Royal Navy's flagship arrives today

The Royal Navy's Fleet Flagship, the carrier HMS Illustrious captained by Robert Cooling, arrives in Grand Harbour this morning accompanied by the Type 42 destroyer HMS Exeter (Cdr A.W. Reed).

The carrier will berth at Pinto Wharf, two days before the arrival of the Queen and Duke of Edinburgh for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting taking place over the weekend.

Captain Cooling will host a reception aboard on Thursday morning in the presence of the royal visitors. The carrier recently underwent a £120 million refit during a two-year break.

Major changes, besides new equipment, included revamping of the hangars and the replacement of the sky jump bows. But the major modernisation has included the navigation system; the carrier now operates solely on electronic charts, dispensing with paper charts.

Illustrious was first commissioned in 1982 and has since undergone various modernisation refits. She was in Malta for the 50th anniversary celebrations of the end of the war in Europe in 1995, under Captain Jonathon Band. He is the current Commander-in-Chief Fleet and in February will take over the senior Navy appointment of First Sea Lord.

The previous Illustrious, the fourth to carry the name, was a famous World War Two carrier, commissioned in 1940. A few months later, in January 1941, she was massively attacked by the Luftwaffe while escorting a convoy to Malta, where she sought shelter.

The German dive-bombers destroyed a large part of the Cottonera cities in their efforts to destroy the carrier in harbour. She was temporarily patched up at the dockyard and a few days later sailed safely to Alexandria during the night. An exhibition on the Illustrious Blitz is being held at Senglea to coincide with the visit. The carrier will be featured on a stamp in a set on Malta's maritime history to be issued by Maltapost next year. HMS Exeter entered service in 1980 and saw action in the Falklands in 1982. The previous Exeter was a twin-funnel light cruiser which took part in the Battle of the River Plate against the German pocket battleship Graf Spee in September 1939 and against the battleship Bismarck in May 1941.

She was torpedoed and sunk by the Japanese in the Battle of the Java Sea on March 1, 1942. The members of the crew who were made prisoners-of-war included a number of Maltese: they were brutally treated by their captors during three years of bitter captivity.

The current president of the Malta Branch of the Royal Naval Association, Charles Paris, is one of the survivors.

A 21-gun salute will be fired from the old Saluting Battery below the Upper Barrakka Gardens in Valletta by Fondazzjoni Wirt Artna as the Illustrious enters Grand Harbour at 11 a.m. Five newly emplaced historic smooth-bore guns will be used for the purpose. The guns are early 19th century British iron 24-pdr muzzle loaders designed by Thomas Blomfield, Superintendent of Ordnance at the Royal Arsenal in Woolwich in 1786.

On entry into the harbour, the carrier will commence firing its guns according to the old protocol for visiting foreign naval ships.