The Royal Navy destroyer HMS Daring sailed in to the Grand Harbour yesterday morning for a three-day visit.

The £1 billion Type 45 warship is heading back to its home base of Portsmouth after a nine-month deployment, which is one of the navy’s longest missions.

Since leaving the UK in May 2013 with its ship’s company of 200, the destroyer has sailed more than 38,000 miles.

By the end of the mission it will have called at 21 different ports in countries including the US, Aus-tralia, Singapore, Malaysia, Japan, China, Vietnam and South Korea.

The destroyer has carried out military exercises, supported anti-piracy operations in the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Aden and provided humanitarian support to the Philippines following the Typhoon Hiayan tragedy.

Last week its crew sent a Valentine message by forming a red heart on the warship’s flight deck.

Foreign reports quoted a Royal Navy spokeswoman that at nine months, the deployment was one of the longest for the surface fleet, meaning families have endured many months of separation over thousands of miles.

“Newlyweds will be able to reunite as will fathers with their children born just a few weeks before the ship deployed.”

One of these is weapon engineer officer Lieutenant Commander Marcel Rosenberg. “Our first child was born just before I was deployed to join HMS Daring, so it’s been an emotional time for my wife and me.

“I have watched our little boy grow up via e-mail, but I video recorded myself reading nursery rhymes to him before I left and his first word has been ‘dadda’ – mostly due to my wonderful wife’s persistence.

“This has been the hardest separation of my 26 years in the Royal Navy, but I couldn’t have wished for a better ship’s company to share it with,” he said.