Ark Royal 1939
| Name | No | Builder | Laid down | Launched | Comp | Fate |
| Ark Royal | 91 | 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 |
Parsons geared steam turbines, 6 Admiralty 3-drum boilers |
|
Power, h. p. |
102000 |
|
Max speed, kn |
31 |
|
Fuel, t |
4620 oil |
|
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 Hotchkiss, 4 x 8 - 40/39 pompom, 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) x 29.0 m. Upper hangar: 173.1 x 18.3 x 4.9 m, lower hangar: 137.8 x 18.3 x 4.9 m. There were 3 lifts for both hangars each (2 lifts: 13.7 x 6.7 m, 1 lift: 13.7 x 7.6 m). There were 2 catapults (5.4-t plane dispersed to 122 km/h). Aircraft fuel stowage was 454 600 l.
| Year | Fighters | Diving bombers | Torpedo bombers |
| 8/1939 | --- | 18 Skua | 42 Swordfish |
| 5/1940 | 5 Roc | 18 Skua | 21 Swordfish |
| 5/1941 | 24 Fulmar | --- | 30 Swordfish |
Ship project history: The most well-known aircraft
carrier of Royal Navy of the Second World War.
Prominent features of architecture
of Ark Royal were record 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 made by steam turbine-generators) was a significant lack of
as a whole the 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 scrambling for damage tolerance has appeared unsuccessful.
The AA armament was rather powerful
to pre-war measures, however air defence possibilities were reduced by absence
of the radar: Ark Royal became last large ship of the British fleet which did
not have 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 pompom
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, later 14 hours after attack, in 25 miles E from Gibraltar.
Ark Royal 1940
© Ivan Gogin, 2009