HMS Medway helps prevent hantavirus outbreak on UK's most remote overseas territory

HMS Medway has returned to the Falkland Islands after an intensive 5,000-mile round trip to Tristan da Cunha to deliver aid and collect military personnel who had deployed there following a suspected case of hantavirus.

On 9 May, six paratroopers and two military clinicians from 16 Air Assault Brigade, parachuted onto the island from an RAF A400M to treat a British national who had been aboard MV Hondius – the cruise ship which had been hit by a deadly outbreak of the virus.

Home to just 221 people, Tristan da Cunha lies deep in the South Atlantic and is Britain's most remote overseas territory. 

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With no airstrip, the island is normally accessible only by sea.

This meant when oxygen supplies were at a critical level, an airdrop with medical personnel was the only method of getting vital care to the patient in time.

HMS Medway was then needed for Operation Mossyback, to get the team home and deliver further aid on a scale which only a ship could do. 

Battling unforgiving South Atlantic winter conditions, the vessel completed the eight-day journey to the island through storms, six-metre swells and iceberg-filled waters. 

Once she arrived off the 'capital', Edinburgh of the Seven Seas, conditions were too severe to conduct boat transfers.

They had to wait more than 24 for the weather to ease before the patrol ship's sea boat and islanders' RIBs could complete the transfer of supplies.

HMS Medway's Executive Officer Lieutenant Commander Chris Poulson praised the 60-plus crew aboard for persevering in difficult conditions.

"The ship's company battled through weeks of heavy seas and, on the day of the transfer, personnel from all departments worked together on deck to support the sea boat crews operating close to the limits of the ship's endurance," he said.

"A special mention must go to the crews of Medway's and Tristan da Cunha's seaboats who performed admirably in extremely tough conditions while fully exposed to the South Atlantic.

"The team has shown exceptional resilience and professionalism throughout and should be justly proud of their achievements."