Ship's motto:       

'Zeal Does Not Rest'

BATTLE HONOURS

Armada          1588

Dardanelles   1915

Norway            1940

Spartivento    1940

Mediterranean  1940-1

"Bismarck"        1941

Malta Convoys   1941

The first Ark Royal was commissioned by Sir Walter Raleigh.   She was laid down in 1586 as the Ark Raleigh but before she was launched, in 1588, Queen Elizabeth had bought her for �5,000.   She was a formidable vessel of 38 guns, and a ship for great occasions.  Her greatest was the Battle of the Armada.   With the standard of the Lord High Admiral of England, Lord Howard of Effingham, she was in the battle from the first encounter with the Spaniards off Plymouth to the decisive battle of Gravelines, chasing the scattered and fleeing Spanish ships into the North Sea, beyond the Firth of Forth.   It was not the last time Lord Howard was to fly his flag in her, for in 1596 she was in the font line of the joint Army and Navy expedition against Cadiz, an interesting early example of combined service operations.  

The First Ark Royal

The Spaniards only threatened England with invasion once more, in 1599, and Ark Royal was again commissioned as flagship.   Perhaps the memory of her guns spoiled the Spanish appetite for action against her, for the threat died and Ark Royal never saw action again in her own name.   When James I acceded to the throne he renamed her Anne Royal, in honour of his Queen Anne of Denmark.  In 1625, under her new style, and as flagship of Lord Wimbledon, she led another expedition against Cadiz, this time a disastrous one owing to the poor preparations made for it.

To her Admirals she was a great ship in all conditions, an opinion definitely not shared by the soldiers who were carried in her and who complained of the excessive rolling.  Only the soldiers therefore would not mourn when, in 1636, as she was moving from the Medway for service as Sir John Pennington's flagship, she stove in her timbers on her own anchor and sank.   At a cost greater than her original purchase price, she was raised and docked, but found to be beyond repair and broken up.

The Lord Admiral, Lord Howard of Effingham, who wrote of her: "We can see no sail, great nor small, but how far soever they be off, we fetch them and speak with them".   

A prophetic statement, even of the role of successive Ark Royals.   He also wrote:  "  .... and I pray you tell Her Majesty from me that her money was well given for the Ark Raleigh .... "  and so she was to serve forty-eight years before she was finally broken up.    Like successive ships of the name, she was also referred to familiarly as ARK.

The name then lay dormant for nearly three hundred years.

The name was revived for the second Ark Royal, a seaplane carrier launched in 1914; this ship had been commissioned as a collier and the hull was bought for the Royal Navy while under construction.  At 7,020 tons she was the biggest aircraft carrier in the world, but was only capable of 10 knots.

Again, like her predecessor, she had her most historic engagement at the very outset of her career; with the Mediterranean Fleet she served at the Dardanelles and her aircraft were present at Gallipoli, spotting for the ships covering the landings.  In 1918 she was in the Russian operations in the Black Sea, and in 1920 was the evacuation ship for Russian refugees from the Revolution.   After refitting at Rosyth and a period in reserve she joined the Fleet again at Constantinople when trouble was brewing between Greece and Turkey.  Returning to England in 1923 she was placed in reserve and retained as a training ship.

Above and below: The second Ark Royal

Oddly enough she was not broken up until 1946, having served throughout the second world war under an assumed name, since she had been re-named Pegasus when the third Ark Royal was laid down. 

The third Ark Royal was launched at Birkenhead in April 1937 and commissioned in November 1938.  She was the first of a new class of heavy British warships and, at 22,000 tons had a top speed of 31.5 knots

The third Ark Royal in 1938

She was destined to carry some seventy-two aircraft and 1,500 officers and men into some of the most stirring battles of the Second World War.  After taking part in the Norwegian Campaign in 1940, she joined the attacks on the French Fleet at Oran when France had fallen to the Germans.  She then joined the famous Force "H", under Admiral Somerville, based at Gibraltar and for fifteen months saw action in the Mediterranean, where she was a favourite target for the enemy, notably on convoy runs to Malta.  The sinking of Ark Royal was a frequent German claim, and the enemy doubtless wished it were true when she played a crucial part in the great naval operation to sink the Bismark.  The German propaganda machine was busy sinking her daily so that Lord Haw-Haw and his repeated phrase, "Where is the Ark Royal? Ark Royal?" became a standing national joke.   Her career was in fact ended early in the morning of 14th November 1941 when, having been torpedoed the previous day by a submarine, the "old Ark" - as she was affectionately referred to by many - turned over and sank within sight of Gibraltar.

