Royal Navy delivers vaccines on the far side of the world

Following a four-year absence, the Royal Navy returns to the Pitcairn Islands to deliver boosters and patrol a marine protected area as part of a renewed UK presence in the Asia Pacific. (all images UK MOD Crown copyright 2021).

HMS SPEY has visited the remote Pitcairn Islands to deliver Covid-19 vaccines and patrol the unique marine habitat to protect the area against illegal fishing. The islands – home to around 50 people – are one of Britain’s most isolated Overseas Territories.

The ship carried enough COVID-19 jabs to offer a booster to every eligible person on the islands, most of whom are double vaccinated. A Royal Navy nurse administered a vaccine to every islander wanting one. Meanwhile, a dental team on-board provided treatment to islanders who, due to the border closures, had not seen a dentist in over two years.

The UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO), in collaboration with Crown Agents, has organised dispatches of vaccines to all the inhabited UK Overseas Territories. Now well underway, this booster campaign extends as far as remote communities in Pitcairn, Tristan da Cunha (south Atlantic Ocean) and the British Antarctic Territory.

“Ensuring the vaccines reach HMS Spey so it can administer Covid boosters was a crucial mission for us,” said Bryan Richmond, Covid Response Lead at Crown Agents, which is a not-for-profit international development organisation which provides logistical expertise and manages programmes for governments and multilateral organisations.

“We know that Pitcairn reopens for tourism again in March for a much needed economic boost, and the island can only do so without jeopardising the health of its small community, which has limited access to health infrastructure, its closest neighbour Tahiti being 2,170 kilometres away.”

The Pitcairn Islands are surrounded by one of the world’s largest Marine Protected Areas (MPA), established by the UK in 2015, and home to an array of unique marine life, including pristine coral reefs.

HMS Spey conducted patrols in the waters around the islands to deter and defend against illegal fishing, in partnership with the UK’s satellite monitoring programme run by the Marine Management Organisation. The MPA is inhabited by a number of threatened species, including

humpback whales, green turtles and seabirds such as the Henderson Petrel.

“This activity demonstrates how the permanent deployment of Royal Navy ships to the Indo-Pacific can support British citizens wherever in the world they may be, including the most remote of our Overseas Territories,” said UK Armed Forces Minister James Heappey.

“HMS Spey is helping to uphold and defend the Marine Protected Area through her patrols, and I was proud to see our servicemen and women delivering Covid booster jabs in Pitcairn, just as they have done thousands of miles away in the UK.”

Minister for Asia Amanda Milling added that she is “proud of the role the FCDO and wider UK Government have taken in supporting the Overseas Territories through the pandemic, from establishing new testing facilities, shipping vaccines, ensuring nobody ran out of PPE, and much more.”

During patrols, HMS Spey gathered water data across the Marine Protected Area to help inform the UK’s understanding of the impacts of climate change. Scientific data is limited and rarely captured in the area due to the territory’s remoteness.

HMS Spey visited all four islands in the Pitcairn chain – Henderson, Ducie and Oneo, plus the eponymous main isle. Only Pitcairn itself is inhabited, with sailors meeting members of the community, giving tours of the vessel and briefing on its capabilities and mission.

“Pitcairn’s origin as a UK overseas territory is intertwined with our naval history, and we are delighted the Royal Navy has visited our community in Pitcairn again and supported the roll-out of booster shots,” said Alasdair Hamilton, Deputy Governor to the Pitcairn Islands. “This not only signals the UK’s commitment to the region, but is also an important milestone in Pitcairn beginning to open up to the rest of the world.”

“The ship conducted patrols across the islands and the information gathered will be vital in protecting Pitcairn’s rich marine biodiversity and supporting global efforts to protect our precious oceans.”

“I’m so pleased that HMS SPEY can support this distant UK Overseas Territory – one of the most remote island communities in the world – particularly when COVID has severely restricted normal supply routines,” said Lieutenant Commander Bridget Macnae, HMS Spey’s Executive Officer.

