HMS Monmouth, last year’s guard ship at the Port of Dartmouth Royal Regatta, has returned to the harbour for a well-earned stand down. The Type 23 frigate arrived around noon today, Friday, and will provide officer cadets from Britannia Royal Naval College with the opportunity to visit a running warship and gain a greater insight into the career and role they have chosen. The ship has been working with 825 Naval Air Squadron off the coast of Devon and Cornwall. The squadron stood up just 18 months ago taking on the Royal Navy’s latest helicopter addition, the Wildcat, which will soon replace the workhorse Lynx on many deployments. In total, three weeks of exercises with the Wildcat and HMS Monmouth are planned, while sister ship HMS Somerset will also play her part in putting the pilots through their paces as they get used to the new aircraft. HMS Monmouth has also recently taken part in exercises in Norway with a NATO task group. She is the seventh warship to bear the name. The frigate returned from a seven-month deployment to the Arabian Gulf deterring piracy and other illegal activities in 2013. She has since been in refit receiving a number of combat system and marine equipment upgrades and spent the summer months last year at sea conducting rigorous trials of her new capabilities. She is now regenerating towards future operations. HMS Monmouth last visited Dartmouth in August 2015 to act as the guard ship for the regatta. The ship is known informally as the ‘Black Duke’ after James Scott, the Duke of Monmouth who was beheaded at Tower Hill on July 15, 1685. In reference to this heritage, the ship is unique in the Royal Navy as the only ship to fly a black flag and have a black as opposed to red name plate. The ship’s crest contains the town’s mediaeval stone-gated bridge which is the only one of its type remaining in Britain. HMS Monmouth has more battle honours than any other serving warship. Coincidentally this weekend sees the 350th anniversary of the name Monmouth in the Royal Navy. An eight-gun yacht, Monmouth was commissioned on March 5, 1666, under the command of Captain Nicholas Hill. Little is known of the yacht’s later service, but in 1683 under Captain Grenville Collins, she was engaged in his great survey of the British coastline which resulted in the publication of his magnificent atlas, Great Britain’s Coasting Pilot. HMS Monmouth is set to leave the Dart to continue her tasking around 4pm on Monday.