LONDON (AFP) - Prince William donned the blue uniform of the Royal Navy on Tuesday as he started a two-month attachment which will see him serving on patrols searching for Caribbean drug runners.

The 25-year-old second-in-line to the throne will spend three weeks undergoing basic naval training, to learn skills like navigation and sea safety, before joining the frigate HMS Iron Duke in the North Atlantic.

In a light-hearted first session in a 12-metre craft on the River Dart in Dartmouth, the prince failed to lower an anchor properly and joked he owed a "crate of beer" to a colleague following the mistake.

Sub-Lieutenant Wales, as he is known, was however praised for his skills in handling the craft.

Commander Paul Halton, director of training at Britannia Royal Naval College, Dartmouth, where William is under instruction, said the prince was a fast learner.

"The important point to make is that for some of the manoeuvres he did today it would ordinarily take a young officer a number of weeks or months of training (to master) and he's got the hang of it in just a day -- so pretty good," he said.

The prince will spend five weeks on board the HMS Iron Duke, attempting to intercept shipments of drugs in the Caribbean.

The prince is an army officer but is also training with other parts of the military, of which he would be nominal commander-in-chief if he becomes king.

The media will follow his Caribbean attachment closely after stories suggesting he may have been afforded privileges unavailable to other military personnel.

Last month, the Ministry of Defence confirmed he had landed a Royal Air Force helicopter at his girlfriend Kate Middleton's family home during a training session.

His brother Prince Harry was forced to cut short his deployment with the army in Afghanistan this year after foreign media broke a carefully arranged news blackout.

Source: AFP