SAILORS serving on one of the Royal Navy's most advanced warships have sent a Mother's Day greeting back home from the Gulf.

The ship's company lined up on the flight deck of the Type 45 destroyer HMS Dauntless to form the word MUM for the photo message to be sent back to the UK.

Sailors and Royal Marines donned their white caps or green berets and formed up on the flight deck of the 152m-long ship for the photo taken from the ship's Lynx Mark 8 helicopter as part of a training flight.

The greeting is sent on behalf of all of the 210-strong crew of the Portsmouth-based warship which is currently on operations in the Gulf deterring conflict and reassuring regional allies of the UK's continuing commitment to regional stability.

For many of the service personnel on board, it is their first time on a major deployment away from the UK and they felt it was important to be able to send a message back home on Mother's Day.

Commander Adrian Fryer Royal Navy, the ship's commanding officer, said: ''When we are away from home the support of our families and loved ones is incredibly important in helping us to carry out our tasks to the best of our abilities.

"We are all so grateful for the amazing support we have received from home in the last few months and it is great to be able to send a rather different Mother's Day e-card while we are deployed.''