Royal Navy’s newest aircraft carrier returns to its home port

The Royal Navy’s newest aircraft carrier has sailed back into its home port following a visit to Liverpool to allow the public to visit onboard.

HMS Prince of Wales returned to Portsmouth Naval Base just over a month after it set sail to visit its affiliated city.

More than 20,000 members of the public had a chance to go onboard the 65,000-tonne warship and meet some its ship’s company of 700 sailors during its eight-day stay in Liverpool.

Following the visit, the commanding officer Captain Darren Houston said: “I am deeply humbled by the incredibly warm welcome we have received and I am delighted to allow members of the public to visit the ship.”

During the trip, the ship carried out training exercises including a crash on deck scenario and a fuel replenishment at sea.

The ship, which has an identical sister ship, HMS Queen Elizabeth, posted on Twitter: “Continuing to generate our operational capability we have now conducted our first replenishment at sea with RFA Tideforce. In future this will help us to stay on operations for longer.”

Launched in December 2017, the Prince of Wales is one of the most powerful surface warships ever constructed in the UK.

The flight deck is 70 metres wide and 280 metres long and is designed to carry 36 fighter planes and four helicopters.