A heavy lifting ship is due to arrive in Australia over the weekend to bring the crippled warship HMS Nottingham back to UK waters.

Recovery ship The Swan is due to dock "in the next couple of days" in Sydney, where the type 42 destroyer is berthed, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) said.

The �300m Nottingham tore open her hull on a well-charted rock in the Tasman Sea off Australia's east coast on 7 July.

The lift will take place over this weekend and early next week

MoD spokesman

She nearly sank with 250 crew aboard during the incident near Lord Howe Island, after water flooded five compartments.

It is believed to be the first time a ship has run aground at the spot since the British whaler The Wolf about 200 years ago.

HMS Nottingham was towed to the port of Newcastle, north of Sydney, where her ammunition was offloaded and structural repairs carried out prior to her return journey to Britain for full repairs.

She arrived in Sydney harbour earlier this week.

Long journey ahead

An MoD spokesman said: "The heavy lifting ship will be of the type that sinks a section of its middle then floats under the ship, lifts it out of the water then transports it back.

"The lift will take place over this weekend and early next week."

The 22,788 ton (22,429 tonne) Swan is capable of carrying up to 25,000 tons (24,606 tonnes) of cargo on its deck, which measures 416ft by 103ft (126.8 by 31.6 metres.

Emergency repairs were needed to move the ship

She is run by the Dutch company Dockwise Shipping, which won the contract for the recovery operation.

The journey back to the UK is expected to take until the middle of December to complete, according to the MoD.

The Royal Navy has said she is repairable and work is likely to be carried out either in Portsmouth, Plymouth or at Rosyth, on the Clyde.

On-board ammunition has already been removed from the 3,500-tonne vessel after she was towed to Newcastle, about 90 miles north of Sydney, in August, for emergency repairs.

A board of inquiry has been looking into how the ship ran aground but officials have stressed that no decision had been made yet on whether to discipline the captain, Commander Richard Farrington.