MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

HMS Invincible sails out of service

The country's oldest aircraft carrier which saw action during the Falkland Islands war in 1982, bowed out of active service on Monday as it steamed into its home port of Portsmouth in southern England for the last time.

The ship's company paraded on deck as yachts and local ferries blasted fog-horns in tribute to the 28-years HMS Invincible spent travelling around the oceans to some of the world's military hotspots.

A group of pipers played as they stood on the distinctive ski-jump ramp at the end of the flight deck as the ship docked at Portsmouth Naval base not far from Nelson's flagship Victory.

While the veteran of the battle of Trafalgar sits in dry dock as a tourist attraction for thousands of visitors, Invincible's end is less certain.

After maintenance work the ship will essentially be mothballed until 2010 when a decision will be made to either sell, scrap or possibly turn her into a museum, the Ministry of Defence said.

The ship, once the floating home of Queen Elizabeth's son Prince Andrew who served as a helicopter pilot during the Falklands conflict, will be officially de-commissioned on August 3.

HMS Invincible is the sixth ship to bear the name which dates back to a French 74-gunner called L'Invincible captured in 1747. The current Invincible's immediate predecessor was launched in 1909 and sunk in 1916 in World War One's Battle of Jutland with the loss of all but 6 of her 1,000-strong crew.

Made flagship of the British fleet in 2003, the modern-day HMS Invincible at 22,000 tonnes and 686 feet long was one of the Royal Navy's largest vessels, but is dwarfed by aircraft carriers in the U.S. navy.

A typical U.S. carrier weighs in at close to 100,000 tonnes, are usually over 1,000 feet long and can carry upwards of 85 aircraft.

With HMS Invincible out of service Britain is left with her two sister carriers -- Ark Royal, currently being refitted -- and Illustrious.