Captain Owen Honors, 49, from Syracuse, New York, took command in May of the USS Enterprise, which was the world's first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier and can carry a crew of more than 5,800.

The videos were produced in 2006 and 2007 while he was Executive Officer and second-in-command, and were shown throughout the ship on closed-circuit television.

The material includes gay slurs, men mimicking masturbation and women showering together.

The ship spent two six-month deployments in the Persian Gulf in 2006 and 2007 in support of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.

US Navy spokesmen described the videos as "clearly inappropriate" and stated that they "were not acceptable then and are not acceptable in today's Navy". An investigation is to be carried out.

Capt Honors, a former F-14 Tomcat pilot who trained at the Top Gun academy at Miramar, produced a series of videos entitled "XO Movie Night". They depict sailors in drag, the use of abusive terms for homosexuals and simulated masturbation.

In one scene, it is implied that an officer is having sex in his cabin with a donkey. In others, there are shots of sailors apparently eating faeces and carrying out a rectal examination.

According to the "Virginian-Pilot" newspaper, which obtained clips from the videos, there were complaints on board the ship about the videos at the time and they ceased being produced in 2007.

In one clip, Capt Honors says: "Over the years I've gotten several complaints about inappropriate materials in these videos, never to me personally but, gutlessly, through other channels."

"This evening, all of you bleeding hearts... why don't just go ahead and hug yourself for the next 20 minutes or so, because there's a really good chance you're going to be offended."

He then tells his viewers to get ready for something that is always popular: "the F-bomb." The video then shows several clips linked together in which he swears repeatedly. Another portion, set to a song called "Spank", shows clips of Capt Honors and other sailors pretending to masturbate.

After that, Capt Honors says: "Finally, let's get to my favorite topic - something foreign to the gay kid over there: chicks in the shower."

The video then shows two female sailors pretending to shower together. Two male sailors are also shown showering and soaping each other down. There is, however, no nudity and the sequences are clearly designed to be amusing. In one clip, two apparently naked women are in a shower with a cardboard cutout of Capt Honors.