“We hope our support demonstrates the UK’s commitment to the Pitcairn Islanders and also how engaged we are in important issues such as climate change and environmental surveying.”

Providing permanent presence HMS Spey is deployed to the IndoPacific along with sister vessel HMS Tamar for five years. They bring a permanent Royal Navy presence to a part of the world key to the UK’s interests for the first time since the handover of Hong Kong in 1997.

The sister ships are the last of five in the River-class, which is at the forefront of the Royal Navy’s programme of deploying its vessels for several years at a time in key strategic regions of the globe. Of the remaining vessels in the class, HMS Forth patrols around the Falklands and South Atlantic, HMS Medway is part of the UK naval task group in the Caribbean and HMS Trent conducts security patrols of the Mediterranean and off West Africa.

The Spey and Tamar are among the most environmentally friendly ships in the Royal Navy. Each boasts a urea filter capable of reducing nitrogen oxide emissions from diesel generators by 90 percent.

The selective catalytic reduction system breaks down harmful emissions and converts them into simple diatomic nitrogen and water. This makes the vessels ‘IMO Tier 3 Compliant’ – giving them freedom of manoeuvre in all emission control areas, and hence full global reach.

HMS Spey is the first ship to visit the Pitcairn Islands since the start of the COVID pandemic, and the first Royal Navy vessel to call at the islands since HMS Montrose on New Year’s Eve 2018.

The deployment of the two Royal Navy warships follows the deployment of the aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth, which recently spent several months working alongside the UK’s allies and partners in the region.

On 21 January 2022, Spey was deployed to Tonga as relief aid due to the 2022 Hunga Tonga eruption and tsunami, delivering 30,000 litres of bottled water, medical supplies and sanitation and baby care products.

Last of a new batch HMS Spey is one of five offshore patrol (Batch 2) vessels, based on the River-class design, and built over seven years at an average price of £127 million each (including support) in Scotland by BAE Systems. According to BAE Systems, the vessels are designed to deploy globally, conducting anti-piracy, counterterrorism, and anti-smuggling tasks previously conducted by frigates and destroyers.

As with her sisters, HMS Spey was built at BAE’s facility at Govan, then moved down the Clyde to their Scotstoun yard for fitting out.

Constructing the vessels directly supported 1,700 jobs in Scotland and a further 2,300 jobs around the UK in the supply chain. Importantly, the programme helped maintain key shipbuilding skills ahead of work on the first Type 26 frigates on the Clyde.

“As she’s the final ship in the class, Spey has benefited from many of the lessons learned building and testing Forth, Medway, Trent and Tamar,” said Commanding Officer Lieutenant Commander Ben Evans at the ship’s naming ceremony. “They have blazed a trail for us, so I’d like to think of HMS Spey as last – but best.”

Spey was formally named on 3 October 2019. She takes her name from Scotland’s third longest river, and her motto of ‘Mack sicker’ (‘make sure’) can be traced back to Robert the Bruce and his comrades more than 700 years ago. The Royal Navy has been using the name since 1814, with the most recent predecessor sold to Brazil in 1998.

She began contractor sea trials in September 2020 and was handed over to the Royal Navy in Portsmouth on 7 January 2021. On 18 June 2021, she was commissioned into the Royal Navy at her affiliated town, Invergordon.

In late spring 2021, Spey received her distinctive retro World War era ‘Dazzle’ camouflage in Falmouth, and on 7 September 2021, Spey and sister Tamar departed Portsmouth to be forward deployed to the Indo-Pacific region for a minimum of five years.

Name HMS Spey

Pennant Number Class and type Displacement Length Beam P234 Batch 2 River-class patrol vessel 2,000 tonnes 90.5 13m

Draught Speed 3.8m 25kn (46 km/h)

Range

5,500 nmi (10,200 km) Endurance 35 days Boats & landing craft Two rigid hull inflatable boats (RHIBs) Capacity 70 Complement 34 Armament 1 × 30 mm DS30B gun

Aircraft carried 4 × General purpose machine guns 2 × Miniguns Merlin capable flight deck