A ROYAL Navy lieutenant who grew up in Watchet made a flying visit to his home town - ringing with him his own warship and crew.

Lieutenant Peter Vincent, 30, is Commanding Officer of HMS Smiter, the Universities Royal Naval Unit (URNU) ship for Glasgow.

He and the ship's company, along with ten URNU students, called in at Watchet during their Easter deployment.

And there was something rather special to welcome him home.

Peter's mother, Susan Vincent, who still lives in Watchet, asked well-known local bagpiping enthusiast Fred Bacon to bring the ship into harbour with a reminder of Scotland in honour of the vessel's homeport on the Clyde.

Peter and crew were delighted with the surprise: "Obviously we were a long way from the Clyde and all the Scottish lochs where we usually train," said Peter, who took command of HMS Smiter last summer.

"There is nothing quite like the rather haunting sound of lone bagpipes and we were all really grateful to Fred Bacon for his warm welcome and absolutely delighted with this very personal touch for our visit.

"It has been a long held ambition of mine to be able to bring a ship alongside in Watchet, despite the challenging tides and snug fit, and we have achieved some fantastic training while operating in the Bristol Channel."

Peter joined the Royal Navy in 1998 after leaving Taunton School. He trained as a navigator and has specialised in warfare.

His career at sea began in HMS Bangor, a Sandown Class mine hunter, and his last job before taking the helm of Smiter was on board the brand new HMS Daring, the first of the Royal Navy's new Type 45 destroyers - Peter was part of the crew when the ship was formally commissioned into the navy.

Although only in port for a day, Peter was pleased to be able to bring his dad Roger on board in the morning, and also hosted a visit from the fire brigade as well as a local interested cadet.

HMS Smiter, one of the Royal Navy's university training patrol boats, is normally based at HM Naval Base Clyde in Scotland but has been travelling down to the Solent to conduct joint training and demonstrations with the rest of the ships from the First Patrol Boat Squadron.

HMS Smiter is tasked with providing navigation and personal development training to a wide range of undergraduates from the Glasgow area and conducts deployments throughout the United Kingdom and western Europe during university leave periods.