Two Sandown-class minehunters are to leave Portsmouth today to relieve sister ships Sandown and Bangor in the Gulf.

HM ships Ramsey and Shoreham have been carrying out final preparations before their passage through the Mediterranean, Suez Canal and Red Sea – a considerable trip for ships of 480 tons.

The pair are designed to hunt out individual mines using highly-effective sonar, which can spot a mine at well over 100 metres.

Using the camera and sonar on a remote control submersible, known as the Yellow Submarine, the mine can be identified and disposed of by the submersible itself – which can lay an explosive charge – or by a clearance diver from the ship.

Earlier this week HMS Ramsey hosted a party of journalists to explain the capabilities of the ships and their Yellow Submarines, and it was quite a squeeze on board as the press party just about matched the ship’s company of just under 40.

For Shoreham, the last of the Sandown class, the deployment to the Gulf is the culmination of several months of hard work.

Since her acceptance into the Fleet, she has undergone trials and training in all conditions, including foul weather off the north of Scotland.

The ship made early efforts to develop links with her affiliated town of Shoreham-by-Sea in Sussex, and visited other ports at home and abroad, including Bayonne in France and St Peter Port in Guernsey, where the ship’s company undertook their first themed run ashore, a 70s night trawl round the bars of the town.

While in Bayonne the ship was open to visitors, and Shoreham’s football team notched their first win in a match against the host naval base.

A number of the ship’s company took advantage of the good weather to relax on the beaches or head for the snows of the Pyrenees.

The ship’s Commanding Officer at the time, Lt Cdr Tom Guy, hosted town dignitaries on board for lunch.

More recently the ship has hosted a Russian and an American admiral – the latter, Rear Admiral P.J. Ryan, being Commander Mine Warfare US Navy – and Navy veterans from the Royal Naval Association.

She was formally commissioned last July in Shoreham, welcoming around 2,000 people on board during the port’s Open Day and carrying family members of the ship’s company back to Portsmouth.

Operational sea training and a Joint Maritime Course in Scotland helped bring her up to operational readiness for this, her first taste of minehunting under the most exacting conditions of all – off the coast of a country at war – under her new Commanding Officer, Lt Cdr Mark Honnoraty.