People-to-people contacts foremost as Royal Navy Destroyer visits Barbados
When HMS Dauntless, a Royal Navy Destroyer, visited Barbados last week, its packed programme of formal and informal activities mostly focused on relationships across the generations.
HMS Dauntless has deployed to the Caribbean Sea to counter drug smugglers alongside the US Coast Guard and to provide support and reassurance during the hurricane season from June to November.
Delighted to honour one of the remaining veterans of WW2, the Commanding Officer, Commander Ben Dorrington visited Ena Collymore-Woodstock OBE, a 106-year-old former radar operator in the Auxiliary Territorial Service. Collymore-Woodstock, a former magistrate in Jamaica now resident in Barbados with her daughter and family, was pleased to meet later generations of the military led by Commander Dorrington, Chaplain Rev Janice Honey-Morgan and Petty Officer Corrine Adams, Underwater Warfare Specialist.
The British High Commission facilitated a group of youngsters from the Ann Hill School, accompanied by teachers Shane Grant and Tony Husbands, to have a sensory tour on board HMS Dauntless. The students were able to practise fire-fighting skills, sit in Dauntless’ Wildcat helicopter and imagine controlling the warship from the Captain’s chair on the Bridge.
The Caribbean Youth Environment Network (CYEN) arranged for one group of sailors to join them in a beach clean-up at Skeete’s Bay, St Philip, where locals thanked them for their service. CYEN will analyse the largely plastic flotsam and jetsam collected – from shoes to lollipop sticks and toothbrushes – as part of vital research to help inform efforts to tackle marine pollution, especially from plastics.
A team of keen naval footballers also kicked off against the Barbados Defence Force (BDF) in a tightly fought contest. The Barbados team won 1-0.
On the more formal side, members of government, the BDF, the consular and diplomatic corps, and the business community were treated to a sunset flag-lowering ceremony on the ship’s flight deck, having enjoyed traditional naval hospitality. The British High Commissioner, Scott Furssedonn-Wood joined Commander Dorrington to take the salute.
Military relations between the Royal Navy and the BDF remain strong and warm, with fruitful exchanges between the ship’s CO and Commander Mark Peterson, Acting Chief of Staff.
HMS Dauntless was in Barbados from October 17 to 20 before leaving as Hurricane Tammy approached the Windward and Leeward Islands, to offer support to those territories.
(PR)
