CIDER makers have bid farewell to a nuclear submarine once commanded by Melplash orchard owner Rupert Best.

HMS Sceptre is due to be be decommissioned later this year, so it was thought fitting at this year’s Royal Bath & West Show to mark the end of a unique liaison with the West Country’s golden brew.

Sceptre is a 4,900 ton Swiftsure class submarine equipped with Tomahawk cruise missiles, Harpoon missiles, and Spearfish torpedoes.

She was launched at Barrow-in-Furness on St Valentines Day, 1978 with a bottle of the Taunton Cider Company’s Pommia, a bottle-fermented cider.

Rupert Best’s father used to supply the Taunton Cider Company with apples from the family’s orchard at Hincknowle (which is on the edge of Melplash, about three miles north of Bridport).

The use of cider was almost certainly a first for one of her Majesty’s Ships, and as yet it’s not been used again, despite the fact that Sceptre’s longevity is popularly attributed to her christening with cider.

Other early links with the Taunton Cider Company included a cricket match at Portland, followed by a skittles match; legend has it that much cider was consumed.

The association weakened as Taunton Cider changed owners. It strengthened again recently but with Sceptre’s reign as the oldest commissioned vessel in the Royal Navy (still available for service) about to end, goodbyes have now been said.

Gaymers’ master cider maker (Gaymers bought Taunton Cider) presented the submariners with a barrel of thirty year old vintage cider. In return, the submariners gave  Gaymers a ship’s plaque and a commemorative coin.

Editor’s Note: I’ve been trying to remember whether it was HMS Sceptre that Rupert Best once brought alongside at West Bay, so that local people could have a look round and drink tea. Does anyone know if it was? I’ll have to ask him.