A Royal Navy warship whose crew have become an internet hit with a Christmas video for their friends and family have been reunited with them in Plymouth.

Around 1,000 people welcomed helicopter carrier HMS Ocean and her crew to Plymouth from her seven-and-a-half month tour of duty which saw them play a key role in operations against the regime of Colonel Gaddafi.

Originally sent to the Mediterranean in late April to take part in amphibious warfare exercises she was redeployed to the waters off Libya at the beginning of May as the crisis there escalated.

What was due to be a seven-week exercise turned into more than seven months away on active service for the amphibious assault ship.

A video made by the crew on board, where they sing along to Mariah Carey’s festive hit All I Want For Christmas Is You to show how glad they are to be coming home has been viewed more than 700,000 times on YouTube and even came to the attention of the artist herself.

She wrote on her Twitter page: “This is the best thing I’ve ever seen, you guys just made my day! Happy Happy Christmas!!!”

On June 4 the first seaborne raids by Army Air Corps Apache attack helicopters, destroying military vehicles, installations and communications equipment, were launched from the deck of the 22,000 ton vessel, currently the largest in the Royal Navy.

Fifteen children have been born to wives and partners of the ship’s crew since they left the UK 225 days ago – including two sets of twins. In that time away the ship, based at Devonport Naval Base in the Devon city, has spent 176 days at sea and steamed more than 40,000 miles.

As the amphibious warfare vessel was reversed alongside the dock with the aid of tugs, crewmen unfurled a banner on the side saying “All I want for Christmas is You” to the waiting crowds. Many of the waiting relatives were also waving banners welcoming the service personnel home.

Lt Cleeve said she had originally had some trouble getting the crew to star in the video.

“It was a challenge to start with when I first mooted it to them, they thought I wanted them to sing the song so I didn’t get any response whatsoever,” she said.

“So I emailed them again and said ’no, you are going to mime it and I’ll put the song back on it afterwards. From that point on there was no shortage of volunteers.”

Crew member Rob Eddy said: “I haven’t seen it yet, I cannot wait to see it. Mariners have never been renowned for their singing so there was a lot of miming. I heard Mariah Carey likes it so that’s good.”

The video tribute to Mariah Carey’s song made by the crew while on board even came to the attention of the artist herself.

She wrote on her Twitter page: “This is the best thing I’ve ever seen, you guys just made my day! Happy Happy Christmas!!!”

Originally sent to the Mediterranean in late April to take part in amphibious warfare exercises, Ocean was redeployed to the waters off Libya at the beginning of May as the crisis there escalated.

What was due to be a seven-week exercise turned into more than seven months away on active service for the assault ship.

On June 4 the first seaborne raids by Army Air Corps Apache attack helicopters, destroying military vehicles, installations and communications equipment, were launched from the deck of the 22,000 ton vessel.

In their time away the ship, based at Devonport Naval Base, has spent 176 days at sea and travelled more than 40,000 miles.

Fifteen children have been born to wives and partners of the ship’s crew since they left the UK 225 days ago – including two sets of twins.

Leading aircraft handler Ashley Mugford, 29, will now get to spend Christmas at home in Camborne, Cornwall, with daughters Eva and Mya after his partner Lauren Seymour gave birth in September. The couple have a third daughter, Alicia, who is six.

Ms Seymour, a family support worker, said: “It isn’t often you can make children’s wishes come true and I can do that this Christmas. Ashley’s arrival back home is the perfect end to a great year.

Landing Craft Maintainer Stephen Cottam was reunited on the dockside with his fiancee, Sasha Hole, and their five-week-old baby, Freya.

He was flown home for his daughter’s birth but then returned to the ship for the rest of the tour.

Today, he joked that he would be a “soft touch” now he had been reunited with them.

“It does help if people, like Sasha has done, email you photographs so you can see the changes,” he said.

“But it doesn’t quite cover the fact that you can hold her – it’s amazing.”

Asked whether he would put his daughter down today, he said: “No.”

Lieutenant David Bartlett’s wife, Marie-Claire, only gave birth to their daughter, Harriet, eight weeks ago, but he was also very glad to be reunited with them – as was his wife.

She joked: “It will be great to have some help with the midnight changes.”