Duke of Wellington visits HMS Iron Duke

The Duke of Wellington learnt all about HMS Iron Duke’s recent deployment to the Baltic during a visit to the ship today.

The Duke is the ninth Duke of Wellington and is affiliated to the type 23 frigate. With his wife ‘the Duchess of Wellington’ he was greeted by Commanding Officer, Commander Ben Aldous, and given a short briefing on Iron Duke’s recent deployment to northern Europe. 

This was followed by a tour of the ship which included the bridge, the operations room, ship control centre and the galley.  The guests had chance to learn about the role and capabilities of the vessel and to chat to crew members about life on board.

Commander Aldous, said:”I am honoured as the Commanding Officer to host a visit from the Duke of Wellington, the ship’s namesake.

"On his first visit to HMS Iron Duke it was a pleasure to introduce the Duke and his wife to members of the ship’s company and to provide them with an update on our recent NATO deployment to the Baltic and our forthcoming programme.”

HMS Iron Duke recently completed a successful six-month deployment of two halves with the first spent in the extreme cold and rough seas off Norway and the second in the calm seas of the Baltic.

The ship clocked up more than 22,500 nautical miles in her 180 days away, working alongside NATO allies in a series of exercises. Iron Duke took the lead role in a task group of enemy forces providing participants a realistic and complex threat to counter as part of the exercise.

The ship also demonstrated the UK’s commitment to NATO and its Baltic allies through a significant amount of defence engagement in the region.