HMS Prince of Wales fault will leave crew 'crestfallen' but breakage may not spell disaster, says former Royal Navy vice admiral

Engineers have been carrying out inspections of the £3bn warship after she broke down shortly after leaving Portsmouth for the USA on Saturday.

The departure of the Nato flagship had already been delayed from Friday because of a technical problem, although it is not known if the incidents are related.

Shortly after the 65,000-tonne ship sailed on Saturday, a mechanical fault was discovered with the starboard shaft.

Now the carrier has limped back to Stokes Bay off Gosport, travelling at a rate of four knots, accompanied by tugs for the return journey to calmer waters.

Engineers could be seen at the stern of the vessel carrying out inspections with the aim of assessing the seriousness of the issue.

Naval commentators have expressed concerns that the carrier may have to return to Rosyth in Scotland for the shaft to be repaired in dry dock.

The ship’s crew will be ‘crestfallen’, according to retired Vice Admiral Bob Cooling, a former assistant chief of naval staff, who said that warships breaking down ‘isn’t unexpected’.

He said: ‘It’s not a common event, but because our warships have ground-breaking technology to give them an advantage over other warships, and there are going to be faults and breakages. It isn’t a disaster.

‘A lot of navies would carry on with a limp. In the Royal Navy, we don’t do that – it’s either 100 per cent or nothing at all.

‘We wouldn’t want our young men and women going into a difficult situation with sub-optimal conditions.

‘And we should hurrah for a bit of honesty and transparency – we are prepared to tell the world that we’re working on the problem.

‘The crew will be totally disappointed. They were expecting a high-profile deployment. People will be crestfallen, but they will get back on the job.’

He added: ‘If she goes into dry-dock, it’s a pretty serious thing. That will be a long job.’

Admiral Lord Alan West, former First Sea Lord and former chief of naval staff, agreed that faults are to be expected when running ‘highly complex machines’.

He said: ‘The bottom line is these are highly complex machines, and with highly complex machines things can go wrong. But it is very disappointing things have gone wrong at this juncture.’

The Nato flagship was sailing to undertake training exercises with the US Navy, the Royal Canadian Navy and the US Marine Corps.

Rear Admiral Steve Moorhouse, director of Force Generation, who is responsible for making sure Royal Navy ships are ready to deploy, has said the Prince of Wales might not be able to complete its planned mission to the US, where she was to undergo flight trials with the F-35B Lightning jets.

He said in a video statement released on Sunday night: ‘After the initial assessment, it’s likely that the fault will require repairs which may impact the ship’s programme.

‘Rest assured, the Royal Navy continues to meet its commitments to deliver operations and to keep the UK, our partners and allies safe.’