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Prince William visits Faslane Naval Base as Commodore-in-Chief of Scotland and Submarines

19th October 2007

Prince William took part in early-morning manoeuvres on the River Clyde today and met naval personnel and their families when he visited a naval base in Scotland.

Prince William, who is Commodore-in-Chief of Scotland and Submarines, was visiting HM Naval base Clyde, at Faslane, some 25 miles north west of Glasgow. 

The base is home to the United Kingdom's strategic nuclear deterrent and the headquarters of the Royal Navy in Scotland.

The Prince, who is a Second Lieutenant with the Household Cavalry (Blues and Royals), will undertake a secondment with the Royal Navy and RAF next year.

Early in the day, the Prince took to the water with Royal Marines based at Faslane, home to the fleet of Trident submarines.

Dressed in a dark blue immersion suit and dark green life-jacket, he went out in an offshore raiding craft with four Royal Marine commanders.

As the sun rose they sped up the Gare Loch, accompanied by another offshore raiding craft (ORC) and two rigid inflatable boats (RIB).

Prince William stood at the back of the boat with three Marines while one manned a gun at the front.

They carried out manoeuvres at speed for about 10 minutes around MV Adamant, which was idling in the loch.

ORCs are used for the protection of submarines and surface craft moving in and out of the base.

Faslane is the first base in the UK to have the fleet of two boats, which were delivered two weeks ago.

They can travel at up to 40 knots and are equipped with two machine guns and a grenade launcher. The 30ft (9.1m) boats weigh 4.5 tons.

Later in the day, Prince William visited Naval families’ accommodation at Churchill Square, Helensburgh.

William met Royal Navy staff, families and youth groups at the Drumfork Club, a social club for Naval families, before formally opening the newly refurbished ‘Dungeon’ at the Club.

Yesterday, Prince William visited a children’s football project in Newcastle led by The Football Association, of which he is President, and HMS Daring on the River Clyde in Glasgow.