Helicopter carrier HMS Ocean sails from Devonport today to relieve HMS Illustrious in the Middle East.

Servicemen and women are to be rewarded for their "tireless work as a force for good" with an inflation-busting pay rise of at least 3.7 per cent - with some getting more than four per cent.

One of Russia's most senior admirals has taken the unusual step of writing personally to each member of a Royal Navy Search and Rescue (SAR) helicopter crew to thank them for saving the life of a Russian sailor last October.

HMS Exeter is back home in Portsmouth - more than a month after she was due to finish her deployment.

A Royal Marine who showed "outstanding courage" in disposing of a live mortar shell on the remote island of St Helena has been awarded a commendation from the Second Sea Lord.

A Royal Navy Sea King pilot, on exchange to the Royal Australian Navy RAN, saved the lives of four firefighters by accurately dumping 1,500 litres of water on a 40ft wall of fire, writes Graham Davis, assistant editor Australian Navy News.

The jungles of Central America are a far cry from the genteel surroundings of Dartmouth - but that was the chosen destination of a group of adventurers from Britannia Royal Naval College, writes Lt Cdr Paul Rowland.

Royal Marines who were among the first British servicemen into Afghanistan have returned home to the UK after five month on duty.

HIDDEN in the cold depths of the Baltic close to the port of Tallinn are tons of deadly high explosives.

As one Devonport ship reached the end of her active life, another set off for the start of her first deployment.

HMS Coventry has formally left Royal Navy service following a ceremony at her home port of Devonport.

Destroyer HMS Southampton and Royal Fleet Auxiliary Diligence have been involved in a mercy mission in the Arabian Sea.

December 1941 was a black period in World War II. The December attacks on Pearl Harbour, and the loss of HM ships Prince of Wales and Repulse are all well-documented.

A former Royal Marines drum major has been reunited with his special mace almost 40 years after he loaned it to a Boy Scout troop.

The Ministry of Defence is to hold two public meetings to explain plans to open up a decommissioned nuclear submarine to visitors.

The composition of the International Security Assistance Force (IFAS) to be deployed in Afghanistan has been determined at a meeting in London.

Memories have come flooding back in recent months for former sailors who served in HMS Diamond.

Royal Marines of 40 Commando are being withdrawn from Kabul as the drive to stabilise and re-integrate Afghanistan into the world community gathers speed.

Type 23 frigate HMS Norfolk leaves Devonport next week for a six-month deployment with other NATO ships in the Standing Naval Force Atlantic (SNFL).

WILDLIFE is thriving beside the nuclear submarines at Clyde Naval Base - and some of the colonies of birds have confounded the experts.

The last of the 16 Type 23 frigates to join the Royal Navy is looking forward to a year which will see her commissioned into the Service.

The Ministry of Defence has set out its thoughts on defence acquisition in the latest of a new series of policy papers.

Devonport frigate HMS Argyll has won a prestigious award for raising the public profile of the ship and the Royal Navy.

SAILORS from veteran survey ship HMS Beagle helped save the lives of hundreds of hysterical refugees when their overcrowded ship broke down and started to sink in stormy Mediterranean seas.

Railway track and sleepers from the notorious wartime Burma Railway have been offloaded from a Royal Navy frigate in preparation for their inclusion in a new national monument.

The death of their son was a traumatic blow for the parents of Lt Dave Paton - but they were determined to find a positive way to commemorate the young officer's life.

The last World War I Royal Navy pilot, Conrad Philip Bristow, has died just a fortnight short of his 102nd birthday.

Wartime plans to construct an aircraft carrier out of ice left one Navy News reader bemused - but the tale is true.

On September 3, 1939, the Royal Navy had 58 submarines - about the same as Germany. A dozen - Ls and Hs - were decidedly dated, but construction of the handy 950-ton S-class and powerful 1,580-ton T-class was proceeding apace, and the little 735-ton Us, originally unarmed as 'clockwork mice', were each being given four torpedo tubes (six initially, then reduced) and a 3in or 12pdr gun.

The Commander of British Forces in Sierra Leone has praised the positive impact of HMS Montrose on the war-torn West African state.