Tag Archives: aircraft carrier

Finally, “The Prince” Comes into View

While I was tracking HMS Prince of Wales as she came around the Isle of Wight inbound to Portsmouth, it wasn’t long before we got our first sight of her. I know there is a dredged channel that was created when the ships were acquired and I assume that this is a function of the route they take when coming in but she was first seen as we looked out through the entrance to the harbour as she crossed from right to left heading towards land. Then she disappeared behind the coast for a while.

A bit later, the silhouette of the ship reappeared now heading back away from the land as she tracked to follow the coastline towards the harbour. She was still a long way away, but the distinctive shape of the ski jump and the twin islands made her easy to confirm. Then she was hidden again as she disappeared from view where we were, behind some of the old buildings of HMS Dolphin.

By now the helicopters had joined up to fly over her so they were our clue as to where she was. Then a mast appeared above the buildings followed by a radar and the next thing you knew, a tug was coming into the harbour to be shortly followed by 80,000 tons of ship. She is certainly big enough and looked it as she came fully into view. The thing that struck me was not so much the beam of the ship but the length. With tugs holding her both ahead and astern, she drifted past us taking quite some time to do so given the 284m of her that there is.

It wasn’t far to go to get to her berth and she was soon stationary in the water while the tugs repositioned to push her alongside. The crowds started to disperse, the boats that had been waiting for her to arrive before they could move started on their way and the families headed for the Gosport ferry so that they could go on base and greet their loved ones that had been away since April. Quite something to experience.

A Broken Aircraft Carrier

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The Royal Navy has recently commissioned two new aircraft carriers. At 60,000 tons, they are the largest ships the Navy has ever had. The first is HMS Queen Elizabeth and the second is HMS Prince of Wales. The Prince of Wales was due to undertake its first major exercise off the east coast of the US but, shortly after departing Portsmouth, it experienced some technical issues. I don’t know whether there is official confirmation of what happened but there is a suggestion that one of the screws contacted the seabed.

Whatever the issue, she had to return to port and the Queen Elizabeth was substituted for the exercise. There has been discussion that the ship will need to go to Rosyth for dry docking but, as of our visit, it was still alongside at Portsmouth. I was able to get some good shots of it from Spinnaker Tower as well as some from the ferry as we headed to the Isle of Wight. I hope they can fix whatever the issues are rapidly.

Bremerton From Above

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Bremerton’s naval yard has been cleared out a bit in the last few years. It used to be the resting place of a bunch of decommissioned aircraft carriers. Most have now gone to the breaker’s yard. If you drove into Bremerton, it was quite something to come along the shore and see all of those carriers in front of you. Many years ago, I was on a trip that included a flight from Seattle. We climbed out over the top of Bremerton, and I was able to grab a quick couple of shots through the window of the airliner. I do wish I had got some better shots of the carriers lined up before they all went away.

Aircraft carrier

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I was flicking through some old shots that weren’t well keyworded and was surprised to find some shots from a San Diego visit which included some warships. I had some shots of an aircraft carrier including a few for a panorama that I had never compiled. Why not correct that? Here it is, the USS Ronal Reagan.

HMS Queen Elizabeth

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One leg of our trip to the UK included a ferry to the Isle of Wight. We took the ferry from Portsmouth and, as we drove in to town, I thought I could see the twin islands of the HMS Queen Elizabeth, the first of the pair of new aircraft carriers for the Royal Navy. Sure enough, when we pulled out of Gunwharf on the ferry, we could see the carrier moored in the naval base. A rear view doesn’t give to much impression of the ship but she is clearly pretty large. At about 65,000 tons, she is over three times the displacement of the previous RN carriers.