The Royal Navy’s present HMS Ark Royal is the fifth by that name to have served the Crown.

The first was built at Deptford on the River Thames in 1587, to the order of Sir Walter Raleigh. Originally named Ark Ralegh, she was bought by Queen Elizabeth’s navy for £5000 (‘money well given’, according to her new commander, Lord Howard of Effingham) and as Ark Royal, was the flagship of the English fleet during the Spanish Armada campaign of 1588. In 1608, under the new monarch James I, she was rebuilt and renamed Anne Royal. She was broken up in 1636.

The next Ark Royal, after a gap of almost 300 years, was a merchant ship converted on the building stocks to be a seaplane carrier. Launched in 1914, she gave valuable service in the Dardanelles campaign and throughout the First World War. She was renamed HMS Pegasus in 1934, to free the name Ark Royal for a new ship, and was broken up in 1950.

The third Ark Royal was a 22,000 ton aircraft carrier launched in 1937. After having taken part in many wartime operations, including the hunt for the Bismarck, she was torpedoed and sunk by a German U-Boat in November 1941.

In 1955, a new HMS Ark Royal entered service. Still well-remembered by the public for her starring role in the 1970s BBC series Sailor, she eventually went to the breaker’s yard in 1980.

Today’s HMS Ark Royal is a member of the ‘Invincible’ class of support carriers, together with the Falklands veteran HMS Invincible and HMS Illustrious. Last of the class to be built, HMS Ark Royal’s keel was laid at Swan Hunter’s yard in 1978. She was launched in June 1981 and entered service in 1985.