The 22-year-old is one of 197 sailors on board the ship who were deployed on to the West African Patrol ship between Freetown and Dakar to help British Paratroops stabilise the political situation.

As an operator mechanic, Andrew is based in the operations room scanning radar screens for possible threats, but he also doubles up as an anti air defence gunner and weapons engineer.

He is able to go ashore each week when the ship docks in Freetown, but it is a war zone and there is a strict curfew limiting his travels within the country.

"Going ashore is a real eye opener and quite a shock seeing just how poor this country is and how some of the unfortunate people are living," he said. "It's okay here if you like sun and rain every other day, but I miss the good old English weather."

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