Former Royal Navy frigate HMS Scylla has embarked on the first stages of a new lease of life – as a sunken reef to create a wildlife habitat and for use by leisure divers.

The Leander-class ship, which was taken out of service in 1993, has been towed to Plymouth, where she will be prepared for her final trip – a short move west to Whitsand Bay, where she will be sunk to form an artificial reef.

The National Marine Aquarium at Plymouth took over the project from the Artificial Reef Consortium earlier this year, and is looking to finalise contracts for the preparation and cleaning-up of the ship in Plymouth. Work is expected to begin shortly, and she may be ready to be sunk by next April.

Scylla, pennant number F71, left her home for the past decade – Portsmouth Harbour – and arrived at her former home port of Devonport at the weekend. She was the last frigate to be built in the city.

Melanie Cowie, the National Marine Aquarium’s Communications Manager, said: “It is important that Scylla was towed to Plymouth prior to the winter weather closing in.

“Once contract negotiations with DML are complete, we anticipate the conversion work to start at the end of November.

“We hope to hold a special weekend event to allow those who are associated with Scylla to make a last visit prior to the commencement of the work programme.”

Details for this event will be published later.

The Aquarium’s Head of Education Kelvin Boot said: “This is a fantastic opportunity to watch a fascinating new habitat on the sea bed off Plymouth develop over the next few years.

“It will provide homes to a wealth of undersea wildlife. Cutting edge technology will enable us to show colonisation as it actually takes place.

“It will be the ultimate reality programme as characters move in and live out their lives.”

Scylla was launched in August 1968 and commissioned on February 2, 1970. She paid off ten years ago today.

She displaced 2,760 tons when fully loaded in service, and was a member of one of the Navy’s most significant class of major warships, born with the completion of prototype HMS Leander in 1963. The Leanders eventually went on to form the largest frigate class built in Britain since World War II.

Although officially described as a general purpose frigate – a role which frigates had been fulfilling from Nelson’s day – one of its main roles was as a fast anti-submarine platform.

Developed primarily from the Type 12 Rothesay-class frigates, the Leanders or Modified Type 12s had a high standard of accommodation for their time, and a relatively large flight deck operated a Westland Wasp helicopter, later replaced by early variants of the Lynx.

They had a complement of more than 260 sailors, 19 of them officers, and a total of 26 were built for the Royal Navy, with numerous other Leanders or Leander derivatives serving in overseas navies, including those of India, New Zealand, Australia, Chile and the Netherlands.

Scylla was one of the Batch 3 Leanders – a 'Broad Beam’ variant – and among her various deployments she saw action in the Cod Wars off Iceland during the 1970s. She was also prominent in the humanitarian operations following a hurricane at in the Caribbean.