US ship in ancient Tower ceremony

There is a special relationship between the US and the UK. Not the one where the British prime minister tries it on with the American president for this that and the other. No this is just the special things in life that the two peoples like to do. For instance, the Americans put on a great show last year for the Queen when she visited the Jamestown settlement in Virginia on the 400th anniversary of English settlers' first appearance there. Then there is the unique situation of a small patch of land, an acre, in Runnymede, Surrey being sovereign US territory, given to the Americans. This is where the Kennedy Memorial stands.

Now it has occurred that for the first time since the ceremony began in the Middle Ages that a non-British ship has taken part in the Constable's Dues ritual at the Tower of London, which involved the crew being challenged for entry into the capital. I'm sure the sailors and officers of USS Halyburton will remember the day and be able to say "I was in that ceremony as the first Americans involved".