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As a fleet submarine, HMS Trenchant is one of the Navy's modern-day capital ships and is therefore particularly suitable to represent Admiral Harcourt's fleet of aircraft carriers, battleships and cruisers.
Admiral Harcourt was Hong Kong's first post-war Governor, remaining in the post until Sir Mark Young, who had been captured by the Japanese at the fall of Hong Kong in 1941, was well enough to return in Spring 1946.
HMS Trenchant is half-way through a seven-month deployment from the United Kingdom to the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific oceans. She is accompanied by the Royal Fleet Auxiliary support vessel Diligence.
The Royal Navy's ceremonial guard at the Liberation Parade, to be held at the Cenotaph on Monday (August 28), will be exclusively drawn from HMS Trenchant's 125-man ship's company. The salute will be taken by the Governor, the Rt Hon Christopher Patten.
HMS Trenchant entered service in 1989 as the fifth in the seven-ship Trafalgar Class of nuclear-powered fleet submarines. She is the first submarine in the Royal Navy to be fitted with Spearfish, a new generation of high-speed anti-submarine gas turbine-powered conventional torpedoes. She can also carry a number of other conventional torpedo-type weapon systems. HMS Trenchant is not equipped with nuclear weapons.
RFA Diligence is a veteran of both the Falklands Conflict in 1982 and the Gulf War in 1991. A 10,765-tonne forward repair ship, she spends much of her time supporting British warships patrolling in Falkland Islands waters, from where she has been detached to provide back-up services for HMS Trenchant during her current deployment.
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HMS Trenchant will berth alongside RFA Diligence in the Outer Harbour. The two ships will sail on Wednesday (August 30).
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