Royal Navy's HMS Prince of Wales finally departs for repairs

The Royal Navy aircraft carrier HMS Prince of Wales has departed from Portsmouth for Fife for repairs, following several delays.

The £3bn warship broke down off the Isle of Wight in August, as it headed to the US from Portsmouth Naval Base.

Inspections by divers and engineers found that the 33-tonne starboard propeller had malfunctioned, with a coupling holding it in place breaking.

It was initially scheduled to depart on Monday, but sailed late on Friday.

The £3bn vessel broke down off the Isle of Wight in August en route to take part in flight trials and diplomatic visits in the US.

It was brought back from the Isle of Wight to Portsmouth for further examination by engineers from Babcock before the decision was taken for it to travel to Rosyth, where it was built, to undergo the repairs in dry dock.

A planned departure of the 65,000-tonne ship on Monday was put back to Friday morning, before it was announced it would sail late in the evening.

It is understood that an unconnected technical problem occurred onboard, meaning the departure was put back again, but the Royal Navy did not give fuller details on the reason for the time changes.

It finally left port at about 23:00 BST.

The giant warship's departures from Portsmouth Harbour are also dependent on high tides, which occur every 12 hours and 25 minutes.

The Navy has not commented on how long HMS Prince of Wales will be absent from its role as Nato's flagship.

The timescale for the repairs in Scotland will not be known until a full inspection is carried out in dry dock.

Its sister ship HMS Queen Elizabeth was sent to the US in its place to take over some of the planned engagements, including hosting the Atlantic Future Forum in New York - a defence conference aimed at strengthening UK and US bonds.

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