Ark Royal

[Stephen J. Card]

I saw a recent BBC documentary today on the search for the wreck of the ARK ROYAL which went down off Gib after being torpedoes by a nasty U-Boat.

The wreck was found in about 1,000 metres of water and is was broken into two sections. The main part of the ship is sitting upright on the bottom. The fore part... probably about 30 metres in length is sitting some distance away from the main part.... upside down... ie on flight deck... keel uppermost.

I'm wondering what might have caused the wreck to break into two parts such that the two pieces ended up several hundred metres apart of the bottom. I could understand if she had been hit in this bow area but she wasn't. There was just a single torpedo hit... midships in the boiler room.

Any ideas anyone?

Stephen

[ronnie r]

I read or heard somewhere that a few days before the ships loss whilst launching a swordfish aircraft for an anti sub patrol ,it lost power on take off and went over the bow exploding the depthcharges it was carrying. this weakened the forward hull of the carrier. which was proceeding at reduced speed to Gibraltar.Ive mentioned this incident on a previous thread about Ark Royal. Regards Ronnie R

[Stephen J. Card]

I read or heard somewhere that a few days before the ships loss whilst launching a swordfish aircraft for an anti sub patrol ,it lost power on take off and went over the bow exploding the depthcharges it was carrying. this weakened the forward hull of the carrier. which was proceeding at reduced speed to Gibraltar.Ive mentioned this incident on a previous thread about Ark Royal. Regards Ronnie R



Ronnie, thanks for the info.

Hard to imagine how the bows would detach from the ship on sinking but then who can tell what happens when a ship is going down. Perhaps the tug was pulling too hard!

Anyhow, a sad loss and such a beautiful ship.

Stephen