Mersey to be giant new warship’s second home
ONE of the two largest ships ever to be built for the Royal Navy will be affiliated with Liverpool, the Daily Post can reveal.
The Royal Navy’s northern England chief confirmed the link with the new HMS Prince of Wales yesterday as HMS Illustrious – one of the three current aircraft carriers – sailed into the city for a weekend visit.
Commodore John Madgwick said last night: “I have written to Liverpool council leaders confirming that the new Prince of Wales will be affiliated to Liverpool.”
The two new carriers HMS Queen Elizabeth and her sister ship, Prince of Wales, will be the largest warships ever built in the UK on completion in 2014 and 2016 respectively.
Welcoming crowds thronged the Mersey waterfront yesterday as the Illustrious made her debut trip to the city, steaming into Liverpool on the tide looking high and mighty.
It is the first time that the 26,000- tonne Falklands War veteran – one of Britain’s biggest carriers – has visited Liverpool in her 26- year career. At 65,000 tonnes each, the new carriers will be closer in size to the US Navy’s huge Nimitz class warships. Liverpool will be one of the very few city ports capable of berthing these new ships.
The Prince of Wales’s affiliation to Liverpool fulfils a commitment made by the First Sea Lord, Sir Alan West, in 2005 at a private dinner in the city commemorating the bicentenary of Lord Nelson winning the Battle of Trafalgar.
A great ceremonial accolade, this affiliation means the new HMS Prince of Wales’s company is granted Freedom of Liverpool and can march through the city with bayonets fixed.
“This also honours the great wartime battleship Prince of Wales, the seventh of this name, which was built by Cammell Laird,” said Commodore Madgwick.
The Prince of Wales will be the second of the Royal Navy's two Queen Elizabeth class aircraft carriers, which will cost £3.8bn.
They are multi-purpose carriers which will be capable of carrying 36 fixed-wing aircraft, the F-35B Lightning II, and 12 helicopters.
The new carriers are a major upgrade in capability from the current Invincible class carriers, which include Illustrious.
