The Royal Navy'snewest warship has been seriously damaged in a collision with a P&O passenger ferry in stormy weather off Portsmouth, officials say.
High winds swept the ferry, Pride of Portsmouth, carrying 800 passengers and 130 crew from the French port of Le Havre, up against the HMS St Albans, a Royal Navy Type 23 frigate, as the ferry tried to berth in Portsmouth harbour.
No one was hurt in the collision and neither ship was expected to take on water, but a Royal Navy spokesman said the frigate suffered "significant damage to its superstructure".
"It will be out of action for the time being," he said of the ship which was only handed over to the Navy last year and was in its last week of preparation for sea training before becoming an operational part of the fleet.
Just three months ago Britain's high-tech Type 42 destroyer HMS Nottingham, equipped with state-of-the-art navigation equipment, sailed onto well-charted rocks off Australia and punctured its hull.