"Her Majesty's Ship" or "His Majesty's Ship", depending on whether there is a king or queen at the head of British government. All ships in the British Royal Navy have this before their name, hence the name of this ship HMS Severn.

HMS Severn is is the second of three River Class Offshore Patrol Vessels (OPVs) to come into service, and along with sister ships, HM Ships Tyne and Mersey makes up the majority of the Fishery Protection Squadron of the Royal Navy. These OPVs are taking over from the Island Class. HMS Severn was built in Woolston Docks, Southampton and is based at HM Naval Base Portsmouth. HMS Severn is the ninth Royal Naval vessel to bear this name. The last HMS Severn was a Vickers built submarine launched in 1934. Her wartime service started in the South Atlantic before transferring in 1940 for the Norwegian Campaign during which she sank the SS Monark, then deploying to Nova Scotia as convoy escort. The 'boat' was called the 'Lucky Severn' and the ship's company hope to inherit their great fortune!

The three Offshore Patrol Vessels (OPV) are employed in the Fishery Protection role primarily, with the capacity to operate in other areas. The Fishery Protection Role includes undertaking patrols in English, Welsh and Northern Ireland waters enforcing UK and EU fisheries legislation. Two man teams conduct boardings of fishing vessels inspecting net sizes, weight of catches, fish sizes, composure of catches and the vessel's logbook and licence.

In operational terms, one of the major innovations is a large working cargo deck that allows the ships to be equipped with specific facilities for a particular role, such as disaster relief, anti-pollution, fire fighting, rescue work or interception of other vessels. A heavy crane with capacity for 25 tonnes is therefore fitted to handle standard containers.

These are a series of pictures that I took over the last few days whilst the ship was in Barry Docks.