Early December, 2022
Two Navies Visit
Armada de Republica Dominicana
Two ships from the navy of the Dominican Republic were here just before Thanksgiving. This was apparently a courtesy call. It was easy to spot the young midshipmen (and women), dressed in their crisp white uniforms, in the bars close to the piers in Old San Juan.
One ship, the P 301, the Almirante Didiez Burgos, is the flagship of the navy. She was originally the United States Coast Guard Buttonwood, an ocean going buoy tender. The Buttonwood, commissioned in 1943, saw service in the Pacific (Guadalcanal, New Guinea, the Philippines and Australia, among other places). The vessel was transferred to the Dominican Republic in 2001. She is now used for transport, humanitarian assistance and training.
The sailing ship, a three masted barquentine, is the Juan Bautista Cambiaso. Originally built in Bulgaria as the Royal Helana, she was acquired by the Dominican Republic in 2018. She is quite small, with a length of 54 meters (about 175 feet) and a beam of 8 meters (26 feet). She can carry up to 37 midshipmen for multiday cruises.
The ships were attractive at night, with bright lights along the deck and in the rigging.
The Royal Navy
The Dominican Navy was here for three nights. Shortly after they left, a ship from the Royal Nay came into port.
This was a very different port call. The ship, the P223, the HMS Medway, docked not in Old San Juan but rather along the Pan American Pier, towards the San Juan Marina.
The Medway is an off-shore patrol vessel. Launched on August 23, 2017, and commissioned on September 19, 2019, she is about 200 feet long with a beam of 43 feet. She displaces 2,000 tons and is armed with a 30 mm gun, four machine guns, and two miniguns.
Her first assignment was to escort a Russian cruiser through the English Channel. In January, 2020, she was assigned to the Royal Navy’s Atlantic Patrol Task (North), which is based in the Caribbean. She performs disaster relief duties as necessary and tracks and intercepts illicit trafficking.
In October 2022, the Medway, working with the United States Coast Guard, seized cocaine worth an estimated 24 million pounds sterling, captured three drug runners, and destroyed their boat. The image below was taken during that encounter.
Perhaps the Medway was here so her officers and crew could work with Coast Guard officers and sailors to continue collaborative efforts against illicit drug trafficking.
Notes and Sources
The ship images are mine. I downloaded the last image, of the burning vessel, from the web, specifically http://www.portsmouth.co.uk/news/defence/portsmouth-royal-navy-warship-hms-medway-seizes-ps24m-of-cocaine-and-then-blows-up-smugglers-boat-3897867. Follow that link to see the copyright information.
I used Wikipedia articles about the Dominican Navy and the HMS Medway for information.