A historic Royal Navy warship with a proud and emotional link to Crewe could be destroyed within days unless a desperate campaign to save her succeeds.

HMS Ambuscade, one of the Royal Navy's distinguished Cold War-era Type 21 frigates, is at the centre of a race against time to raise £2 million and bring the vessel back to the UK as a floating museum.

For Crewe, the story carries particular significance.

The town's connection with HMS Ambuscade dates back to February 1942, when Crewe officially adopted an earlier HMS Ambuscade during the Second World War as part of a successful Warship Week campaign.

That historic relationship was renewed more than 50 years later.

In 1993, the crew of the modern HMS Ambuscade was granted the Freedom of the Borough of Crewe and Nantwich, shortly before the ship was transferred to the Pakistan Navy.

The connection with Crewe has endured ever since, with former members of the Ambuscade crew choosing the town for their annual reunions.

A memorial plaque commemorating the ship and its association with the area is also proudly displayed in Crewe Municipal Buildings.

Now the future of the ship itself hangs in the balance.

Launched on the River Clyde in 1973, HMS Ambuscade served with the Royal Navy, including during the Falklands War, before being transferred to Pakistan in 1993.

Renamed PNS Tariq, she continued serving for another three decades and played a humanitarian role in 2004 when she helped rescue 377 tourists from the Maldives following the devastating Indian Ocean tsunami.

The ship was finally decommissioned in 2023.

Campaigners from Clyde Naval Heritage are now fighting to bring the former warship home to the River Clyde, where they hope to restore her and create a floating museum celebrating the history of the Type 21 frigates and the men and women who served aboard them.

The proposed museum would tell the remarkable story of Ambuscade on both sides of her naval career, as a Royal Navy warship and as PNS Tariq in the Pakistan Navy.

There are also hopes that, once safely preserved, she could become an official Falklands War memorial ship.

But time is running out.

The Pakistan Navy has ordered the vessel to leave Karachi by the end of September, while the cost of bringing her back to Scotland has soared.

Campaigners now need to raise around £2 million, almost twice the amount originally estimated.

Rising insurance and shipping costs have been blamed, with the situation made more difficult by disruption to international shipping routes and the conflict affecting the region.

For Crewe, the possible loss of HMS Ambuscade would mean more than the destruction of an old warship.

It would represent the loss of a tangible link to a remarkable chapter of the town's history, a connection forged during wartime more than 80 years ago and strengthened by the men who served aboard the modern Ambuscade.

As the deadline approaches, campaigners are hoping the vessel can be saved from the scrapyard and given a new life, ensuring that the name HMS Ambuscade, and its special connection with Crewe, is not lost forever.

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