The QUEEN ELIZABETH Rear – the final hull and gigantic section of the Aircraft Carrier QUEEN ELIZABETH has sailed for Rosyth from the Clyde onboard the Italian owned giant barge, AMT TRADER – the second largest in the world – towed by an Italian anchor handler tug, CARLO MAGNO.    Both pieces of equipment are owned by the Augustea Group of Naples.    The local Clyde based tugs, the Danish controlled units of the Svitzer Marine (Maersk but any other name) assisted the convoy to the sea.    The 600 mile voyage from the Clyde around the top of Scotland to Rosyth, is now almost routine and has proved one of the least contentious parts of the Aircraft Carrier Alliance which is constructing the two aircraft carriers.   

This section - Lower Block 04 - weighing 11,300 tonnes – was pieced together at the BAE Systems yard at Govan – and is 282ft long and 131ft wide and some 75ft high and will contains the two main engine rooms, the sick bay and quarters for some of the 1,500 sailors and air group personnel.     Depending on how you measure things Lower Block 04 represents about 20% of the completed aircraft carrier.   On its arrival in the Forth, the Lower Block 04 will be floated off the specialist barge and moved into position in the dry dock, ready to join the other sections already in place.

Meanwhile, production on both Lower Blocks 03 and 04 of the sister ship, the PRINCE OF WALES continues to progress at Govan, while the aft island for the first ship is under way at the BAE Systems yard at Scotstoun yard.     Further sections of the hull are under construction in Portsmouth.