200902 by Navy News

HMSARK ROYAL IV

5-NAVYNE 5 IN THE annals of Ihe post-war Royal Navy the name of one ship resonated and continues to resonate louder Ihan any other. Perhaps it was the name she inherited irom her iorebear, scourge oi the Nazis. Perhaps it was her endearing and enduring patron. Perhaps it was the iconic image or the schoolboy wandering down a Merseyside street, the gleaming white Ark and the garitries oi cammell Laird towering Dver him. Parliape it was a television -

sero\

documentary series

and

ilag-waving hit single to accompany it.

Perhaps it was the spirit and soul of the thousands oi men. whatever. HMS Ark Royal IV is the ship which dennes the Royal Navy oi the cold war era. it is a story which begins not on Merseyslde, not even by the

sea. but among those dark satanic mills and cobbled streets. soot~ blackened terraced houses and imposing public monuments to the

industrial revolution. The people oi Leeds

‘adopted’

Ark Royal ill barely a week beiore

spurred them on to raise more then 99m roughly iaioom today. Their generosity ensured the she was sunk in November194I,The loss -

name

Ark Royal would live on. And so it was that Princess Marina, the Duchess at Kent, ‘laid the keel' on May 11 194:: [eight days alter shipwrights had actually begun work. .i and hull number

H19 began to take shape. ill9 would grow tor the next seven years. withthe veil or wartime secrecy tilted she would assume her true name. it was not Princess Manna but Queen Elizabeth in years to come the Dueen Mother who perionned the honours on a spring day in iairlienhead in 1950. More than 50,000 people watched the camer enter the water tor the tirst time on May 3. it would be tour more years beiore she ZEAL put to sea, however, and i=ebriiary 1955 beiore she was lormally commissioned. sl>Altlsii Al=l,‘ADA issa our illustration depicts Ark in the latter cADlz 1595 end or that iirst which

days

The or the liner were numbered thanks to the let age endt e revolution in air power in the 1950s. see Hawks and sea venoiris gave way to soimitars and see vixens. The ens was a decade oi huge social, economic, political and technological change and many, it not all, these iactors impacted on

—

commission, during

time she underwent a iew tweaks: the six-barrel solors gun in lront oi the island was removed, as was the HADT on the

—

DARDl<NE.LESIU15 ltolllllnv lain

the port side abait the deck edge liit. At this stage she did not spon the iamous R09 pennant number on the side or her island. or the code R on the ilight deck these were introduced by the 2nd commission. A sizeable proportion other bnei tirst commission was spent in the Meditenanean, paniy conducting trials and tests, partly as a showpiece tor the RN and NATD. her second commission, 195568. was only slightly longer than on

her iirst, but it did see a magical tour or the usA, including a tirst visit to New York. berthed e slt7ne's ttirow irom the

legendary liner oueen Mary.

class: Audacious-classFleet carrier

Pennant number: R09 Builder: cammeil Laird. airkenhead

Motto: zeal does not rest sponsor: Her Malesly Queen Elizabeth (the

»-c:.ws‘\

Ark's third, iourth and iiith commissions. aetween the tail end oi 1959 and ootober lead, the carrier was “run very her by a succession oi exercises,

i7oE§iioT RESV

Don ierward gallery. A mirror lending sight sponson was added

marathon

deployments

and, increasingly.

sPAii1IvEit'l'owill ItIE|7|YERRAHEANi9ll- at lslslilnliclt M41 irlhtril cnllllois tall

east oi suez dealing with the end

empire. early spring

or 1966, Ark was t1|sDalched to east Airica to lead the newlyclormed eeira patrol, eniorcing sanctions against Rhodesia ttodey in the

Zimbabwe) which had illegally declared its independence. The decision to commit Ark came lust days after whitehail pulled the plug on the tutors carrier programme, deciding it didn't need seaborne air power. For the time being, it ceita ly I910, £32m (roughly i:4oom today) her sixth and iinai commission. That commission would be her

dozen Buccaneers

were

however. aetween 1967 and

ploughed into Ark ahead or longest and most tiniiamou A was

her punch, two-seat Phantoms her sh id,

aided by a quartet oi cannets on airborne ear1y—warning duties. seven sea Kings searched icr enemy submarines, and one weesex was on stand-by ior search and Rescue duties. The commission began in controversial iashion; having shadowed the carrier very closeiy, a soviet Ku\|in—class destroyer got too close and clipped the carrier. Two Russian sailors died in the collision.

