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Aviation History
1955
1955 - 0287.PDF
(Top left) H.M.S. "Ark Royal" alongside in Cammell Laird's dockyard at Birkenhead. (Top right) A multiplicity of radar and radio aerials crowns the island. (Bottom left) Lt-Cdr. R. W. Kearsley (Lieutenant-Commander Flying), Cdr. M. F. Fell, D.S.O., D.S.C. and Bar (Commander Air), Capt. D. R. F. Cambell, D.S.C. (Commanding Officer) and Lt-Cdr. G. R. Woolston (Lieutenant-Commander Operations). (Bottom right) The angled deck and rear lift as seen from the flying control platform on the bridge. "ARK ROYAL" COMMISSIONED E fourth ship to be called Ark Royal,and the second carrier of the line, was commissioned on Wednesday last week.She is the largest carrier in the Royal Navy, with a length of over 800 ft, somefour feet longer than her sister ship Eagle, which joined the fleet in 1952. Ark Royal has an angled deck, two steamcatapults and the mirror landing-aid, and is the first carrier to be so completelyequipped. Provision is made for remote control of the engines if radio-active airis likely to be drawn into the engine rooms. Crew accommodation is also revised andspecial messing facilities have been pro- vided. Her peacetime complement ofmen and aircraft is to be respectively 2,200 and 50. The carrier has taken 11 years to build,this period including a number of delays while modifications were incorporated tokeep the design in line with the latest requirements. She is reported to have costover £20 million. After commissioning she was due to start her acceptance trialslast Friday. At a ceremony to be held at Portsmouth on March 26th a ship's bell, subscribedfor by the ship's company of the third Ark Royal is to be handed to the companyof the present carrier. The bell, which is of silver and weighs nearly two hundred-weight, will be received by Capt. D. R. F. Campbell, D.S.C., R.N. It was cast byGillett and Johnson of Croydon in 1943 and has since hung in the wardroom atLee-on-Solent. The ratings who served in the third ArkRoyal are invited to attend the ceremony at Portsmouth, which will take place at11.30hr, and will be followed by a tour of the ship and lunch. Applications fortickets, which should indicate the period served in the ship and the rating held atthe time, should be adressed to the office of the Flag Officer Air (Home), WykehamHall, Lee-on-Solent, Hants. The inscription on the bell consists ofthe ship's crest, the names of the com- manding officers from November, 1938, toNovember, 1941, and a brief summary of the principal operations on which the shipwas engaged during this period, together with the words: "From the company who sailed in the Ark in the years 1939-1941 tothose who followed them." Accompanying the bell is a framednotice on vellum which reads: "This Bell was cast at the behest of the Company ofthe third Ark Royal in memory of a great commission. They bequeath the Bell toall who sail in the ships that bear her name, in the belief that the bond of fellow-ship and the spirit of enthusiasm which inspired them will live on in the ArkRoyals that are to come. May the sound of this Bell remind us of the power ofharmony in the lives of men." The bell will hang in an oak belfrycopied from designs in the National Mari- time Museum and constructed by Cam-mell Laird, who built the third and fourth Ark Royals. This belfry, the cost of whichhas been met by officers who sailed in the third Ark Royal, will be handed over byAdmiral of the Fleet Sir Arthur Power, G.C.B., G.B.E., C.V.O., CommandingOfficer of H.M.S. Ark Royal from Novem- ber, 1938, to April, 1940. In addition,a specially bound book recording the histories of all the Arks has been prepared.
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