Bells, bouquets, pomp and ceremony have all featured in a frenetic opening to 2004 for HMS Monmouth, now on her way to the Caribbean.

Earlier this month the Type 23 frigate rededicated, sailed to Cardiff, her crew visited her namesake town, and she then set off across the Atlantic for a six-month tour of duty.

Monmouth, which takes the historic nickname the Black Duke, spent 15 months out of the front line undergoing an extensive refit at Rosyth in Scotland to overhaul her combat and communications equipment, have a new new 4.5in ‘Kryten’ gun fitted – it takes its unofficial name from the angular-headed android in the BBC Red Dwarf sitcom – and receive a flight deck and hangar conversion so she can operate a Merlin helicopter.

Ship’s sponsor Lady Eaton, who launched Monmouth in 1991, led dignitaries at the rededication ceremony in Devonport, alongside civic leaders from the Welsh town of Monmouth, and the ship’s affiliated RAF and Army units – 70 Sqn and the Queen’s Dragoon’s Guards.

Within hours of the ceremony, the Black Duke was at sea and skirting Land’s End, heading for the Welsh capital so that members of her ship’s company could travel on to land-locked Monmouth itself and receive the freedom of the town from Mayor, Cllr Susan White, followed by a church service.

“The rededication ceremony officially saw the ship become an integral part of the Fleet again,” said Monmouth’s Commanding Officer, Cdr Guy Haywood.

“We’re extremely honoured to have been given the freedom of Monmouth. It’s a mark of the strong relationship which exists between the town and the ship, and one I hope continues for a long time to come.”

With the ceremonies over, it was down to the serious business of a major deployment as the frigate weighed anchor and headed west after a brief spell back in the West Country.

Monmouth takes over drug-busting duties from Type 42 destroyer HMS Manchester, which returned to the UK just before Christmas.

During her spell in the role of Atlantic Patrol Task North – APT(N) – alongside tanker RFA Wave Knight, which stayed out in the Caribbean region over Christmas, the frigate will help foster links between two Plymouths – the historic naval centre in Devon and its namesake more than 3,000 miles to the west in Tobago.

The ship will ferry a replacement bell to worshippers at the church of St Francis Bon Accord in Tobago.

Retired vicar Rev Peter Willis, who lived and worked in Tobago before returning to Devon, heard the Tobagonians’ plea and spread the word around Plymouth.

The result, thanks to the efforts of Plymouth’s churchgoing community, is the donation of a bell from the old church of St Boniface in Devonport.

The building was pulled down to make way for redevelopment and a new one put up elsewhere in Devonport, but the bell from the old tower was saved and restored.

“It means a lot to us all and underlines the strong links between the two countries, especially with the Naval tradition in Devonport,” said Rev Willis.

The gesture is not unique – in the 1960s frigate HMS Ursa carried a bell to Tobago from Crownhill in Plymouth.