Sadie, of HMS Edinburgh

HMS Edinburgh visited her namesake earlier this week, for the last time before being decommissioned. I only realised this when I saw some sailor type folks wandering around town whilst on my bus ride home on Friday. So I missed their parade down the Royal Mile that day. Thankfully, we did make it for the ship's 'open day' this afternoon. I'm sure the kids had a fantastic time, especially getting to sit inside a Lynx helicopter.

For people of my generation, Type 42 destroyers such as HMS Edinburgh will always be synonymous with the Falklands war, listening to Ian McDonald on Radio 4, and the loss of HMS Sheffield. So me getting to actually visit such a vessel made me act like a little child again. An observation not lost on my wife, of course.

Every crew member was really friendly and I'm sure I could have taken a portrait of everyone on board the ship today if I wanted to. I like this one best even though the brass bell as a compositional device is perhaps a bit too obvious.