Navy captain meets with wife of missing sailor Timmy MacColl

THE commanding officer of British Royal Navy ship HMS Westminster met with the wife of missing sailor Timmy MacColl yesterday.

Captain Nick Hine flew back to Portsmouth in the UK ahead of the type-23 warship which is due to dock in eight days’ time and visited Rachael at her home.

Twenty-seven-year-old Timmy went missing during shore leave in Dubai on May 27.

Timmy’s shipmates are believed to be among the last people to see him before he vanished – two sailors claim they put him in a taxi outside Dubai nightspot Rock Bottom opposite the Burjuman Mall and paid the driver to take him to the ship at Port Rashid.

But dad-of-two Timmy didn’t make it back to the warship which sailed out of Dubai three days later.

Yesterday Cpt Hine told Rachael that when the sailors line-up before marching off the ship on August 13 there will be a gap where Timmy would have stood.

Rachel, 25, who is due to give birth to the couple’s third child in October said: “There was the offer for me to go on board, but I’ve declined.

“I’m not sure what I am going to do that day. I think the family wants to go out somewhere to take our minds off it.

“I will watch the ship coming in, but I’ll do it from a distance.”

She added: “I guess the 13th is unlucky for one.”

The captain told Rachael that he had spoken to Timmy the day before he went missing.

She said: “Timmy had been talking about motorbikes and showed the captain the photo of the scan of our baby. He said Timmy was in good spirits.”

The Westminster has been on pirate-busting operations in the Suez region and Indian Ocean for seven months.

During the ship's time in the Middle East, Westminster – known as The Capital Ship - disrupted pirates, seized millions of pounds worth of heroin from smugglers and conducted security patrols in the Gulf.

Devonport-based frigate HMS Sutherland has taken over the vessel's duties.