Considering the depleted state of the Armed Forces these days, Gibraltar is currently the busiest we’ve been for ages hosting Royal Navy ships. In fact this year has seen more naval activity so far than in the whole of 2010.

The US nuclear submarine Florida (pictured right against the South Mole by the Chronicle) left two days ago after a weekend visit to Gibraltar, and was promptly replaced by HMS Cumberland (below right, also by the Chronicle), fresh from taking part in the evacuation of refugees from Libya.

Cumberland has since been joined by Type 22 Frigate HMS Sutherland, the landing platform dock HMS Albion and the Royal Fleet Auxiliary ship Cardigan Bay for the upcoming Exercise Cougar II in the eastern Med. Despite typically off-beam UK media reports that the ships are specifically bound for Libya, the deployment is part of the Royal Navy’s Response Force Task Group [RFTG] which was announced in last year’s messy Strategic Defence and Security Review. The ships will head through the Med via the Suez Canal for further exercises in the Indian Ocean.

Spread across those vessels are 650 soldiers from 40 Commando Royal Marines. They marked their arrival in Gibraltar by holding a Top-of-the-Rock run, which set off from the Tower at seven o’clock yesterday. Pure stupidity. Maybe if TheEye was 5 years younger… They were all out and about (or it certainly felt like it) in Town last night, largely without incident; although TheEye was annoyed to find out by late evening that Gilbert’s Takeaway had run out of…well…bloody everything.

For those who follow the really parochial news – nineteen year old local AB Lisa Ryan, not so many years out of Westside Comprehensive here, was aboard as part of the Albion’s crew. And there are wedding bells too – an officer from the Albion was met by his fiancée to be married in the King’s Chapel before he sails again.

The twenty-two year-old Cumberland, as has been extensively reported in the UK papers, will not be seen on the Rock again – she’s heading back to Devonport for paying off and the breakers. Cumberland was the first British warship to go into Libya, from where she made three trips to Malta carrying a total of 454 people, including 129 Britons. In recognition of the final voyage, Admiral Sir Trevor Soar, commander-in-chief of the fleet, has flown out here last weekend to join the ship for her final voyage. She sails for the UK on Saturday.

So in total, four Royal Navy ships are berthed in the dockyard tonight. Numbers like that are a depressingly rare sight these days.

TheEye feels it’s a good night to avoid the standard matelot and bootie bars in Town though….