Royal Navy warship, HMS Ramsey, has joined a NATO mine clearance taskforce in the Baltic Sea.
On a blustery May morning, HMS Ramsey slipped from her home port, HMNB Clyde to proceed northwards around Scotland and then across the North Sea to join with the NATO taskforce SNMCMG1 (Standing NATO Mine Counter-Measure Group 1); a standing taskforce dedicated to disposing of mines in the Baltic Sea.
The strong winds and rough seas rounding Cape Wrath did little to dampen the enthusiasm of HMS Ramsey’s ship’s company, for many of whom this would be their first taste of a NATO deployment.
Despite the poor weather, there was still an opportunity for the ship to show her teeth in a gunnery exercise, as AB(MW) C Fell (22) commented, “It was excellent being able to refresh our weapon skills in such challenging conditions”.
Five days later on a much milder evening, HMS Ramsey came alongside for her first stop in Copenhagen, Denmark so that she could resupply and refuel, also allowing her ship’s company to spend a short time exploring the delights of the Danish capital, which included watching the Crown Prince’s 50th Birthday celebrations.
ET(CIS) A Wetherell (24) said, “Copenhagen is a beautiful city full of friendly people; the ship’s company had a fantastic time!”.
A day after leaving Copenhagen, HMS Ramsey headed Eastward to meet up with her taskforce and rafted up overnight, where Commander Peter Ramboer, COMSNMCMG1, gave a warm welcome to the ship’s company.
On 30th May Ramsey got stuck into her first NATO exercise with gusto; a Mass Casualty Exercise where one of the taskforce simulates a collision with another, taking damage and multiple casualties for the taskforce to respond to.
Ramsey was one of the first responders sending her first aid team over to the stricken vessel and manoeuvring in close proximity to the rest of the taskforce, covering the simulated damaged ship.
The Taskforce doctor was impressed by HMS Ramsey’s professionalism, especially that of her medical personnel showing their skill and determination to administer life-saving treatment.
Not content with the intensive exercise in the morning, HMS Ramsey joined in with Officer of the Watch Manoeuvres; a serial where ships in a taskforce manoeuvre at speed in close proximity to each other, requiring skilful ship handling and seamanship.
