Ark Royals final resting place.

[mrg]

Hi Guys did anyone see the documentary on finding the wreck of the Ark Royal. Was highly interesting and alot of the wreck was still intact. main arnament was still in position, pom poms guns with optical sights still in place, a locker with boots still clearly visible in place. Tea pots and pans, search lights etc. It was found three and a half miles down further away from Gibraltar than first thought. The bow had broken off and lay away from the main structure. for anyone who doesn't know it was sunk by U-81 who fired four torpedeos only only struck amidships. Only one sailor died.
Has anyone got any memoribilia around this pround ship, here's one of my models to hopefully start things off. Sorry for the poor pics but the size would allow for better pics. All the best

[Darrell]

Hey mate. Who found it? That same fellow that found the Bismarck?

[kristensen]

Dear sirs.

I didn't see the documenatry, but I saw the news on BBC:

"Film team finds wreck of Ark Royal

HMS Ark Royal was a vast ship for the time

Divers filming a BBC documentary have found the wreck of HMS Ark Royal, the famous wartime aircraft carrier.
The aircraft carrier became famous when its torpedo planes hit the German battleship Bismarck during the Second World War, allowing other British warships to close in and sink her.

HMS Ark Royal sank in the Mediterranean
But after that 1941 victory, the vessel herself was torpedoed by the German submarine U-81, 30 miles off Gibraltar.

A BBC spokesman said on Wednesday the wreck of the Ark Royal would not be raised.

Ministry of Defence personnel gave film makers a rough idea of the location of the Ark Royal.

Divers found her lying in 3,500ft of water - where she had been resting for the past 61 years".


"When she sank she had been returning Hurricane aircraft fighter crews to Malta.

One sailor died while the rest of the 1,500 crew were picked up by other ships as the famous ship went down on November 13, 1941.

The ship was was commissioned on 16 November 1938 and took up a name famous in naval history.

The wreck of the ship was discovered as part of a project looking into the marine archaeology of great battles in the history of the Royal Navy.

A BBC spokesman said: "We do not intend to try to raise the ship. It still belongs to the MoD."

The programme was made by producer Mike Rossiter who filmed the raising of Donald Campbell's Bluebird boat, in a BBC1 documentary".

[mrg]

Hi Darrell dont know who was exactly in charge but it was not the bloke who found the Bismarck, and as Kristensen said it was funded by the BBC, very interesting. There even was a airplane graveyard with Fulmars and Swordfish scatttered around the wreck, pics of the time showed five aircraft on the flight deck at the time of sinking and these had obviously slipped off the carrier deck. They even interviewed the swordfish pilot who was credited by others with hitting the Bismarck.
As for the location the MOD have given the BBC the area of sinking but this proved to be wrong and the carrier was located further away from Gib, than first thought, they believed this to have been caused by the tide forcing the ARk to drift further afield as she took on water,that and the fact that only ONE of the three tugs sent out to pull the Ark Royal into GIB found her, the other two got lost . They also thought that the cordaniance may not have been exact. The captain of the ARk was later courtmartialled. ALL the best. Anyone with ARK Ribbons?