The third Ark Royal, listing badly within sight of Gibraltar

In May 1943, the keel of the fourth Ark Royal, a Fleet Carrier, was a laid down at Cammell Laird's Yard, Birkenhead, by Princess Marina, Duchess of Kent, and launched in 1950 by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth, the late Queen Mother.

The ship had an overall length of 810 feet and a deep displacement of 50,786 tons.  She was adopted at the time of her building by both Lloyd's and the City of Leeds.  She was completed in February 1955.  

The fourth Ark Royal circa 1961

At an impromptu meeting of the survivors of the third Ark Royal, which was held in Gibraltar Dockyard shortly after she sank, it was decided to use the balance of the ship's fund to buy a silver bell for the next ship to bear the name Ark Royal.  Two years later there was a casting ceremony at the works of Messrs. Gillett & Johnston, of Croydon, attended by the survivors and the then first Sea Lord, Mr A V Alexander.   When ready the bell was kept in the Wardroom  of R.N.B. Lee on Solent till the final stage in the story book took place on 25 March 1955, when the bell was presented to the new ship in the presence of 250 members of the old ship's company.  It was to be housed in a magnificent oak belfry, subscribed for by officers of the old ship and accompanying this splendid gift linking one ship's company and their successors in a continuous tradition was a framed vellum which says:

"This bell was cast at the behest of  the company of the third Ark Royal in memory of a great commission.

They bequeath the bell to all who sail in the ships that bear her name in the belief that the band of fellowship and the spirit and enthusiasm which inspired them will live on in the Ark Royals that are to come.

May the sound of this bell remind us of the power of harmony in the lives of men"

The Ark served in every theatre of operations during her lifetime.  She steamed the following distances in her successive commissions:

First Commission	23,773 miles
Second Commission	67,708 miles
Third Commission	76,857 miles
Fourth Commission	136,694 miles
Fifth Commission	100,000 miles

I served on her during her fifth commission, 1964-1967,  by which time she had steamed a total of 405,000 miles.

In 1967 she started a three year major refit at Devonport dockyard, when modifications were made to her main electrical systems and her aircraft launching system on the flight deck.

The restyled Ark Royal circa 1976

During her final commission she steamed some 42,225 miles and she sailed into Devonport for the final time in December 1978.  She was later scrapped at Cairnryan, in Dumfries & Galloway.

At the end of 1978 a new through deck cruiser, to be named HMS Indomitable, was re-named Ark Royal and the fifth ship to bear the name was born.   The name change also ensured the term "aircraft carrier" would be continued, rather than the confusing term "through deck cruiser".

The fifth Ark Royal

The fifth vessel to bear the proud name Ark Royal was built by Swan Hunters Ship Builders yard at Wallsend in December 1978 and launched by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother.    Ark Royal was accepted into service on July 1 1985.

Ark Royal is larger than her 2 sisters, Invincible and Illustrious, at 210 metres (683 feet) long. She has a maximum beam of 36 metres (117 feet) and a displacement of 20,000 tonnes.  She is propelled by four Olympus gas turbine engines, they also powered the aircraft Concorde, giving her a maximum speed in excess of 30 knots.   She is  fitted with a steeper "ski jump" than her sister ships.

Ark Royal is planned to remain in active service until 2015 when the next generation of aircraft carriers will enter service.

"Go forth into the world in peace.  Be of good courage; hold fast that which is good; render no man evil for evil; strengthen the faint-hearted; support the weak; help the afflicted; honour all men; love and serve the Lord, rejoicing in the power of the Holy Spirit."

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