Survey ship HMS Echo became the first Royal Navy vessel in ‘the gateway of India’ in five years when she sailed into the metropolis that is Mumbai.
Echo enjoyed a seven-day break from her protracted east of Suez deployment.
It allowed a change of some crew (the ship regularly rotates around one third of her sailors to sustain her mission away from the UK) and a chance to sample one of the great cities of the world.
As befits Mumbai’s status it is one of the Indian Navy’s principal naval bases and it fell to the crew of the guided missile frigate INS Godavari – similar in size to the UK’s Type 23 frigates – to host Echo throughout her week in Mumbai.
