State-of-the-art mine hunter HMS Shoreham will pay a short visit to Liverpool this weekend – and a number of her kind-hearted crew will also take to the city’s streets for the Santa Dash. The 600 tonne ship will berth alongside at the Cruise Liner Terminal on Friday (December 2) early afternoon and will leave on Monday (December 05). As well as hosting a number of local organisations and youth groups on board, a number of the crew will join with Merseyside locals to raise cash for charity on the 5k Santa Dash on Sunday (December 4). “This is quite a short visit for us,” said Shoreham’s Commanding Officer, Lieutenant Commander Sarah West. “But we are thoroughly looking forward to welcoming our invited groups on board and hope that our ship will be of great interest to them. “And, of course, I know that the crew is looking forward to using up a bit of energy and making a difference for charity when they don a Santa hat and head for the streets for this annual fun run.” Normally based at HM Naval Base Clyde in Scotland, HMS Shoreham is one of seven Sandown class mine hunters – five of the class make their ‘home’ at the Scottish base, while two others are on permanent deployment in the Gulf, with the ship’s crews rotating during each deployment. Built of glass reinforced plastic, the design ensures that the ship is extremely quiet and has a very low magnetic signature, essential when operating in a minefield. Equipped with the latest precise navigation and manoeuvring systems, which allow it to "hover" over a fixed point and search for mines with a variable depth sonar to depths in excess of 200 metres of water, Shoreham can also deploy her clearance divers or latest state of the art submersible to deal with mines or suspicious objects. She was launched by Lady Perowne on 9th April 2001 and was formally accepted into service on the 28th November 2001. She is the fifth vessel to carry the name. The crew are very proud of her three battle honours from World War II, Sicily and the Mediterranean in 1943 and Burma in 1944-5. | 
