insideH
IN THE annals of the post-war Royal Navy the name
1119 began
of one ship resonated – and continues to resonate –
1119 woul
louder than any other.
wartime sec
It was not
Perhaps it was the name she inherited from her forebear, scourge
years to co
of the Nazis. Perhaps it was her endearing and enduring patron.
performed t
Perhaps it was the iconic image of the schoolboy wandering down
in Birkenhea
a Merseyside street, the gleaming white Ark and the gantries of
people watc
Cammell Laird towering over him. Perhaps it was a television
for the first t
documentary series – and a flag-waving hit single to accompany it.
It would b
Perhaps it was the spirit and soul of the thousands of men.
put to sea,
Whatever, HMS Ark Royal IV is the ship which defines the Royal
before she w
Navy of the Cold War era.
Our illustr
It is a story which begins not on Merseyside, nor even by the
end of that f
sea, but among those dark Satanic mills and cobbled streets, soot-
time she un
blackened terraced houses and imposing public monuments to the
six-barrel Bo
industrial revolution.
was remove
The people of Leeds ‘adopted’ Ark Royal III barely a week before
port forward
she was sunk in November 1941. The loss spurred them on to raise
sponson wa
more than £9m – roughly £300m today. Their generosity ensured the
At this stage
name Ark Royal would live on.
the side of h
And so it was that Princess Marina, the Duchess of
introduced b
Kent, ‘laid the keel’ on May 11 1943 (eight days
A sizeable
after shipwrights had actually begun
the Mediterr
work...) and hull number
showpiece f
Her secon
her fi rst, bu
AArk Royal Cutaway.indd 5rk Royal Cutaway.indd 5 228/1/09 15:25:318/1/09 15:25:31
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