Royal Navy's new £3.1bn aircraft carrier HMS Prince of Wales loses power after incident at Portsmouth Naval Base

Lights and heating shut off on HMS Prince of Wales yesterday following the incident at Portsmouth Naval Base.

About 150 members of the ship’s 700-strong crew, who were living in Prince of Wales at the time, were given temporary accommodation in the aircraft carrier’s sister ship, HMS Queen Elizabeth, the navy confirmed.

The Senior Service has not commented on what caused the initial outage.

However, sources have told The News that it was related to an incident with the high-voltage cable that provides the aircraft carrier with power.

‘The cable that goes from the dockyard and gives the ship juice was ripped out somehow and the ship lost power,’ an insider told The News. ’It meant the crew had to leave the ship.’

Power is understood to have been restored to the ship today, with the crew now back on board.

However, the situation has concerned retired Royal Navy Lieutenant Commander and maritime expert, Mike Critchley, of Gosport.

He said: ‘Questions will be asked by the navy how this happened.

‘It sounds like quite a major incident. A ship without electricity isn’t a ship. These things should not happen.’

He added the weather was bad and could be to blame for the loss of power.

‘I went over on the Gosport ferry yesterday and it was horrendous,’ Mr Critchley said. ‘The ship could have been blown and bashed around.’

In a statement, a Royal Navy spokeswoman said: ‘HMS Prince of Wales experienced a power supply issue. Non-essential personnel were accommodated in HMS Queen Elizabeth until this was resolved. There were no injuries.

‘It is defence policy that we will not discuss the material state of our ships.’

Mr Critchley said the incident had the potential to prompt an inquiry naval top brass,

He added: ‘There could be a board of inquiry into the situation, which can be major affairs running for a fortnight - or it could be a group of senior officers sat around a table and finished in an afternoon.’

HMS Prince of Wales arrived in Portsmouth for the first time in November and was commissioned into the navy last month.

There was also an incident in November involving the ship and jetty services, when it is believed a gantry holding a power cable hit the carrier.

The 65,000-tonne behemoth is the second of the two Queen Elizabeth-class aircraft carriers, built to operate the new F-35B stealth jet.

More than £100m was spent upgrading Portsmouth Naval Base to accommodate the two supercarriers.

Prince of Wales is due to head to Florida later this year to begin her first set of trials with the F-35.