Royal Navy Pays a Visit to Pitcairn, the UK's Sole Pacific Territory

Unlike the French, the United Kingdom has for the most part given up what used to be its empire, retaining only a ceremonial role in the governance of most its former colonies. However, the UK still has direct control of a small number of overseas territories, sufficiently spread around the world for US military planners to be able to usually find a small British-owned island somewhere close by should a crisis arise, and from which operations can be supported.

One such speck of red in the middle of nowhere is the island of Pitcairn, deep in the southern Pacific Ocean. Pitcairn is still inhabited by descendants of Royal Navy mutineers who deserted from HMS Bounty in 1789. But historical antagonisms appear to have been put aside by descendants of the mutineers during a visit in early April by the offshore patrol vessel HMS Tamar (P233).

HMS Tamar conducted fishery protection patrols across the Pitcairn 325nm-wide sea area, which includes outlying unpopulated Henderson Island, Oeno, Dulcie and Sandy Island. The embarked Diving & Threat Exploitation Group on board HMS Tamar also neutralized a large quantity of unstable ammonium nitrate on Pitcairn Island. With their disposal task completed, the embarked team is now available for mine clearance tasks elsewhere.

HMS Tamar is a River Class Batch 2 offshore patrol vessel built by BAE Systems on the Clyde in Scotland. The type has been sold to Brazil, Bahrain and Thailand, where armed with a 76mm gun it has been active in maritime disputes with Cambodia. Unlike some other vessels in the Royal Navy beset with maintenance issues, the River Class have proven to be remarkably reliable, to the extent that they can be double-crewed to increase their time at sea.

The principal criticism of the Batch 2 ships is that for very little extra money the hulls could have supported a hangar to have a helicopter permanently on board plus further weapons systems, including the 76 mm gun with which Thai ships are equipped. HMS Tamar and her sister ship HMS Spey (P224) are permanently based in the Indo-Pacific, and are home-ported at the UK Fleet Support Base in Singapore.