County Durham's affiliated warship, the newest in the Royal Navy, acame 'home' for the first time yesterday. Chris Webber sailed with the ship from Plymouth to North Shields.

ENEMY planes above, explosions on deck, gaping holes and flooding water below.

These are the wargames played with the deadly seriousness of men and women who know that such drills, in these troubled times, could one day prove to be for real.

A third of the company aboard County Durham's very own affiliated ship are aged between 16 and 18. A young crew for the Navy's youngest ship.

Most of us are woken with a whistle at 7am, others are up earlier, taking the chance to see the dawn break on a still, velvet sea with dozens of commercial vessels on the horizon.

In the high-tech control room, screens bleep with simulated enemy aircraft as the captain, Jerry Stanford, directs the operation to defend the Bulwark.

On the immense flight deck, which can embark up to seven helicopters including Sea Kings, Lynx and Gazelles and Army Apaches, other crew extinguish imaginary fires.

Below deck "floods" are dealt with. The operations are timed, but no one barks orders. If someone shouts here, it counts.

As part of the wargames, lunch has to be made, eaten by 400 ship's company and Royal Marines and cleared away in 75 minutes. There's laughter as a young girl on watch is dispatched to move the captain on for lingering.

I am allowed to waylay another County Durham lad, Mark "Bob" Stoker.

The leading hand engineer, from Lanchester, quickly sums up Navy life.

"You never know what you're doing from one day to the next," he says.

"It's even more up and down than supporting Sunderland!"

Later, with the rare treat of real coffee, Captain Stanford, who is married with three young children, relaxes in his room and speaks of his ship's commitment to County Durham.

"We intend to reach all parts of the community, from the smallest school at Forest-in-Teesdale, in Upper Teesdale, to Durham University. We're here for the entire community," he says.

Next morning, there is the chance to see the ship part-flooded - an alarming concept to all the older Navy men.

There is also an opportunity to whiz out on one of four brand new Landing Craft Utility vehicles to North Shields dock.

It feels a lot more like Thunderbirds than Nelson -- but the great man himself would surely approve of HMS Bulwark.

Bulwark facts:

* HMS Bulwark cost £300m. The Barrow-made ship weighs 184,000 tonnes and is 176 metres long.

* It is the seventh HMS Bulwark. The first was ordered in 1777, the last was a Hermes class aircraft carrier.

* Captain RF Scott, later of the Antarctic, commanded the fifth Bulwark in 1908.

* Bulwark's predecessor, the assault ship HMS Fearless, starred in a James Bond film, The Spy Who Loved Me.

* It can hold 1,096 people and has a ship's company of 304. The chefs prepare up to 4,000 meals a day.

* It carries 1,500 tonnes of diesel and can travel 9,500 miles without refuelling while travelling at 15 knots. Its top speed is 18 knots.

* The ship is affiliated to County Durham and Bishop Auckland Hospital Children's Ward.