Hundreds of people took to the streets today to see HMS Pembroke and her crew return the Freedom of the town of Pembroke.

The HMS Pembroke has had freedom of her namesake town since 2006. As the 26-year-old Sandown Class mine hunter, is being decommissioned, that freedom was returned today.

The vessel sailed into Pembroke Dock where she berthed.

The crew of HMS Pembroke, accompanied by sea cadets from Tenby, Milford Haven and Fishguard, whose units are affiliated with HMS Pembroke, then paraded through the streets of Pembroke led by marching drums.

They were cheered on by locals and visitors who had stopped to watch the unique sight.

The parade concluded at Pembroke Castle where the Freedom of the Town of Pembroke was returned, and a decommissioning service held.

The crew of the Pembroke then met locals, dignitaries and the young sea cadets.

HMS Pembroke is a 52.5 metre mine counter-measures vessel (MCMV), which is stationed at HMNB Clyde.

She weighs 485 tonnes and has has travelled more than 2,500 nautical miles since she was first launched in 1997.

She is the eighth HMS Pembroke and has a crew around 40 men and women which includes highly trained mine warfare specialists and mine clearance divers, as well as engineers, officers and chefs.

Members of the ship’s company represent the Royal Navy in sports including rugby, football, badminton and hockey. Languages spoken aboard HMS Pembroke include English, German, French, Welsh and Spanish.

HMS Pembroke is part of the Royal Navy’s ongoing mission to keep the global sea lines of communication open for trade.

One of her most successful missions was the finding of a Russian mine from the First World War.

During the mission off the coast of Lithuania, she deployed a remote underwater vehicle to dive down and positively identify the object, before Royal Navy mine clearance divers took to the water to get rid of the 100-year-old ordnance.

The Royal Navy’s original HMS Pembroke was launched in 1665, before being lost in a collision 12 years later.

The fate of future vessels of the same name included being captured by the French in 1709, becoming shipwrecked off the West Indies in 1749 and being sold in 1905.

It is not known what will happen to the current HMS Pembroke after being decommissioned but it seems that she will not be replaced.

In 2021 it was announced that all mine countermeasures vessels in the Royal Navy would be retired during this decade and replaced by automated systems.

The Sandown Class ships are the first to be retired, with all of them to be withdrawn from service by 2025.

The Pembroke and the other Sandown Class vessels will be replaced with autonomous minehunting systems and specialized ‘motherships’ deployed by the Royal Fleet Auxiliary (RFA).