Ark Royal 1939
| Name | No | Yard No | Builder | Laid down | Launched | Comp | Fate |
| Ark Royal | 91 | 1012 | Cammell Laird, Birkenhead | 16.9.1935 | 13.4.1937 | 16.11.1938 | sunk 14.11.1941 |
|
Displacement standard, t |
22000 |
|
Displacement full, t |
27720 |
|
Length, m |
208.8 pp 243.8 oa |
|
Breadth, m |
28.9 wl 29.0 deck |
|
Draught, m |
8.46 deep load |
|
No of shafts |
3 |
|
Machinery |
3 sets Parsons geared steam turbines, 6 Admiralty 3-drum boilers |
|
Power, h. p. |
102000 |
|
Max speed, kts |
31 |
|
Fuel, t |
4620 oil |
| Endurance, nm(kts) | 10300(16) |
|
Armour, mm |
belt: 114, bulkheads: 76 - 64, lower hangar deck: 89 over engines, magazines and aviation fuel tanks |
|
Armament |
8 x 2 - 114/45 QF Mk I, 4 x 1 - 47/40 3pdr Hotchkiss Mk I, 4 x 8 - 40/39 2pdr QF Mk VIII, 8 x 4 - 12.7/62, 60 aircraft (Nimrod, Osprey, Sea Gladiator fighters, Skua diving bombers, Swordfish torpedo bombers, Walrus recon planes) |
|
Complement |
1580 |
Aircraft facilities (fd - 6,366 m², ha - 5,690 m² / 27,878 m³): Flight deck: 219.5 (useful length)x29.0m. Upper hangar: 173.1x18.3x4.9m, lower hangar: 137.8x18.3x4.9m. 3 lifts for both hangars each (2 lifts: 13.7x6.7m, 1 lift: 13.7x7.6m). 2 catapults (5.4t plane was launched at 122 km/h). Aircraft fuel stowage: 454,600l.
| Year | Fighters | Diving bombers | Torpedo bombers | Seaplanes |
| 8.1939 | --- | 18 Skua | 42 Swordfish | --- |
| 10/1939 | --- | 8 Skua | 21 Swordfish | --- |
| 4/1940 | 5 Roc | 18 Skua | 21 Swordfish | 1 Walrus |
| 5.1940 | --- | 23 Skua | 21 Swordfish | --- |
| 6.1940 | --- | 24 Skua | 21 Swordfish | 5 Walrus |
| 8.1940 | --- | 24 Skua | 30 Swordfish | --- |
| 10.1940 | 12 Fulmar | --- | --- | --- |
| 4.1941 | 24 Fulmar | --- | 30 Swordfish | --- |
| 5.1941 | 18 Fulmar | --- | 30 Swordfish | --- |
Project history: The most well-known aircraft
carrier of Royal Navy of the Second World War.
Prominent features of architecture
of Ark Royal were extremely high freeboard (17.1m) and the big aft overhang of a
flight deck which at the expense of it significantly exceeded a hull length. The
flight deck was a structural part of the hull and participated in providing of a
longitudinal strength of the ship. Absence of diesels-generators (all
electric power was produced by steam turbine-generators) was a significant lack of
as a whole successful ship and has played a fatal role in her fate: after
torpedo hit and incapacitation of boilers Ark Royal has lost the electric power,
and the further struggle for the survival has appeared unsuccessful.
The AA armament was rather powerful
to pre-war measures, however air defence abilities were reduced by absence
of the radar: Ark Royal became last large ship of the
Royal Navy without it.
Protection: Main belt protected 45% of length by waterline and expanded to lower hangar deck abreast funnel, to upper deck fwd and aft from funnel and to main deck abreast magazines. Underwater protection depth was 4.08m, there were 38mm anti-torpedo bulkheads. This protection could resist exploding of 380kg TNT.
Modernizations: 5.1941: + 2 x 4 - 40/39 2pdr QF Mk VIII
Naval service: Ark Royal 13.11.1941 returned from the operation on carrying fighters to Malta and has received torpedo hit from German submarine U81. She has sunk next day, 14 hours after attack, in 25 miles E of Gibraltar.
Many thanks to Wolfgang Stöhr for additional information on this page.
Ark Royal 1940
© Ivan Gogin, 2008-14