Fate of retired Royal Navy ship HMS Montrose revealed with frigate set for 'dismantling' at Turkish scrapyard
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The Type 23 frigate was towed out of Portsmouth recently for the final time
The future of a retired Royal Navy ship has been confirmed after she was brought out of Portsmouth for the last time.
HMS Montrose, retired in 2023, was towed out of HMNB Portsmouth on July 15. Unconfirmed reports circulated that she was going to be scrapped, following on from other vessels such as HMS Monmouth.
The Royal Navy has now confirmed the fate of the Type 23 frigate and where she will be going. A spokesperson said: “The decommissioned Type 23 frigate HMS Montrose was awarded to the Turkish firm Leyal Ship Recycling (Leyal Gemi Sokum) for dismantling.
“Following the Ministry of Defence’s competitive tendering process, the warship departed Portsmouth under tow in mid-July 2026 to be recycled at the company’s facility in Aliaga, Turkey.”
The Duke-class warship was seen in a deteriorating condition was she was taken past The Round Tower in Old Portsmouth. Much of her hull was rusted, she has been stripped of various parts, and her F236 pennant number had worn away.
The Duke-class vessel was in a similar state to her sister ship HMS Northumberland, which was brought into Portsmouth Naval Base on May 29, 2025. She was retired after being declared unseaworthy. Hulls on the Type 23 frigates were only designed to last for 18 years, but many of the ships reached three decades of service.
They were persistently deployed in British waters and around the world, and HMS Montrose was no different. In the latter stages of her life, she was forward deployed to the Middle East and tasked with conducting drug-busts, anti-piracy operations, and safeguarding missions.
She was the first of her class to be involved in 10 narcotics busts, with more than 16 tonnes of illegal substances being seized. The ship’s company also intercepted illegal weapons shipments – confiscating Iranian missiles believed to be bound for Yemen in July 2022 – and protected ships such as MV British Heritage which was being threatened by Iranian ships in the strait of Hormuz.