The captain of a British navy warship and three of his former officers have pleaded guilty to running the ship aground on rocks near a remote island off Australia last year.
Captain Richard Farrington and his three colleagues accepted the charges against them at a court martial in the southern port city of Portsmouth, the British Ministry of Defence said.
"All four officers have pleaded guilty," a spokesman told journalists, adding that a verdict was expected within days.
Farrington stands charged with neglecting his duty as commander of the warship HMS Nottingham.
Officer of the watch James Denney, navigating officer Andrew Ingham and executive officer John Lea are all charged with either causing or allowing the ship to be stranded by their negligence.
The Nottingham, an air-defence destroyer, ran aground on July 7 last year when it hit submerged but well-charted rocks off Lord Howe Island, 480 miles northeast of Sydney in the Tasman Sea.
The collision tore a hole in the hull of the 125-metre (412-foot) ship.
After a month anchored off the island, the warship was towed to port in Australia, then conveyed to Britain on a chartered Dutch semi-submersible transporter.
It finally arrived back in Portsmouth last December and underwent repairs estimated at the time to cost 26 million pounds.
The Navy says the ship, still anchored at Portsmouth, will be back in action by mid to late 2004.