NAVY COMMANDING OFFICER RULES THE WAVES
MEET THE YOUNG MANC WHO IS COMMANDING ROYAL NAVY SHIP
LIEUTENANT Rebecca Anderson has only been in the Royal Navy for five years, but she’s already commanding a ship.
The HMS Biter commanding officer, 27, says such an opportunity so early in her career is both ‘unusual’ and ‘fantastic.’ But it has also posed a unique challenge she never could have predicted – how to train new recruits during the coronavirus pandemic.
“One of my main functions is to train the officers of the future at universities, my problem for that is that I can’t have them on board due to social-distancing guidelines,” Lt Anderson, from Manchester, said.
“Normally I would have up to 10 students about at a time when I’m on a transit to deliver navigational training.
“So we’re having to go virtual as a lot of the world is at the moment, trying to do that training on a virtual platform, social media and using video conferencing apps to achieve navigational training.”
The P2000 Archer Class Patrol Boat, along with HMS Charger and HMS Express, support University Royal Naval Units (URNUs).
The trio of vessels have been in Northern Ireland waters this week on a training operation which also saw them off the west coast of Scotland.
At just over 20 metres long, they are among the smallest vessels in the Navy’s fleet. At the start of the lockdown in March, they were in Wick on the north coast of Scotland and had to navigate around England to return to their base port of Liverpool.
“My five years makes me quite junior, but what this gives me a taste of command, it shows me what responsibility of a Royal Navy vessel is like,” Lt Anderson said. “It is on a smaller scale but the same principles are there, so everything I do on this ship is replicated on a mini scale to a frigate or a destroyer. It is a really good opportunity for a junior warfare officer to get some exposure in command so early on in their career. In terms of being a woman in command, a lot of progress has been made in the Navy particularly in terms of diversifying through the ranks. I am not the first by any stretch and I certainly won’t be the last. There are a lot of women coming through.
“My gender has never played a role in how I am received by my team.”
The coronavirus pandemic has thrown up plenty of logistical challenges on board HMS Biter – a ship where the naval commanders of the future are trained.
“The Caledonian Canal at the time was closed, and the prevailing weather during April meant I could not achieve a cross over the top so I had to go all the way round the country,” Lt Anderson, who hopes one day to complete a transit of the Manchester Ship Canal, said.
“So from Wick all the way down the east coast, down the bottom, stop in Portsmouth and then around to the west coast. It was a very long transit.
“This vessel has done 4,000 nautical miles this year alone which is quite spectacular for the size and range.”
HMS Biter is now set to return to the north west. “We have been at sea continuously since January so the guys are getting a well-deserved rest,” said Lt Anderson.