Ark Royal
November 2010
HMS Ark Royal
The awful reality revealed
HMS Ark Royal is being scrapped, that iconic name never again to be used for an Aircraft Carrier.
Indeed for the next ten years no Aircraft Carrier at all available to the Royal Navy.
Above is the Captain’s Barge of the Ship, now completely restored with a thirty thousand pound grant from the National Lottery (seen above on Trials in the Southampton Water).
The twenty five foot long vessel is now owned by the Portsmouth Naval Base Heritage Trust and still displaying an illuminated Name Box with the words Ark Royal proudly shown.
It has now been agreed that we, Coastal Motorboat Heritage Trust, will be responsible for taking the vessel on a tour of the South East Of England in the coming year. We will find the money to tow her first to Essex, then to Kent, following on to Towns on the Thames Starting at Richmond in Surrey.
Readers of this Website will know that we have our own craft, RASC 34 Garth, to provide for over the same period. We would therefore like to hear from anyone who would be a Friend of the Ark and send money to help her over these coming months. Or help us in any other way to keep alive the last floating part of that famous Aircraft Carrier.
John Cook
Secretary