Adieu HMS Ark Royal

HMS Ark Royal has completed her farewell tour and has returned to Portsmouth for the last time.

HMS Ark Royal has entered her home port of Portsmouth for the last time today, bringing her 25 years of service in the Royal Navy to a close.

The aircraft carrier is being decommissioned as part of the Strategic Defence and Security Review. Her role as the current Royal Navy flagship will initially be taken on by amphibious assault ship HMS Albion.

Following a brief farewell tour of the UK and a stopover in Hamburg, the aircraft carrier, which is being decommissioned early next year, sailed into Portsmouth Naval Base today, and in keeping with tradition flew a decommissioning pennant.

Ark Royal's farewell voyage took her around the north of Scotland and on into Newcastle where she was built by Swan Hunter in their Wallsend shipyard.

By: Shelldrake