Queen to launch HMS Queen Elizabeth aircraft carrier

[Dredger]

Nice looking Ship - Congrats... "Fair Winds and Following Seas"

The first of two new 65,000 tonne aircraft carriers – which will be the Navy’s largest ever ships - is due to be commissioned by the Queen next on Thursday (December 7 2017).

According to the Ministry of Defence construction of the 280 metre-long ship, longer than the Clifton Suspension Bridge in Bristol, would not have been possible without the essential work undertaken by small and medium sized firms nationwide.

Additional info and photos can be found at the source link below:

http://www.gloucestershirelive.co.uk...izabeth-884393

Image courtesy: Gloucestershirelive

[Malcolm G]

The headline of the News article is a little adrift.
This will be the Commissioning ceremony, rather than the launch which happened some time ago.

It is said by Captain Kydd that it is the point when the Queen accepts the ship into the (her) Royal Navy.
Maybe she do this more often, but that would mean us getting more ships............?

[pompeyfan]

More here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-hampshire-42256046

[Dredger]

Did any forum members attend the ceremony?

[Farmer John]

No, and if you were watching the main news and coughed, you wouldn't have seen it either. You would think we were a land-locked country, don't want mad ecstasy (well, I wouldn't mind) but a look at what happened would have been nice.

[billyboy]

HMS Queen Elizabeth is already leaking. 200 liters prt hpur through propshaft seal......http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-42406138

[Tom Alexander]

Originally Posted by billyboy

HMS Queen Elizabeth is already leaking. 200 liters prt hpur through propshaft seal......http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-42406138

Sounds like the new fandangled techinical stuff is not as good as the old technology when a junior injuneer would be sent down the shaft tunnel with a large Stilson to tighten the stern gland.

[R58484957]

Virtually every ship I have been on leaked a little on the stern gland. No big deal..

[Farmer John]

All who belittle this problem would do well to read the following. It struck tears to my eyes. A story of simple seamen, facing a dreadful future.

"We put our ear to the ship's well. It sounded like water.
The men were put to the pumps and worked with the frenzied effort which only those who have been drowned in a sinking ship can understand.
At six p.m. the well marked one half an inch of water, at nightfall three-quarters of an inch, and at daybreak, after a night of unremitting toil, seven-eighths of an inch.
By noon of the next day the water had risen to fifteen-sixteenths of an inch, and on the next night the sounding showed thirty-one thirty-seconds of an inch of water in the hold. The situation was desperate. At this rate of increase few, if any, could tell where it would rise to in a few days.
That night the Captain called me to his cabin. He had a book of mathematical tables in front of him, and great sheets of vulgar fractions littered the floor on all sides.
"The ship is bound to sink," he said, "in fact, Blowhard, she is sinking. I can prove it. It may be six months or it may take years, but if she goes on like this, sink she must. There is nothing for it but to abandon her."

(Stephen Leacock, Nonsense Novels, Soaked in Seaweed: or, Upset in the Ocean (An Old-fashioned Sea Story.))

[Dredger]

I wonder if the leak has gotten progressively worse over its sea trials time?

[Tom Alexander]

Originally Posted by R58484957

Virtually every ship I have been on leaked a little on the stern gland. No big deal..

I'm no injuneer, but seriously, I have done a lot of small boating where the Captain is also the Chief Engineer, Bo'sun, Carpenter, etc. and it is preferred to have a small drip at the stern gland as the water cools what could otherwise be overtightened packing, leading to heat, and the melting of the tallow. Not much worse than having to hang upside down over the transmission to re-pack the gland -- especially at my age. To handle the drippage, I have constructed a plastic collection box with a drain hose which leads to the bilge --- that way the salt water canoot spray all over the inside of my steel boat when under way --- that really not good.