dhp41,
I be a landlubber boy. I didn't think about the Thames Barrier.
A friend sent me this:-
Live AIS - ShipSpotting.com - ShipSpotting.com - Ship Photos and Ship Tracker
" Portsmouth RN yard has Christos XXIII tied up alongside tonight. Ex-HMS Ark Royal was towed out of one of the inner docks today and will be hitched to this old tub sometime in the next 12-24 hours, and then, sadly, she's to be towed off to Asia to be broken up.
An MoD spokesman said that the work couldn't be done here as we had no industry capable of doing it.*What about that*company on Tyneside that controversially brought over those ex-USN asbestos-ridden destroyers to scrap a couple of years ago?
Anyhow, a light-aircraft carrier with one Lynx and a Merlin is not conducive to a projection of naval-power,methinks.