm Qasr in southern Iraq.

On Friday it bombarded enemy positions on the Al Faw peninsula to support an assault by the Royal Marines.

The type 22 frigate has since prevented three Iraqi vessels leaving Basra and entering The Gulf.

In October, HMS Chatham made its first visit to Guernsey for the annual Charybdis weekend but rough sea prevented its armed guard from disembarking for the service at the Foulon Cemetery.

Commanding officer Michael Cochrane was awarded an operational OBE in July.

He is a direct descendant of a captain in Lord Nelson's Navy. He first visited Guernsey in 1978 aboard a yacht from the Royal Naval College, Dartmouth, while on navigation training. Since then, he has made four or five visits to Guernsey where, he said, the waters provide the 'stiff end of the test'.

While in Guernsey, he said the crew was working up to deployment to the Indian Ocean and on to The Gulf for January.

'I'll leave it up to you to work out why we are going,' he said.

Three weeks before its visit to Guernsey, HMS Chatham had returned from the Eastern Mediterranean where it had served as the Navy's flagship in a multinational force engaged in operations against international terrorism.

This year sees the 60th anniversary of the sinking of HMS Charybdis, for which the Royal Navy will be providing an escort at the memorial weekend for probably the last time.

(Picture - HMS Chatham in the Little Russel last year. The vessel is reported to have sunk an Iraqi naval vessel in The Gulf.)