THE people of the North Yorkshire coast are to forge new links with one of the newest additions to the British fleet.

The borough of Scarborough has officially adopted the Royal Fleet Auxiliary tanker ship the Wave Ruler.

The 30,000-tonne vessel is one of the most modern ships in the fleet and was commissioned into the service in April this year.

With 72 crew members, it is twice the size of the resort's previous adopted ship, HMS Fearless, which was taken out of commission last year.

Chief executive John Trebble said: "Scarborough has a long association with Royal Navy vessels, going back many, many years and clearly I am delighted that this is going to continue."

He said the council would be contacting the ship to get details of its future duties, to see when it is likely to make its first visit to Scarborough.

The Royal Fleet Auxiliary Service is the specialist front-line support force for the Royal Navy. The ships are used to replenish warships at sea with fuel, stores, weapons, equipment and munitions.

Wave Ruler and her sister ship Wave Knight were built by BAE Systems at their Govan yard to replace existing fleet tankers, the Olna and Olwen, built in the 1960s.

They each have the capacity to transport 616,000 cubic metres of cargo fuel. They are armed with two 30mm cannon and are capable of carrying two Raytheon Phalanx Mk 15 close-in weapon systems.

The tankers can also support Merlin helicopters, including during high seas operations.

* The town's first adopted warship was the frigate Scarborough. It was taken out of service in 1973 and in 1975 HMS Apollo was adopted before it was decommissioned in 1988, to be followed by HMS Fearless in June 1990.