ARK ROYAL HMS aircraft carrier 1985.

[aukepalmhof]

Built as an aircraft carrier under yard No 109 by Swan Hunter, Wallsend, for the Royal Navy.
14 December 1978 keel laid down.
02 June 1981 launched as the HMS ARK ROYAL, she was the fifth vessel to carry in the Royal Navy this name.
She was christened by Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother. The intended name was INDOMITABLE but when the previous ARK ROYAL was scrapped, the name was changed to ARK ROYAL.
She did belong to the Invincible class light aircraft carriers.
Displacement when built: 16.256 tons standard, 19.812 tons full load. Dim. 206.6 x 27.5 x 7.3m. (draught).
Powered by four Roll Royce Olympus TM3B gas turbines, 112.000 shp, twin shafts, speed 28 knots.
Range by a speed of 18 knots, 5.000 miles.
Armament: One twin Sea Dart SAM launcher with 22 missiles, three 20-mm Phalanx and 2 – 20mm Oerlikon AA guns.
Aircraft, Sea Harriers, Sea Kings helicopters.
Crew 725 and 365 air group.
01 November 1985 commissioned. Estimated building cost £332.900.000.

1993 Deployed in the Adriatic during the Bosnian War.
Between 1999 and 2001 underwent a refit at Rosyth, her Sea Dart missiles were removed
Took part in the invasion of Iraq in 2003, her aircraft were mostly removed and additional helicopters added.
During this operation she lost two Westland Sea King helicopters, which collided in mid-air with the loss of 7 lives.
Between 2004 and 2006 she entered into extended readiness, in which she underwent again a refit which was completed in August 2006.

28 October 2006 she returned to Portsmouth, where after she underwent a 10 weeks training and sea trails.During the air travel disruption after the 2010 Eyjafjallajökull eruption, the then Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, assigned ARK ROYAL and OCEAN to rescue stranded travellers across the English Channel in Operation Cunningham. In June 2010 ARK ROYAL was in Halifax, Nova Scotia to take part in the Royal Canadian Navy Centennial Celebrations, where she was visited by the British Prime Minister, David Cameron, on his way to the G20 summit in Toronto. During this time a V22 Osprey visited the ship, again increasing its capabilities.
On 19 October 2010, BBC News reported that the ship was to be decommissioned and scrapped earlier than expected, as part of the coalition government's spending review and expected 8% cut to the British defence budget to be announced later that week, to be replaced in the long run with HMS PRINCE OF WALES A campaign was begun in November 2010 to retain the name ARK ROYAL for one of the new carriers. On 3 December 2010, the amphibious warfare ship HMS ALBION was announced as the ARK ROYAL’s successor as the Royal Navy's flagship. In recognition of the ship's decommissioning, Portsmouth F.C. added the ship's motto to its 2011/12 season kit.
On the evening of 19 October, the ship arrived at Portsmouth ready to be decommissioned and laid up. On 5 November she was visited by Queen Elizabeth at Portsmouth before sailing to Loch Long for the removal of all her munitions. She then left the River Clyde on 17 November on her final voyage before decommissioning, visiting North Shields on 18–22 November and Hamburg for five days from 25 November. The latter was her last overseas visit, repeating a previous one in 2007. During the voyage she launched four Harrier GR9s for the last time in the North Sea on 24 November – her final air group consisted of four Harrier GR9 Strike aircraft, two from 800 Naval Air Squadron (NAS) and two Harriers from No. 1 Squadron, seven Merlin HM1 ASW helicopters from 814 NAS and three Sea King ASaC7 Airborne Surveillance and Control helicopters from 854 NAS.
The ship then sailed from Hamburg back into Portsmouth, arriving at 9.40 am on 3 December 2010 flying a decommissioning pennant, though bad weather prevented a Harrier flypast to mark the occasion. A farewell parade by her captain and crew was held in Guildhall Square in Portsmouth on 22 January 2011and another in Leeds, the latter being a Freedom of the City parade. Her formal decommissioning occurred at Portsmouth on 11 March 2011. She was then to have sailed to Rosyth or Govan, but instead de-stored at Portsmouth in late March after her decommissioning, with her last crew members leaving her by 25 May
After decommissioning
A Ministry of Defence spokesperson stated on 1 December 2010 that, "All options are being considered in terms of what happens to the ARK ROYAL after it is decommissioned. We might also look at scrapping it, selling it or recycling it." Other options explored were to moor her as a hotel, casino, museum ship or visitor attraction at the Royal Docks in east London or at Mablethorpe in Lincolnshire, along the lines of USS INTREPID or HMS BELFAST. The annual cost of running the ship as a museum was estimated at £1 million. Another option explored was to moor her as a floating helipad in London's Royal Albert Dock, though that would have been against the London Plan to create new helipads in London. Another option considered was to turn ARK ROYAL into a hospital ship with the ability to respond to humanitarian disasters. The possibility of scuttling ARK ROYAL off the Devonshire coast as an artificial reef was also discussed.
On 28 March 2011 the Ministry of Defence placed the decommissioned ARK ROYAL up for sale by auction, with 6 July as the final date for tenders. In June 2012, the MoD confirmed it had not reached a decision on the sale of the ship, following the submission of bids nearly a year previously. In September 2012, the announcement was made that the ship had been sold to Leyal Ship Recycling in Turkey for scrapping, for the sum of £2.9m. ARK ROYAL left Portsmouth on 20 May 2013 to be taken to Leyal Ship Recycling. The ship was towed to scrapyard on 10 June 2013 in Aliağa, Turkey.


22 March 2007 she returned to the Royal Navy Fleet after a two year refit worth £18 million.
Displacement is now 16.850 tons standard, 20.600 tons full load.
May 2007 she became the Fleet Flagship.
October 2008 took part in Exercise Joint Warrior 08-2.
January 2009 after a visit in Liverpool she sailed to the River Tyne for modification.



Kiribati 2009 $3 sg?, scott?

Source: Various web-sites. Wikipedia.

[john sefton]

A sad end for this fine ship.