News from on board HMS QUEEN ELIZABETH
Good afternoon from the North Sea!
Well HMS QUEEN ELIZABETH has made the transition and completed her metamorphosis from a project in Rosyth to a ship at sea, and I must say that the Ship’s Company are loving it! A little tired perhaps, as there have been some very long days and a lot of hard work, but everyone is now relishing the challenge of completing sea trials and bringing the ship to Portsmouth as quickly as we can and joining the Fleet.
You may have seen some of the footage in the media, but I have attached and included some pictures. It was a tight squeeze getting out, but it all went very smoothly, both out of the Basin and also under all 3 of the River Forth Bridges.
We have now been at sea for 7 days and have just commenced our Power and Propulsion trials, having completed our initial safety training with the Royal Navy FOST team. This is very much a first for the RN as we have never crewed a ship in this manner straight from trials, nor have we subjected ourselves this early to the demanding standards of our FOST organisation. In parallel we have teams from the Aircraft Carrier Alliance commissioning equipment; Production and Operation teams finishing off compartments and rectifying defects and an Acceptance team tracking the criteria and ensuring the ship meets the specifications / requirements. At this early stage the ship is performing well and we have had the first helicopters land on the deck.
I will try and keep you updated with our progress so that you can keep all the Shipwrights abreast of what is going on.
