Royal Navy's smallest ship gleans a safe route to Portsmouth for future aircraft carrier
A ROYAL Navy boat used to scan the wreck of the Mary Rose is now playing a crucial role in getting Britain's largest warship safely to Portsmouth.
HMS Gleaner, the smallest vessel in the navy, has spent weeks surveying every inch of the Forth estuary to ensure aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth leaves Rosyth dockyard without a hitch.
Nineteen times longer, 15 times wider and 3,000 times heavier, the new carrier dwarfed the small survey craft as she scanned the huge inner basin at Rosyth, where Queen Elizabeth is in the final stages of completion alongside sister ship HMS Prince of Wales.
Queen Elizabeth– the largest warship ever built by the navy – is due to begin trials in the North Sea next spring ahead of her debut in her home base of Portsmouth later next year.