HMS Queen Elizabeth Portsmouth: Royal Navy's flagship carrier returns home to UK port 'firing gun salute' - watch video
The Royal Navy's £3bn flagship HMS Queen Elizabeth has returned to its base in Portsmouth after four months of repairs in Scotland.
The aircraft carrier arrived in Portsmouth Harbour at just before 20:30 BST yesterday evening (Tuesday 30 July). Before heading into Portsmouth Harbour, the ship sailed past the Isle of Wight, where it exchanged gun salutes with the Royal Yacht Squadron.
The sail-past took place as part of the Cowes Week regatta, which is currently underway in the Solent. There were also large crowds of onlookers gathered on the shore to watch the aircraft carrier's sail-past.
On its journey back from Rosyth Dockyard, the ship underwent a short intensive period at sea to test its systems. The seven-day session saw it undergo marine engineering trials, sailing at high speed for extended periods of time, and manoeuvring as aggressively as possible to give the command team full confidence in its systems.
Crew members also carried out boat drills, damage control exercises and intelligence briefings to get sailors and officers back up to speed after their time in Rosyth. Captain Will King, commanding officer of HMS Queen Elizabeth, said: “Whilst no warship wants to find itself spending unscheduled time out of the water, I am enormously proud of the work that has gone on in Rosyth."The ship will now begin preparations for operations in the autumn.
Commander Alex Davies, head of the marine engineering department, said: “An enormous amount of work has taken place over the last few months to get us to this point. This is at the larger end of the scale for Royal Navy Marine Engineering, and it has taken a really effective team effort from our own engineers, Defence Equipment and Support, and our Industry Partners to return us to sea.”