Last days of HMS York

SHE’S circumnavigated the globe 30 times and visited countless ports from the Falklands to Suez, but last week HMS York slipped her moorings for the last time in Yorkshire as dusk fell over a silent King George’s Dock in Hull.

It’s a sad farewell in more ways than one. Losing a ship with affiliations to a city is always a wrench, but this will be the ultimate wrench. HMS York has reached the end of her working life and now she has gone; probably the last naval ship to bear the name.

We’ve given her a royal send off mind. The ship docked at Hull for a five day visit to the region which included the crew’s final freedom parade through York. The Lord Mayor called that a sad day for the whole city. Commander Rex Cox says Thursday, when the ship is decommissioned, will be a sad day for the whole crew.

“It’s obviously a poignant occasion saying goodbye to a ship,” he says. “You do grow very attached to them but it’s the people, the ship’s company that have made this a very special ship and I strongly believe I have the best company any captain could hope for.”

HMS York may be 140 metres long and cuts an impressive dash, but inside it is surprisingly cramped and there are plenty of obstacles to trip over. Most of the doors are like portholes, designed to be sealed if the ship is hit and takes on water. And that makes walking around more like a hurdling course.

But to Warrant Officer Clive Mason, HMS York is the lap of luxury. Clive has spent most of his career at sea cooped up as a submariner; now he has his own cabin.

And while Cdr Cox may be in overall charge, the day to day running of the ship is down to Clive.

“We have an outline programme for the week to make sure we have the right people in the right place at the right time to achieve what the captain requires,” he says.

But on a warship even the most fastidious plans are best guesses. The alarm could sound at any time and then it’s back to the drawing board. This is precisely what happened last year.

“We had just deployed on an Atlantic patrol to the Falklands and the night before we got to our first stop there was a call from HQ saying turn round, go to Gibraltar and take on ammunition, food and humanitarian aid.”

Everyone was summoned to the briefing room to be told a civil war had broken out in Libya.

“We didn’t know what to expect, we’d seen stuff on the news but information was pretty lax at the time. We just knew we would potentially be going in on the gunline.”

But when the ship reached Benghazi, the role changed again. The crew was told to evacuate civilians during the opening stages of the war.

“We went in at action stations, the highest possible level, with Royal Marines positioned around the ship,” says Clive. “They then cleared the jetty and we started bringing people aboard.”

After this small detour HMS York went back on patrol to the Falklands for another six months, but when it got back to the UK, the Libyan conflict was still at its height.

“We were told to relieve HMS Liverpool and we needed to turn the ship round very quickly, and then go through our work up phase,” says Clive. “It was really intense with long days and hard work. It was a frustrating time.

“But it’s a case of deal with it, get on with it and you know at the end you’ll get some time back.” That was especially hard for some of the ship’s company who had been at sea with barely a break for two years.

Then the news came through that Gaddafi had been shot. The crew was told to stand down, they wouldn’t be needed; return to base.

“It was a deflating moment, we’d got to that level of let’s go and do what we’ve joined up to do,” says Clive. “Trying to re-motivate the ship’s company was challenging.”

And keeping them disciplined. Clive says shouting doesn’t help, it didn’t work for him and he prefers to take on the role of a disappointed dad. “I find I get more response by taking someone in the office, shutting the door and calmly saying you know you’ve done wrong.”

But living in such confined conditions with 260 fellow sailors and just a curtain around your bunk for privacy must surely take a singular sort of person.

“I think it’s got to be. Having support from your superiors is important as is having someone to talk to, which is where my job comes in to it.”

It’s the usual stuff; missing home, girlfriend or boyfriend problems; normal domestic strife, but thousands of miles away.

“They need to be able to talk and find somewhere to cry. Get away from their shipmates, maybe on the upper deck, then compose themselves and get back to work.”

Being away from wives and families is another cause of distress, but Clive says he finds the best way is not to think of home; it’s a distraction if he has to worry about home life as well as work.

“That might not sound particularly nice but you have to be able to separate yourself; you have to be able to switch.

“At sea it’s a big family and we know how each other works. We all look out for each other and that’s important because there’s no one else doing it for you.”

While in service HMS York’s primary role was to defend carriers from airborne attack, but policing the seas and flying the flag were just as important.

“People forget just because we’re out of sight we’re not out of mind,” says Cdr Cox. “The Royal Navy conducts operations all over the world including counter piracy, hurricane relief, counter narcotics, or just being there and maintaining a presence.”

Just ask Able Seaman Aaron Harris. HMS York is his second ship and although only aged 20, Aaron has already been in the thick of things.

A warfare specialist, his job is to man one of the radars in the operations room. And not always looking for enemy ships.

“I was involved once in a drugs bust. We were on deployment to the Falklands and we received an intelligence report that a yacht was carrying cocaine. I spotted it on the radar and we escorted it in to Cape Verde.

“There we discovered it had £4million of cocaine on board which was on its way to the UK. That was a really good feeling.”

Lieutenant Commander Ian Kiff, the ship’s weapon engineer officer, says the current HMS York is the 12th to carry the name. The first, a 52-gun frigate, was launched in 1654 and all have won battle honours except the eighth York, which after only a few years service was lost in 1804 with all 600 crew.

It was wrecked on Bell Rock in Scotland and her loss caused demands for the Lighthouse Board to take action. The Board agreed and Parliament granted permission for the construction of Bell Rock Lighthouse in 1806.

We may have seen the last HMS York but the Royal Navy’s close ties with the city will remain. After decommission, Ian says the civic affiliation will pass to new Type 45 destroyer HMS Dragon.

But her real home town is Cardiff and for York that’s not quite the same as having your own named ship, is it?

“Marching through York for the last time was an electric feeling,” says Cdr Cox.

“The welcome still overwhelms us every time we come back and I hope the people of York will take Dragon to their hearts as they have done with us.

“Just because there isn’t an HMS York now doesn’t mean there won’t be one in the future.”

Let’s hope he’s right.