Royal Navy: Watch footage of HMS Queen Elizabeth leaving Portsmouth as she heads for Rosyth for repairs

Dozens of residents gathered at The Hotwalls in Old Portsmouth to see the huge aircraft carrier at 11.30am today. People got out their cameras and phones to take the best shots of the 65,000 tonne vessel. Video footage shows the carrier being escorted out of the city by police boats.

She is sailing back to the Rosyth dry dock in Scotland, where she was built, to fix a shaft coupling fault discovered last month. HMS Queen Elizabeth was due to leave the city yesterday afternoon, but this was changed at the last minute.

A Royal Navy spokeswoman previously said: "The aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth is preparing for her sailing window to travel to Rosyth in Scotland so any necessary repairs can be carried out on her starboard propeller shaft coupling. As ever, sailing will be subject to suitable tide and weather conditions." As part of her journey, her crew will stop off at The Northern Ammunition Jetty at Glen Mallan to deliver munitions.

The fault was found on February 4 during pre-sailing checks, with "wear and tear" being blamed as the cause of the mechanical issue. It was planned that HMS Queen Elizabeth would be a part of Exercise Steadfast Defender - the largest Nato operation since The Cold War. She has since been replaced by HMS Prince of Wales.