HUNDREDS of shipyard workers are swapping the Clyde for the Forth to help build Britain's biggest ever warship.

Confirmation of the move came after a giant hull section left Govan on a barge at the start of a 600-mile journey to the Rosyth yard after a delay of nearly a week.

Stormy weather off the north of Scotland saw officials at BAE Systems cancel the departure last Monday. They weather watched for days before the go-ahead was given yesterday.

Welded on to the deck of one of the world's largest barges, the 11,000-tonne section, known as LB04, set sail down the Clyde. It will form the biggest part of the hull of the new aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth.

The section includes living quarters for hundreds of crew, an engine room, hospital wards, a dental surgery, an officers' canteen and part of the flight deck.

For three years 1500 workers at the Govan and Scotstoun yards have painstakingly put the massive section together. Its journey to Rosyth, up the west coast, around Orkney and down the North Sea coast to Fife, will take seven days.

Once there, 250 Clyde workers will travel daily to Fife for the next two years to help piece together the super-sized carrier, which is being built in sections at shipyards across the UK.

Another 350 workers from the Clyde have been based in Rosyth for months after an earlier hull section was also built at Govan.

BAE official Angus Holt said: "There's a real sense of pride here in the yard today. This is the final hull section of HMS Queen Elizabeth and her arrival in Rosyth will mark an exciting and significant phase in the programme when we will really see the immense scale of the nation's flagship air-craft carriers."

gordon.thomson@ eveningtimes.co.uk