The British ship is engaged in rescue operations in the Mediterranean and has saved the lives of 377 migrants.

The news comes following an announcement that a British frigate is being deployed against people smugglers in the Mediterranean. HMS Richmond is to be sent to the coast of Libya to stop the human traffickers who are risking lives by taking refugees on the dangerous journey to Europe by sea.

HMS Enterprise previously contributed to a major rescue of 453 migrants in the Mediterranean at the start of the month. The vessel identified four small vessels and safely brought aboard the occupants. The people rescued were later transferred to the German frigate Schleswig Holstein and taken to the southern Italian port of Taranto. HMS Enterprise began operating in the area at the start of July when she replaced HMS Bulwark.

Defence Secretary Michael Fallon said:

“Once again, our Royal Navy has rescued a large number of migrants from the Mediterranean.

Our focus remains on smashing the criminal smuggling gangs who are putting innocent lives at risk. HMS Enterprise is well equipped for that task, as is the frigate HMS Richmond, which we have also now offered to the mission.”

HMS Enterprise, the tenth ship to bear this name, is a multi-role survey vessel of the Echo class. The vessel is normally tasked with conducting survey work in support of submarine and amphibious operations, however the class is also able to perform a mine countermeasures role.

George Allison
George has a degree in Cyber Security from Glasgow Caledonian University and has a keen interest in naval and cyber security matters and has appeared on national radio and television to discuss current events. George is on Twitter at @geoallison

47 COMMENTS

  1. Europe : the final frontier. These are the voyages of the HMS Enterprise. Its five-year mission: to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no migrants has gone before.

  2. Wow. What a lot of hate.

    To me this story is another reminder of the other half (probably more than half) of the work that our armed forces do. It isn’t all about blowing things up and shooting at people; many deployments are about building Ebola clinics, making food drops in disaster areas, saving people such as this, etc, etc.

    Well done RN. I’m proud to be a citizen of a country that still has the resources and expertise to do this sort of stuff and, despite some of the comments here, a country where I do believe that for the most part the people have the compassion to support such interventions.

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here