HMS ARK ROYAL IV IN THE annals of the post-war Flt name
of
one
to resonate
-
ship resonated
—
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not on Merscyside. nor even by the sea, but among those dark satanic mills
and cobbled streets. soot-blackened
Audacious-class Fleet carrier
Pennant number: R09 Builder: Carmnell Laird, Blrkerirlead
Motto: zeal does not rest
sponson Her Maiesty Queen Elizabeth(the
luture Queen
Commissioned:
February 25.
I955 Decdmmissioned: February 14, 1979
scrapped: cairnryan, Scotland. 1980784
Displacement: 43,340 tons (53,340 tons iuily loaded)
Length: see it Beam: 153 it Draught. 35 it
speed:
0130 knots oomplemenr 1,632 to 1,745 Ship's company; 2295 to 2,345 with embarked squadrons. Average age oi ship's company: 21 in excess
Galleys:
choices or meal provided at meal times in two dining halls. cheis used 3,500 eggs, 1‘/2 tons or meat, seven tons or potatoes daily They baked 6,000 rolls and and loaves each day Propulsion: a x Admiraltydrum»type boilers working at 400 lb per square inch pressure: Parsons geared turbines, iour shaits producing 152.000 shai-t horsepower ix
Dost: 221,425,000 (c £4uiJm todayi
Armament: a x twin 4.5in guns, 5 x sextuple 40mm Boiors anti-aircrait guns, 2 x twin Aomm Eoiors, 7 x single Aurrirrl i':lo1ors,4 x 3 pdr Aircraft (First commission): c 50 including Hawker sea Hawk. Fairey Gannet, Douglas skyraider, De iiavilland sea venom, westland Dragonily,westland whirlwind some random iacts: The electricity generators produced 9 Megawatts oi power (the nextgeneralidn carriers can produce l0aMw enough electricity to power swindoni: the osmosis plants produced 1,1101: tons ot water every day
terraced houses and imposing public monuments to the industrial revolution. The people of Leeds ‘adopted’ Ark Royal III barelya week beioreshe was sunk in November 1941. The loss spurred them on to raise irinre than 29m roughly €300m today. Their generosity ensured the name Ark Royal would live on. And so it was that Princess Marina. the Duchess oi Kent, ‘laid the keel‘ on May 11 1943 (eight days after Shipwrights had actually begun work...) and hull number 1119 began to take shape. 1119 would grow for the next seven years. with the veil oi wartime secrecy liited she would assume her true name. it was not Princess Marina but queen Elizabeth in years to come the Queen Mothar— who pencrmed the honours on a spring day in lairkenhead in 1950. More than 50,001; people watched the carrier enter the water ior the hrst time on May 3. it would be iour more years beiore she put to sea, however, and February 1955 beiore she was formally commissioned. our illustration depicts Ark in the latter end oi that iirst commission, during which time she underwent a low tweaks: the six-barrel laoiors gun in iront oi the island was removed. as was the l-iADT on the port iorward gallery. A mirror landing sight sponson was added on the port side ahalt the deck edge lirt. At this stage she did not sport the iarrious Ros pennant number on the side oi her island. or the code R on the flight deck these were introduced by the 2nd commission. A sizeable proportion oi her oriei iirsl commission was spent in the Meditenanean. partly conducting trials and tests. partly as a showpiece ior the RN and NATO. —
Mother)
May 3, 1943 Launched: May 3, 1950
Laid down~
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—
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only slightly longer than magical tour oi the usA. including a iirsl
Her second commission, 1956-56.
was
her iirst. but it did see a visit to New vork. berthed a stane's throw irom the legendary liner
Queen
Mary.
The days oi the liner were numbered thanks to the jet age and the revolution in air power in the 19505. sea Hawks and Sea venoms gave way to scimitars and sea vixens. The ms was a decade oi huge social. economic. political and technological change and many, ii not all. these iactors impacted on Arks third. fourth and llfth commissions. Between the tail end oi 1959 and october 1966. the carrier was “furl very hard" by a succession oi exercises, marathon —
—
deciding
,,
begins
Rhodesia
(today
days after whitehall pulled
he plug on Ihe future carrier programme.
.