Their government blamed the RM. Questions were asked westrninster. A Board or inquiry convened Ark‘s captain

was

cleare

Navy was at iauit (as it admitted privately...) Atter ihiamy, eventaily came lame... thanks to little) to the RAF. when the Air Force turned down a new-style oi documentary series

the Red

the RN said “yes" and invited tour-strong EEC team aboard to cover Ark's us deployment.

‘Hy-on-the-wall’ programme

The result was sailor, tirst aired in August 1975. Aided by a No.1 theme tune by Rod stewart. a dramatic high-sees rescue, a string oi characters and a puppet who sailed rather close to the wind, the programme set the benchmarktor every documentary about the military tor the next three decades. taut TV star or not, it could not save itMs Ark Royal. in February 1977, the government announced the carrier would be out ot senrice beiore the end oi197a.Ark's ship's company had hoped she would remain In service until her successor HMS invincible tironically launched 27 years to the day) ioined the Fleet. taut it was not to be. but at least Ark Royal went out with a bang,

whimper. she took pride or place at the silver JubileeFleet Review on Jurle 27 (her linal visit to Portsmouth, as it turned out hosting the Queen, Duke of Edinburgh, then Prime Minister Jim aliaghan and every available commanding oiiicer in the Fleet. she exercised with NATO, with the French, she spent iour months in the Americas, exercised some more with NATO, hosted the oueen Mother tor the iinal time, paid a rareweii visit to cibraltar and to Malta, too, where 10,000 people waited to see her and witnessed not

—

the very last

Squadron

tixed.wing

aircratt

tcannet

044 or 349 Naval Air

B Flight) to land Dn her hallowed iiight deck. The last jets and propeller-driven aircrait departed

Phantom held the distinction oi being the last aircrait catapulted irom Ark hereto the ship entered Devcnpon tor the iinal time on December4 1978, treiiing a «loud decomisslohlng pennant. There were plans to save her— notably as a lioating museum on the Thames at Greenwich but in the end she went ior scrapi towed out of Plymouth sound in september leao. over the next tour years, breekers at ceirnryan, near stranraer, tore her avert. some of her remains. An anchor at veovilton.The admira|‘s cabin in a scottish hotel. The memories live on. And so too the —

name.

iuture Queen Mother) Laid down: May 3, 1943

Launched: May 3, I950 commissioned: February 25, less Decommisslnnefl: February 14, 1979 scrapped: cairnryan, scotland, 1980-54 Displacement: 43,340 tons (53,340 tons iuily loaded) 003 it

speed: in excess or 30 knots complement: 1,532 to was shlp‘s company, 2,295 to 2,345 with embarked squadrons, Average age or ships

company 2i Galleys: six choices oi meal provided at meal times in two dining halls. cheis used 3,500 eggs, 1‘/2 ions or meat, seven tons or potatoes daily. They baked 5,000

rolls and 300 loaves each day Propulsion: a x Admiraltydrurrl-type boilers working at 400 lb per squale inch pressure, Parsons geared turbines, tour shaits producing t52,000 shalt horsepower cost: $121,428,000 (c. E400rn today) Armament: B x twin A.5in guns, 5 x sextuple 40mm Bcrfols anti-aircratt guns, 2 x twin Aomm aoiors, 7 x single 40mm Rotors, x 3 pot Aircrait [First camlvlissiun): c.5D including Hawker sea

Hawk. Fairey eannet, Douglas skyreider. De Havillend sea venom, westland Dragonlly, westiand whirlwind some random iacts: The electricity generators produced 9

Megawatts oi power (the next—generation carriers can

produce t0sMw enough electricity to power swindon): 7

the osmosis plants Droduced i.0o0 tons or water every

day

Artwork‘ Ross wattoh vinththahksto Emle Ruliler tMetro olitari aorough orwirral Archives Service) David scenic and Gerry Relldle toevenpon Dockyard historical centre, Dave Kirkpatrick lor providing many photographs ot an

Ark Royal model, and Michael Brown oi Task Force ‘72 lot their invaluable help with the reierence material which helped make this illustration possible