HMS Ark Royal /Harriers/ Procedure Alpha

[david parry]

Sailing into the sunset: The valiant Ark Royal aircraft carrier heads to her final resting place after 25 years of heroic service | Mail Online (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1331365/Sailing-sunset-The-valiant-Ark-Royal-aircraft-carrier-heads-final-resting-place-25-years-heroic-service.html#ixzz15mZsPbfY)

[tyne]

As a civvy (radio journo) lucky enough to have been on board to witness the last Harrier land on, I would like to say how moving it was.

No one can understand the decision to chop the aircraft and that wonderful ship, but the way the RN and RAF guys are carrying on with business is an honour to see.

I have worked closely with ARKR and her sisters over the past decade and a half, so it is very hard for me to be objective.

It breaks your heart to meet and talk to skilled highly trained and extremely talented people in the Harrier and CV community now looking at a pretty bleak future.

The "For Sale" sign in one of the Harrier windows made me smile.

Boys and girls of ARKR and her squadrons. Bravo Zulu it has been an honour and a privilege to have spent time in your company. May your zeal not rest long. Dan Entwisle.

[Thone1]

An honour that Ark Royal will pay her last visit to Hamburg.

And it gives me the chance to see her for the last time.

Cheers,

Thomas
(Germany)

[Green Flash]

Please please tell me that the Mighty Ark will end her days in a British yard? Then maybe, just maybe, I can fondly imagine a bit of her will be re-cycled into one of the new carriers and therefore something of the Ark will continue to sail the oceans.

Brother-in-law (ex RM) lives in Gateshead. He said that grown men stood on Swan Hunters slips and openly wept.

[A2QFI]

There is a whisper that a "South American" Country is interested in a package of Ark Royal + some Harriers. We must hope that it is not the Mavinas claimants!

[knowitall]

"therefore something of the Ark will continue to sail the oceans."

I suspect the phalanx/goalkeeper and various other bits of kit will be recycled onto other RN vessels

[Pontius Navigator]

It really is sad, we paid a visit to the Ark about 2 years ago as she was coming out of refit to work as a helicopter carrier - all that work wasted. That is what is so sad about many defence cuts.

You work had and spend money right up to the tape then suddenly - silence.

Buildings are maintained, stores are ordered paint is painted the nothing ...........

[4mastacker]

My father's final job before he retired after being a shipwright at Swan Hunters for most of his working life, was to help lay the keel of the current Ark Royal.

Although she wasn't originally named as such, I believe the original intention was to name her 'Indomitable' ; the name change coming about as a result of, IIRC, the wave of emotion that followed the de-commissioning of the previous 'Ark'.

Will a similar wave cause the re-naming of another ship to perpetuate the name on the active list or would she, if the original name had stood, have been allowed to pass into history without a whimper?

Still sad to see a ship be discarded in such a manner when she could still usefully serve.

[draken55]

Must admit that I would be more than pleased if we re-named both QE and POW to reflect the fact that they are aircraft carriers.

The Navy has made some strange choices for ship names in recent years. Given their role, Vengeance and Victorious for two of the Trident Boats was a strange choice and the Type 23s got named after Dukes! The only ones that made some sense were the Type 45's (though no HMS Diana) along with Albion and Bulwark.:D

[Chugalug2]

A2QFI:
There is a whisper that a "South American" Country is interested in a package of Ark Royal + some Harriers. We must hope that it is not the Mavinas claimants!
We must hope that it remains just a whisper! Any "South American" country having such capability would constitute a direct threat to the Falkland Islands, just as the Peruvian Mirages did in the previous "unpleasantness". We have already shot ourselves in one foot, to do so again to the other one might be more than mere carelessness.

[Agaricus bisporus]

Mavinas claimants!

I'm surprised at you, A2.
They're called the "Falkland Islands" and many, many of our predecessors and colleagues died to keep them so.

[Charlie Time]

Well said.

[Union Jack]

The Navy has made some strange choices for ship names in recent years. Given their role, Vengeance and Victorious for two of the Trident Boats was a strange choice

No, not really, since the Ships Names Committee would have been very mindful of the fact that, consistent with the tradition of classing submarines in broadly alphabetical order, albeit not exclusively. For example, the last four submarine classes built have been R for RESOLUTION, S for SWIFTSURE, T for TRAFALGAR, U for UPHOLDER, hence the need for names beginning with V for what is effectively the V Class.

Appreciating that the last of that name was a light fleet carrier, I feel that VENGEANCE sounds a particularly appropriate name for an SSBN!:ok:

Jack

[Double Zero]

For some reason I was under the impression that there is a tradition, unwritten or otherwise, that the RN fleet would always have an Ark Royal; it sure is better than Queen Elizabeth or Prince of Wales - the common theory of course being that those names were chosen as more difficult to cancel.

[parabellum]

When was the last HMS Queen Elizabeth please? Probably been a few since the sixteenth century. Was wondering if the last PoW was the one that went down with the Repluse?

[A2QFI]

The people who are claiming them call them Malvinas thus the people are Malvinas Claimants, regardless of what the islands are called by other people

[BEagle]

A2QFI, the British name arose from some sycophantic naval officer naming the channel between the islands after the Commissioner of the Admiralty who had sponsored the journey, whereas the first settlers named them the Îles Malouines after their home port.

Despite jingositic bluster, The International Standards Organisation name for these miserable lumps of peat, rock and goose $hit is Falkland Islands (Malvinas).

As for the names of the navy's forthcoming aircraftless carriers, traditional naval aircraft carrier names should of course be used.

[Biggus]

What, like HMS Pegasus?


Either the first (from the first to the last maybe?):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Pegasus_(1917)


or the one whose name was changed FROM ARK ROYAL!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Pegasus_(1934)



Assuming of course that wiki is correct?

[XR219]

When was the last HMS Queen Elizabeth please? Probably been a few since the sixteenth century. Was wondering if the last PoW was the one that went down with the Repluse?

According to the fount of all knowledge (WP), the first Queen Elizabeth was a dreadnought launched in 1913. The second would, of course, have been CVA-01 had it not been cancelled in 1966.

[Blacksheep]

25 years eh? When I left the RAF in 1977 one of my job interviews was at Ferranti. In the reception area they had a model of a nice new concept - what was then called a "Through-deck Cruiser" called the Illustrious class.

[Obi Wan Russell]

Blacksheep said:
"25 years eh? When I left the RAF in 1977 one of my job interviews was at Ferranti. In the reception area they had a model of a nice new concept - what was then called a "Through-deck Cruiser" called the Illustrious class."

How soon they forget. The Nameship of the class then as now is Invincible. In 1977 Invincible was launched, whereas Illustrious was still high and dry on the slips having only been laid down the previous year, and Ark Royal wouldn't be laid down for another year (december 1978).

[airborne_artist]

Ark Royal will enter Pompey Harbour on 3rd Dec, and there will be a flypast by 4 x GR9.

[Blacksheep]

How soon they forgetWell it was 33 years ago and I've reached the doddery old git stage of life. Its now my privilege to forget and your privilege to remind me. Invincible, yes, so it was... :p