Perhaps it was the spirit and soul of the thousandsof men. Whatever. HMS Ark Royal IV is the ship which delines the Royal Navy oi the cold war era. it is a story which
clas
Ark cam just
ZEAL was not itssr
—
against
patrol, eniorcing
limbabwe) which had illegally declared ls independence, The decision to commit
'\____/'
dacumenlary series and a ilag-waving hit single to accompany it. television
newiy-iorrrted B
sanctions
iconic image oi the schoolboy wandering down a Merseyside street. the gleamirlu white Ark nd the gantries oi cammell Laird towering over him. Perhaps it was
increasingly,dealing with the
ring oi 1966, Ark was dispatched to east
louder than any crthe
Perhaps it was the name she inherited irom her iorebear, scourge oi the Nazis. Perhaps it was her endearing and °""""i"9 P5"°"- F'9"'“P5 “ W55 "*3
a
oi Suez and.
it didn't need seaborne air
power... For the time being, it certainly did. however. aetwcen 1957 and 1970, £32m
qoughly
i:4oom
today)
was
ploughed
into Ark ahead or her sixth and linal
.oi..rr.issir,r._
That commission would be her longest and most (in)lamnus. A dozen auccaneeis were her punch, two»seat Phantoms her shield, aided by a quartet of Gannets on airborne early-warning duties. Seven sea Kings searched ior enemy submarines, and one wessex was on sand-by
ior search and Rescue duties.
Thecommission began in controversial iashicn; having shadowed the carrier very closely, a Soviet Katliri-class destroyer got too close and clipped the carrier. Two Russian sailors died in the collision, Their government blamed the RN. questions were asked in wcstminster. A Board oi lnouiry convened. Ark's captain was cleared; the Red Navy was at iault (as it admitted privately Alter iniamy. eventaiiy came fame. thanks (a lime) to the RAF. when the Air Force turned down a new-style oi documentary series a ‘fly-on-the-wall‘programme the RN said “yes" and invited a tour-strong sac team aboard to cover Ark's us deployment. The result was sailor. iirst aired in August I978. Aided by a No.1 theme tune by Rod stewait, a dramatic high-seas rescue, B string of characters and a puppet who sailed ratherclose to the wind, the programme set the benchmarkior every documentary about the e decades. military ior the next aut TV star or not, it could not save HMS Ark Royal. in February 1977, the gnverninerit announced the carrier would be out oi service beiore the end oi 1373. Ark‘: ships company had hoped -
-
she would remain in service until her
successor
HMS invincible
(ironically launched 27 years to the day) joined the Fleet. But was not to be. but at least Ark Royal went out with a bang, not a whirnper. she took pride oi place at the silver Jubilee Fleet Review on June 27 (her rinal visit to Portsmouth. as it turned out), hosting the Queen, Duke oi Edinburgh, then Prime Minister Jim callaghan and every available commanding oiiicer in the Fleet. she exercised with NATO, with the French, she spent tour months in the Americas. exercised
with two, nnsled the Queen Mother tor the linal lime, paid a iarewell visit to Gibraltar and to Malta, too, where to,om people waited to see her and witnessed Ihe very last iixed-wing aircrait (Gannet 1:44 oi 549 Naval Airsquadron B Flight) to land on her hallowed (light deck. The last jets and propeller-dnven airciait departed a Phantom held the distinction of being the last arrcrait catapulted irom Aik before the ship entered uevonooit ior the linal time on December4 1975. trailing s 4sort decomissioning pennant. There were plans to save her notably as a iloating museum but in the end she went ior scrap, on the Thames at Greenwich towed out oi Plymouth sound in septembertsao. over the next iour years, breakers at Cairmyan, near stranraer, tore her apan. some of her remains. An anchor at veovilton.The adniira|’s cabin in a scottish hotel. The memories live on. And so too the name. some more
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Q Ross Walton/Navy News 2009. Artwork Ross watton with thanks to Ernie Ruiiler Wletronolttarl Borough oi wirral Archives service), bavid scooie and Gerry Rendie (oevonpori nockyard Historical centre): nave Kirkpatrick ior providing many Dhoioglauhs oi an Ark Royal model, and Michael brown oi Task Force ‘72 ior their invaluable help with the reierence material which helped make this illustration possible