Embarrassing yes but that is what the sea trials are all about. Like having a snagging list on a new house. Don't think you will find a ship anywhere that doesn't leak somewhere. That's what the bilge pumps are for.
Hands-up all those people who've bought a new car and had NOTHING wrong with it. The leak is 200 litres/hour, the size of a water-butt - if you extrapolate it to 5 tons of water/day on a ship weighing 65,000 tons and about 300 metres long it comes down to a bit of damp on the floor. I don't think it's in much danger of sinking anytime soon.
If the fragrant Ms Sturgeon, who knows a thing or two about steering untried leaky vessels, can call having to plane the joints of a brand new bridge where it meets land 'snagging' then yes, sorting out leaks on a big old boat can use the same terminology even if both show workmanship to the usual standard.
I did hear it was due back at the yard to have speed bumps fitted to stop those young tearaways creating havoc for pedestrians on the deck with their fast jets.
It's nothing unusual to find faults large and small in anything new, that's what sea trials are all about. A leaking propshaft seal is nothing to worry about, it's not bad enough to stop the ship sailing and doing her job.It will be repaired and all will be well.
Just for a bit of fun, a back-of-envelope calculation.
Deck area is approx 16,000sq metres. If 1mm of rain falls that is 16 cubic metres = 16 tons of water.
To put it another way, if 1mm of rain falls in a day (light rainfall) that's the equivalent of 3 days' leak.
Man the lifeboats!!
I was a Marine Engineer back in the 60's and the sea glands then were meant to leak to lubricate and cool the bearing which was lignum vitae a hardwood, our ship never sunk and was 1/16th the size of the carrier.
I really dont understand all the hysteria, it's being trialed for Gawds sake.
Anyone who has owned any sort of boat knows water gets in, that's why you have a bilge pump. This is a massive vessel that amount of water leaking would probably take it 100 years to sink.