HMS Starling (P241): A Farewell Gift as Hong Kong Changed Hands

Built for the Colony's Waters

HMS Starling was the third of five Peacock-class patrol vessels built by Hall, Russell and Company, commissioned into Royal Navy service between 1983 and 1984 and purpose-built for one specific job: patrolling the waters of Hong Kong as part of the Royal Navy's Hong Kong Squadron.

Policing Smugglers and Illegal Immigration

Starling and her sister ships spent their careers working closely with local authorities to stem the constant flow of illegal immigrants, narcotics and electronic equipment into the colony, unglamorous but genuinely essential maritime policing work in one of the busiest and most complex stretches of water anywhere in the world.

The Last Ships to Leave

As Britain's ninety-nine-year lease over the New Territories drew to its close, most of the Hong Kong Squadron's vessels were withdrawn or reassigned, but Starling, along with her sisters HMS Peacock and HMS Plover, remained on station right up until 1997, continuing their patrol duties through the final, historically charged years before the handover to China.

A Gift to the Philippines

When Hong Kong was formally ceded back to China on 1 July 1997, all three remaining Peacock-class vessels were sold to the Philippines as a gesture of goodwill, officially transferred to the Philippine Navy on 1 August that year. Starling was redesignated BRP Artemio Ricarte, continuing her working life patrolling entirely different waters under a new flag, a fitting continuation for a small ship that had spent her whole Royal Navy career doing precisely this kind of unglamorous, essential coastal work.