HMS Shoreham (M112): From the Persian Gulf to the Ukrainian Navy

The Last of Her Class

HMS Shoreham was the last of the Sandown-class minehunters to be built, accepted into Royal Navy service on 28 November 2001 and commissioned on 20 July 2002 in her namesake town of Shoreham-by-Sea, a fitting hometown ceremony for a ship built to protect the shipping lanes that towns like it depend on.

Three Years in the Gulf

In 2012, Shoreham deployed to the Persian Gulf to join the 9th Mine Countermeasures Squadron based at HMS Jufair in Bahrain, spending three years on the demanding, unglamorous work of keeping vital shipping lanes clear of mines before returning to Faslane on 28 August 2015.

Refit, Then Back to the Gulf

A 2016 refit at Rosyth Dockyard brought hull repairs, a new galley and system upgrades, and Shoreham returned to service in January 2017, deploying that spring with NATO Mine Countermeasures Group 1 around Northern Europe. From 2018 to 2021 she returned to 9 Mine Countermeasures Squadron in the Gulf once again, coming home to the UK in August 2021 after a further extended overseas commitment.

A Farewell, and a Remarkable Second Act

In May 2022, Shoreham made a final visit to her namesake port before decommissioning, closing out two decades of Royal Navy service. But her working life was far from over: by September 2022 she was operating under the Ukrainian name Cherkasy while training Ukrainian sailors, and on 2 July 2023 she was officially commissioned into the Ukrainian Navy's Minesweeper Division in a ceremony in Glasgow, a striking and consequential transfer given the war Ukraine was fighting at the time.

Still Preparing for Duty

As of April 2024, the former HMS Shoreham was based at HMNB Portsmouth preparing for NATO exercises under her new flag, a genuinely unusual and significant continuation for a ship that began her career sweeping mines for Britain and now does the same work for an ally fighting for its survival.