An eagle-eyed sentry aboard one of the most capable nuclear submarines in the Royal Navy saved the life of a stricken budgie in Devonport Naval Base.

The bright yellow bird was scooped from the water by LOM Jan Brennon, who was on duty on the casing of HMS Trenchant.

The bedraggled budgie was taken below to the Wardroom, where the boat’s officers took it under their wing.

Fed on bread and milk at the Wardroom table, the bird quickly recovered from its ordeal and was named Ed, after the not-so-tall Executive Officer of the submarine, Edward Ahlgren.

It was subsequently taken ashore, renamed Bobby, and is making a new life for itself at the home of Trenchant’s Deputy Marine Engineer Officer Lt Cdr Mark Prince, who said: “Ed is now keeping my wife company and is the perfect pet. She loves any bird or animal.”

Lt Dan Simmonds said: “It might seem a bit soft for any of us to look after a budgie when we’re running a Royal Navy nuclear submarine, but none of us wanted to see the little bird die.

“We looked after it in the wardroom, fed it and it gradually got its strength back.”

The crew decided they could not keep the budgie on board, as it would struggle to adapt to the lack of space and light and pressure changes with depth of water.

Trenchant is just starting a programme of sea trials following a ground-breaking refit which has set the standard for other submarines.

She is the fifth Trafalgar-class boat to be refitted by Devonport Management Ltd in the Plymouth naval base, but the first to undergo the new type of programme called Long Overhaul Period (Refuel), which included a new digital internal communications system, a nuclear reactor refuel, improvements to make her quieter underwater, and a new chilled water plant.

The programme, a partnership between DML, the Warship Support Agency and Royal Navy staff, aims to reduce costs by identifying and eliminating non-essential work which would traditionally have been carried out as part of the refit – a principle known as de-scoping.

Production Manager Phil Smith, of DML, said: “Although de-scoping removed a significant amount of traditional refit work, Trenchant’s refit remained a highly-complex and intensive work package.”

Around 17,000 items were worked on in the submarine, and more than 120 contractors involved.

Trenchant is now capable of fulfilling a wide range of tasks. She has the Navy’s most advanced sonar suite, allowing her to gather enormous volumes of information from her environment, detecting and tracking surface and sub-surface vessels without them being aware of her presence.

As well as wire-guided Spearfish torpedoes and Sub-Harpoon anti-ship missiles, she is now also fitted with Tomahawk Land Attack Missiles – TLAM cruise missiles – which allow her to influence events hundreds of miles inland, as demonstrated by other RN submarines during operations in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Her Commanding Officer, Cdr Jon White, said: We are looking forward to going to sea now and proving our new weapons system which makes Trenchant the most formidable platform in the Royal Navy.”