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Farewell Liverpool – and thank you: Flagship Prince of Wales ends Mersey visit on a high
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9 December 2024
The nation’s flagship is homeward bound after eight magical days on the Mersey, her 800 crew all ‘honorary Scousers’.
HMS Prince of Wales leaves Liverpool cruise terminal this afternoon to return for Portsmouth and begin preparations for her maiden deployment in the spring, after an impeccable visit to one of her two affiliated cities.
Having received the Freedom of the City on Friday, the ship brought the curtain down on her eight-day stay on the Mersey by opening up to the public.
Crew had hoped to host 10,000 souls over the weekend, but Storm Darragh scuppered the first day (it was so windy that despite the 18 ropes and hawsers, lowered anchor and tug support, the enormous carrier still gave the impression of moving at her jetty).
The weather eased yesterday to allow a constant stream of visitors from 9.30am till the gangway closed in the late afternoon: more than 5,000 people in all.
Minibuses setting off long before dawn from across northern England and northern Midlands brought Sea, Air, Army, Combined Cadets and more for a tour ahead of the general public.
Emerging from the security hut gave the youngsters their first glimpse of the carrier, prompting loud ‘woos’ from excited cadets.
“Just being on a ship is cool,” said 13-year-old William from Wakefield – one of ten Sea Cadets from West Yorkshire invited to represent their units, while cadets from TS Galloway in Preston were challenged to decipher ten acronyms by their bosses such as “SE” or “AWW”.
Luckily there were stances and displays hosted by every department on board to unpick such conundrums.
“This is my first time on a ship and it’s been great,” said 12-year-old James.
His friend Thomas, also 12, added: “The size of the ship and the equipment aboard is just amazing.”
Other youngsters were occupied hurling balls to knock bricks out of a virtual wall; older visitors tried their hand at rowing 500m courtesy of the carrier’s gym machines.
It’s been a great week, a really great reception, and a really good way to both relax but also show what we can do.
The ship’s cavernous hangar (you can fit two Type 23s side-by-side) has served as a floating conference centre/exhibition hall all week for events aimed at every strata and facet of society – ‘soft power’ at its best.
The ship’s store did a roaring trade in mementos: sweatshirts, badges, coins, candy canes for the kids (£1), HMS Prince of Wales wine and port for the adults (£20 and £30) respectively.
The drone team from 700X Squadron were keen to show off the Malloy drones and Pumas they’ll take with them – a three-strong team with four drones – on the Carrier Strike Group deployment. They’re particularly keen to demonstrate the effectiveness of the Malloy quadcopter as a potential lifesaver in man overboard drills: launching the drone to drop a raft, life jacket/buoy or other aids.
The flight deck team under Lieutenant Commander Neil Pitt used a scale model and replica jets and helicopter to demonstrate how they will marshal more than a dozen fast jets plus Merlin/Wildcats on the maiden deployment.
“It’s like a giant game of Jenga or Tetris, moving the aircraft around safely from their slots on the deck – each one is given a ‘postcode’,” he points to an assigned space. In contrast to the old generation of carriers, the jets are marshalled forward, the aft flight deck is devoted to helicopters; the F-35s need just 350ft of run up, aided by the ski ramp, to get airborne on a sortie.
“We’ve learned a lot from HMS Queen Elizabeth and how they do things,” Neil continued as his team moved the toy planes around the miniature deck for the benefit of the public. “There are only 29 handlers in my team – on a US carrier you’ll find 300.”
What the model couldn’t demonstrate was the sound and smell of a F-35B thundering down the deck… with Neil or one of three colleagues the closest person to the jet giving the go signal.
“You can’t hear anything due to the noise from the engine. It’s all on visual signals – waiting for the green light, then: go!”
He’s thoroughly enjoyed the chance to thrust his department into the limelight during the Liverpool visit (TV viewers may well have caught some of them on BBC Breakfast).
“It’s been a great week, a really great reception, and a really good way to both relax but also show what we can do.”
The last act of the visit was to embark 270 family members – parents and children at sea – for the voyage home as a thank-you for their support (the carrier has been away frequently in 2024 and will be at sea/deployed for most of 2025).