THERE were cheers and the waving of flags as proud shipyard workers watched the naming ceremony for their latest naval vessel.

HMS Forth, the first of a fleet of new Royal Navy offshore patrol vessels (OPVs), was christened at BAE Systems in Scotstoun.

The 90-metre warship is the result of two-and-a-half years of work and will soon embark on sea trials ahead of entering service in 2018.

She was named to naval tradition by the Lady Sponsor Rachel Johnstone-Burt, wife of Vice Admiral Tony Johnstone-Burt, Master of the Household to the Sovereign.

In Scotland it has become tradition to use a bottle of whisky, rather than a bottle of Champagne.

The whisky used by the Lady Sponsor was from Deanston Distillery near Stirling, the city affiliated with HMS Forth.

Vice admiral Simon Lister, chief of materiel (fleet) for the MoD’s defence equipment and support organisation, said the five new OPVs, which should all be in service by 2021, would be crucial in securing jobs on the Clyde.

A building programme of new Type 26s ships is also due to begin.

Vice admiral Lister said: “This series of ships is fundamental to maintaining skills on the Clyde and sustaining the skills base that is essential for building the Type 26 programme and we’ll be cutting steel on the Type 26 on the Clyde in the summer and that is the major ship building programme that will be sustaining skills her for a long time to come.

“The long tradition of ship building on the Clyde and just speaking to the apprentices this morning, they are benefitting from working alongside ship builders here in the yard and when they are going in to college they are being taught by people who have build classes of ships that are 20, 30 or 40 years old so that experience of building ships well on the Clyde is being taught to the next generation and I think that’s so important.”

HMS Forth, the fifth Navy vessel to bear the name, is affiliated with the city of Stirling after it adopted a ship of the same name during the Second World War.

Defence chiefs say work on HMS Forth and her sister ships is sustaining about 800 Scottish jobs.

The vessel is equipped with a 30mm cannon and flight deck capable of accommodating a Merlin helicopter and manned by a crew of 58 sailors.

It will be used in counter-pirate and counter-terrorism work.

Harriett Baldwin, Minister for Defence Procurement, said: “As part of a sustained programme delivering world-class ships and submarines, HMS Forth’s naming is a vitally important part of the government’s ten-year £178 billion plan to provide our Armed Forces with the equipment they need.

“From counter-narcotics operations in the Caribbean, to securing the UK’s borders on patrols closer to home, the Royal Navy’s new offshore patrol vessels will help protect our interests around the world.”

Apprentice sheet metal worker Kareen McQuade, 36, and apprentice fabricator Ryan Messenger, 22, were both at the Scotstoun yard to watch HMS Forth be named.

For both workers it was an emotional sight.

Karen said: “This is a proud day for Glasgow and a proud day for the Clyde.”