Page 106 - The Royal Lancers Chapka 2018

104 REGIMENTAL JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL LANCERS (QUEEN ELIZABETHS’ OWN)
Allied Regiments and Affiliations
First heartbeat of HMS Prince of Wales
2018 was a milestone year for HMS Prince of Wales, early in the year she was floated and moved from the dry dock where she was assembled to her fitting-out berth. In a delicate over- night operation, sluices were opened and water gradually filled the dry dock, specially enlarged for the 65,000-tonne warship. The aircraft carrier then moved from the dock, her home for the past three years, to the neighbouring basin, where she will com- plete final fitting out before departing on sea trials in the Au-
Members of the Ship’s Company abseil from the Goliath Crane
Industrial partners and crew with one of four main diesel generators
tumn of 2019. Prince of Wales is 3,000 tonnes heavier than her sister ship was at the same stage – as the second ship in the class, construction and fitting out has moved more swiftly thanks to the lessons learnt building HMS Queen Elizabeth. The success- ful undocking of the carrier six months ahead of schedule serves as a pertinent example of this progress. Since then the fitting out and commissioning of the Ship’s systems has quickly gath- ered pace and the handover of Ship and systems is underway. Ship’s company have taken ownership of the Ship’s Control Cen- tre, Operations room and the Bridge as well as numerous other compartments. Ship’s systems have steadily been coming online with the Ventilation and Air Conditioning systems now running under RN ownership, the ballast system is keeping the vessel up- right and the radar systems are being set to work. Despite some extremely challenging emergent defects the first of the Ship’s eight engines has been successfully load tested and is ready to power the trials required to get the Ship to sea, essentially the first of her ‘Hearts’ is beating. The crew have been busy training to operate the Ship through the various levels of operational ca- pability, from firefighting training, equipment operating train- ing to the actual operation of the propulsion systems there is always a lot to learn. Amongst this, personnel have been aiming to raise £100,000 for charity through sponsored activities such as abseiling from the Goliath crane. HMS Prince of wales will put to sea for the first time later this year to commence sea trials prior to being commissioned into the Royal Navy in December.
HMS Prince of Wales alongside the berth in Rosyth dockyard