GREAT Yarmouth will formally tie the affiliation knot with the Royal Navy's newest and most powerful warship in a brief but important ceremony next month.

GREAT Yarmouth will formally tie the affiliation knot with the Royal Navy's newest and most powerful warship in a brief but important ceremony next month.

Officials hope it is only the start of a long-term bond with HMS Dauntless which aims to forge links with local schools, football teams and organisations - as well as the city of Newcastle which has already sealed its connection.

Presiding over the adoption will be the first duty of new mayor Michael Jeal, just moments after he takes up office on May 17.

Laura Goodman, civic events officer at Great Yarmouth Borough Council, said the invitation-only ceremony ahead of the air defence destroyer's commissioning in Portsmouth on June 3 would pave the way for public pageantry and involvement.

Hopes are high the vessel will set a course for the town's new outer harbour in the summer when the community is expected to give the formidable ship and crew a warm welcome.

And if the ship cannot make it for the Maritime Festival in September, the captain - who has family in Wroxham - will send representatives of the 190-strong crew, so Dauntless has a presence.

Sailing under the motto

Nil Desperandum (never despair) the Type 45 destroyer replaces the 1960s-designed Type 42 and is undergoing sea

trials. It is the second of a potential fleet of eight.

Mrs Goodman said the ceremony would take place directly after the mayor-making. Members of the Royal Navy will attend, signing a specially prepared scroll.

The warship is the fifth vessel to carry the Dauntless name, and her prime role is air defence, protecting UK national and allied coalition forces against enemy aircraft and missiles.