Royal Navy patrol ship HMS Medway makes first port call at Chile's Punta Arenas

Tuesday, July 7th 2026 - 08:05 UTC

According to the Austral Port Authority (Epaustral), the ship will be handled during its stay at the Arturo Prat pier by a local agency

The British Royal Navy's patrol vessel HMS Medway (P223) docked on Sunday morning at Punta Arenas, in Chile's Magallanes and Chilean Antarctic Region, on its first visit to the port. The stop, for resupply, is due to last until Wednesday, July 8.

According to the Austral Port Authority (Epaustral), the ship will be handled during its stay at the Arturo Prat pier by a local agency. The Medway is a Batch 2 River-class offshore patrol vessel, built by BAE Systems in Glasgow and commissioned in 2019, measuring 90 meters in length and displacing about 2,000 tons.

The vessel carries out surveillance duties in the South Atlantic. In January 2026 it relieved HMS Forth as the Royal Navy's permanent patrol ship around the Falklands, after nearly six years of deployment by its sister ship — a handover MercoPress reported at the time. Its routine tasks include fishery protection within the islands' exclusive economic zone and maritime security operations extending to South Georgia.