Britain’s Air Power Increases

Northern Advocate, 30 December 1938, Page 9

Britain’s Air Power Increases

j Britain's air power at sea is considerably augmented with the commissioning for service of the new aircraft carrier, H.M.S. Ark Royal. i Carrying a full complement of aeroj planes, she is likely to join ships of the Home Fleet on the spring cruise • in January. I This great new ship, of 22,000 tons i gross, is nearly 800 feet long over-all. Her flight dock towers some -70 feet i above the water-line. Much of her j equipment is secret, and awaits trial jin service conditions; the practical tests it will undergo at sea will provide a measure of the new earner's value as a fighting unit. First of Its Kind, The Ark Royal is the first British warship to be designed exclusively as an aircraft carrier. Her full complement for sea-going duty will comprise some 1600 men and about 140 officers. Hangar space is provided below docks for 60 modern warplanes. The fag of Rear-Admiral G. C. Roylo, senior Fleet Air Arm officer, flies at the masthead.

From a mile away the Ark Royal dominates Portsmouth dockyard. Destroyers, cruisers and even the mighty 35,000-ton battleship Rodney appear Lilliputian alongside this new Gulliver, which derives an appearance of outstanding size from its flight deck, a flat expanse of steel extending for 250 yards and stretching 100 feet from side to side. The deck overhangs the sides of the ship, and runs uninterruptedly from the bows to project over the stern. Check on Movements.

Basically, the Ark Royal conforms to the design of other aircraft carriers. She has two long hangars. Three lifts convey aeroplanes to and from the deck. The control superstructure rises above deck level on the starboard side. Right in the fore of this deck are two ramps used for accelerated take-off. The defensive armament of the ship consists of 4.5-inch anti-aircraft guns disposed at each “corner” of the ship and arranged as double-barrel units to give a concentration of fire. “Pompom” multiple-barrel guns give further protection.

Located in a comprehensive control tower is an Air Intelligence Office, where a check will be kept on the movements of aircraft patrolling perhaps a hundred miles away. Without their complement of aircraft the hangars appear unduly long —just floating tunnels of steel. Fuel, oil and water pipes running along the “walls” of the ship provide laid-on time-saving services for re-filling after flights. From the “roof” of the hangars project numerous nozzles from which, in emergency, anti-fire liquid can be sprayed. Curtains, of fireresisting steel divide the hangar up into separate compartments. Crew Comfort. Passing through the various decks and mess flafs of the ship one sees quarters which old-time seamen would have thought mighty “soft.” In a typical men's mess room are wardrobe lockers, armchairs, card tables, and plenty of room to swing the proverbial cat. Right in the hows of the ship is a seamen’s recreation room, provided with partitioned-off writing-desks. Adjoining this, on both port and starboard sides, were two snug look-out cubby-holes. x In each of these are stationed three observers, on the watch for hostile submarines. Along corridors treated with soundreducing materials, one comes to the ship’s shopping centre. Cooking and laundry are done by electricity. A canteen, a post office, and a library are located in this High Street of the Ark Royal. Close to the kitchen hatchways stood a brass-bound tub, marked “The King, God Bless Him.” From this traditional reservoir is issued at ration times naval grog, consisting of three I parts water and one part rum.