Contemplative and reflective memories of HMS Bulwark after Royal Navy assault ship sold to Brazil - pictures

The Albion-class assault ship was one of the UK’s two landing platform docks, designed to deploy the Royal Marines ashore by sea and air. She entered service on April 28, 2005, after being beset by various delays.

The most distinguished part of the ship’s career was between October 2011 and June 2015, when she acted as the Royal Navy flagship. HMS Bulwark’s maiden deployment was in January 2006 to the East of Suez, where sailors and marines conducted counter-terrorist and counter-piracy operations near the Horn of Africa.

Once at the northern Persian Gulf, she took charge of Task Force 158 and provided security for Iraqi oil platforms. Her design made her useful for humanitarian aid missions, playing a vital role in evacuating British citizens during the Israel-Lebanon crisis in 2006 - up to 1,300 people on July 20.

Other operations in the late 2000s include being part of Exercise Joint Warrior in 2008, and being the flagship to the Commander UK Amphibious Task Group on Taurus 09, joined by HMS Ocean and other frigates. In 2012, the 19,560 tonne vessel visited Gdynia, Poland, after carrying out drills with two Polish frigates - playing host to 4,000 people on board.

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She proceeded to enter the Baltic for Exercise Cold Response, a Nato winter war games drill in northern Norway. A few years later in the spring of 2015, HMS Bulwark was assigned to Operation Weald. The deployed was a search and rescue mission in the Italian coast for migrants crossing from Libya. Assisted by three Merlin helicopters from 814 Naval Air Squadron, over 2,900 people were recovered from the sea.

Throughout her career, she would regularly be assigned to work with the Joint Expeditionary Force (JEF), with the 16 deployment being shown on Channel 4’s Warship in 2017. She was the flagship of Exercise Griffin Strike, and participated in the centenary commemorations for the Battle of Jutland in Scarpa Flow.

Despite having a planned out of service date in 2034, her career would end before that. In late 2020, HMS Bulwark was dry-docked to complete phase two of an optimised support period. It was planned that she would remain there while a recertification package was completed - pacing the way for a projected return to sea in 2023.

Then minister of state for defence James Cartlidge, Conservative, said in March 2024 that HMS Bulwark would only return to operations if required. Despite £72.1m being sunk into her refit by November 2024, Labour defence secretary John Healey made the decision to take both Albion-class warships out of service. She has now been sold to Brazil and renamed NDM Oiapoque - making her the second largest ship in the fleet.