If you spent any time in Cardiff Bay today you didn’t exactly have to be eagle-eyed to notice an impressively huge ship docked at Britannia Quay. The HMS Severn - affiliated to Newport but which is primarily based in Portsmouth - will be at the quay from today (Monday, May 30) throughout the bank holiday season as a celebration of the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee.
Photographers gathered at Cardiff Bay on Monday morning to witness the vessel docking as a gathered crowd waved it in. Footage shared on the Severn’s official social media pages showed it being escorted into Roath Basin, navigating a couple of tight squeezes before docking next to the Wild Water Group cold storage facility.
The ship has been advertising tickets to board it and has a tour over the bank holiday weekend. Although tickets have sold out to board the ship, it is well worth paying a visit to see it from the bay. You can get more Cardiff news and other story updates by subscribing to our newsletters here.
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The naval ship, first commissioned in 2003, has served in the protection of Britain’s fishing waters and prevention of illicit trafficking among other things. Named after the Severn river it measures a huge 79.5 metres in length and spends 2,700 hours at sea a year on average.
While the Severn was decommissioned in 2017, six months later the Ministry of Defence announced that it would be upgraded ready for recommissioning should it be required to enforce Brexit rules at UK waters and fishing zones. The Severn returned to official operations in the summer of 2020. You can read more stories about Cardiff here.
