As he collected the fragment of shrapnel that had just blasted through the hull of HMS Prince of Wales, seaman Gordon Hall could not have imagined the lump of metal, fired from the Bismarck, would one day be valued at £1,000.

The deadly reminder of Germany’s greatest Second World War battleship and one of the most famous naval battles of the war, has just been donated by Brenda Benham, Mr Hall’s daughter, to Britain’s newest aircraft carrier and namesake of her father’s ship.

Brenda’s father had been a mechanic on HMS Prince of Wales when she was involved in the encounter with the Bismarck at the Battle of the Denmark Strait on May 24, 1941.

The Prince of Wales was badly damaged in the fight and pieces of shrapnel from a huge Bismarck shell had smashed into the engine room deep in the bowels of the ship where Gordon was working. The vessel managed to limp to Rosyth for repairs.

However, the battlecruiser HMS Hood, pride of the Royal Navy, was destroyed in the battle and sank in less than four minutes. All but three of the 1,418 seamen on board were drowned.