11,000-tonne warship hull ready for delivery to Rosyth

By PAUL WARD
Published on 15/10/2012 01:40

THE construction of the “largest and most powerful warship” ever built for the Royal Navy took another step yesterday as its 11,000-tonne hull section was prepared for delivery to Rosyth.

The aft section of HMS Queen Elizabeth was moved out of a hall at BAE Systems’ Govan Shipyard in Glasgow before it is loaded on to a barge tomorrow for a 600-mile journey to the Fife dockyard next month.

A team of 40 people moved the section across specially reinforced tarmac at the yard in less than three hours using 450 remote-controlled transporters.

The 80-metre-long and 40-metre-wide section, which houses a hospital complex, a dentist surgery and 242 accommodation berths, will take five days to travel round the coastline to Rosyth where it will be joined up with the other parts of the ship constructed in Portsmouth.

Angus Holt, Queen Elizabeth Class block delivery director at BAE Systems, said: “Today marks the culmination of months of hard work and preparation and I am extremely proud of the team’s achievements.”