A former Royal Mail ship which has been transporting freight for an off-road event which sees electric vehicles race in remote parts of the world has arrived in Dorset.

The St Helena has clocked up more than 19,000 nautical miles transporting Extreme E’s race freight and logistics into Poole.

The freight includes the all-electric ODYSSEY 21 race cars – three of which are entrants for teams founded by Sir Lewis Hamilton, Nico Rosberg and Jenson Button - the AFC Energy system including solar panels and hydrogen fuel cell to charge the cars emission free, two Zenobe second-life batteries to power the paddock, plus everything else required to create a race site in remote locations without event infrastructure.

This will now be set up in the British Ministry of Defence Base at Bovington.

Alejandro Agag, CEO and founder of Extreme E, said: “It’s certainly been a busy month but a very rewarding one. It’s hard to believe that Extreme E is now preparing for its final X Prix of our inaugural season and that the St. Helena is back here in the UK where she departed nearly a year ago - and what a year it’s been!

“We are so excited to be ending our first season in Dorset in the UK. Despite the incredible places we have visted so far this year - Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Greenland and Sardinia - the landscape here is equally as amazing and there’s no doubt that it’s certainly going to be challenging for the cars and the drivers. I cannot wait!”

The cars and series’ equipment departed Sardinia’s port of Cagliari, Italy, before making its way westwards across the Mediterranean Sea towards the UK, guided by a pod of dolphins for a whole afternoon during the voyage.

The crew will spend the next few days unloading all of the freight on board for the Jurassic X Prix which takes place on December 18 and 19.