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KOCHI (PTI): Indian Navy's Southern Naval Command has bid farewell to INS Krishna, part of the First Training Squadron since 1995, as it sailed off to Mumbai to be de-commissioned later this year.

Rear Admiral Sudarshan Shrikhande, Chief of Staff of Southern Naval Command and a large gathering of Navy personnel and families assembled at the South Jetty Naval Base to bid adieu to the ship, a Navy press release said.

Commissioned as HMS Andromeda in December 1968 in the Royal Navy, the ship was decommissioned from the British Navy in November 1994 before being commissioned into the Indian Navy on Aug 22, 1995 as a cadets training ship.

While it served the Royal Navy gloriously as HMS Andromeda and witnessed action several times including the 1982 Falkland War, as INS Krishna, it has been the Alma Mater to more than 1,300 officers of the Indian Navy who gained their sea legs on board.

The ship clocked about 3,23,750 nautical miles in its voyages around the world as a cadets training ship and visited about 32 ports in 23 different countries. It has a crew of 221 sailors and 18 officers and had capacity to train about 80 cadets.

Commander Varun Singh, a Marine Commando and recipient of Shaurya Chakra, is the Commanding Officer of the ship.