One of the pleasures of living near to West India Dock is to see the ships that visit, but an added bonus is that on some occasions you can actually go aboard the ship to have a look around.
The Italian Destroyer Luigi Durand de la Penne is unusual that it is open to the public for most of its stay.
The crew welcomed aboard this morning a large number of local children who were quite excited to go aboard such a large warship.
The Luigi Durand is a guided-missile destroyer whose sleek shape is specially designed according to stealth principles.
The weapons are all over the ship with both long and short distance missile systems.
The ship is named after a famous naval diver who served in the Regia Marina during World War II, Luigi Durand de la Penne. He, together with other members of X MAS made the most successful human torpedo mission, damaging the British battleships Queen Elizabeth and Valiant in Alexandria, December 1941.
Here is a couple of picture of the ship leaving on Wednesday 13th , kindly provided by Eric Pemberton.
Isle of Dogs Life 