Warship a casualty of UK gales

Fierce gales have brought widespread damage to Britain

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LONDON, England -- Violent gales sweeping the UK have left Britain's newest warship seriously damaged after a passenger ferry was blown into it.

High winds swept the ferry, Pride of Portsmouth, which was carrying 800 passengers and 130 crew from the French port of Le Havre, into the HMS St Albans as the ferry tried to berth in Portsmouth harbour.

A Royal Navy spokesman said the warship, a Royal Navy Type 23 frigate, suffered "significant damage to its superstructure" but no-one was hurt in the collision on Sunday which came as fierce gales battered much of the country, with the south being the worst hit.

"It will be out of action for the time being," he told Reuters.

The ship 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 British fleet.

Britain's HMS Nottingham was also damaged just months ago

The incident comes just three months after 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.

The latest collision occurred as 70 miles-an-hour (110 kph) winds lashed Portsmouth harbour.

"The Pride of Portsmouth was being manoeuvred to her berth with assistance of tugs, when there was a big gust of wind and she was blown onto HMS St Albans," a spokesman for the ship's operators, P&O Ferries, said.

"The Pride of Portsmouth has suffered a small gash to its bow above waterline -- but HMS St Albans has come off worse," he added.

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