I saw a ship go sailing by

At 1.15pm today, Sunday April 19, my phone rang. It was my mate Kim from Beer. He asked “Harry, what’s that huge ship doing off Lyme Regis?” I was asleep on a lovely – unfortunately too quiet – afternoon on the lawn with the sun blazing down. “Ship,” I said , what ship?“ I sat up and – wow! – there was this very big ship just the other side of the High Wall.

I took out the glasses and saw it was HMS Dauntless, a Type 45 Destroyer.

This would not be the place for any hopefuls to be heading in a small rubber dingy from France. There’s one large gun situated up at the bow and that’s all the armoury on show which must mean the ship is bristling with missiles that we can’t see.

Oh dear, if this were normal times, having a ship this close to the harbour would have meant trips round HMS Dauntless for the whole afternoon. As it is, there’s not a single vessel going out to take a look and grab a few photos.

Come back next year, please HMS Dauntless. You would be very good for business with Harry May’s Lyme Regis mackerel fishing trips and Lyme Regis deep sea fishing trips from Lyme Regis Harbour.