As the crown was placed on King Charles III head in Westminster Abbey, Dartmouth fired a three round salvo followed by a 21 gun salute in His Majesty’s honour.

And as the guns cracked, St Saviour’s Church bells rang out across the town to mark the historic first coronation of a UK monarch in 70 years.

The port celebrated the momentous event by mimicking the events unfolding in London and across the country, by Ringing for the King and firing a 21 Coronation gun salute.

The event, held at the South Embankment, was organised by the Port of Dartmouth Royal Regatta committee with help from Dartmouth Yacht Club and Dart Harbour and Navigation Authority.

Also attending were Dartmouth Mayor, Cllr David Wells, and the Town Sergeant Ron Lambden who brought along the town’s mace and silverwear.

The cannons were fired by regatta gunners Phil Geen and Kevin Pyne. Regatta secretary Mel Botterill kept the time and the score; while regatta honorary president, Hilary Bastone, gave the nod the moment the crown was placed on the new king’s head.

Regatta chairman, Ed Botterill, hailed the event a success despite wellwishers having to dodge the rain.

“The yacht club was heaving and we probably had best part of 100 people out on the front, which was really nice,” Ed said.

“Hilary was our official signaller, our link man in the yacht club standing in the window watching for the moment the crown was placed on the king’s head. The second it did, Hilary gave the signal and Mel asked the gunners to fire the first three rounds.

“We fired a three round salvo at the beginning followed by 21 rounds at 10 second intervals afterwards.

“It was great, everybody stood a little bit back because it was quite loud. It was really good, then the bells rang.

“We had liaised with the bellringers, through John Lagden the vice-tower captain of Dartmouth Bell Ringers, and they rang when the salvo went, so it was effectively just the same as what was happening in London which was as soon as the crown hit King Charles’ head the guns started firing in the capital and around the country, and the Westminster Abbey bells started ringing.

‘We wanted to do something to mark the historic occasion and we wanted to do it right as we are very proud of our royal title and of our royal patronage.”

Ed thanked the regatta committee members, Dartmouth Yacht Club and its commodore Tony Baker, Dart Harbour and the Dartmouth bell ringers for “making the event happen.”