HMS Ark Royal Trivia Quiz

Answer: True

Commissioned by Sir Walter Raleigh, construction began in 1587 at Deptford on the River Thames. Before completion she was bought by Elizabeth I's navy for £5,000 and renamed 'Ark Royal'.

Answer: Charles Howard

Charles Howard, Lord Howard of Effingham and Lord High Admiral, commanded 'Ark Royal', the Flagship of the English fleet. Frobisher captained the largest ship of the fleet, 'Triumph'; Drake was in command of 'Revenge' and Hawkins was captain of the 'Victory'. The 'Ark Royal' was the first ship to engage the Spanish fleet. She won battle honours in the Armada, 1588 and at Cadiz in 1596.

Answer: Anne Royal

James I (VI of Scotland) married Anne of Denmark in 1589. He became king of England in 1603 and five years later renamed the 'Ark Royal' in honour of his wife. The ship was broken up in 1636.

Answer: The Dardanelles

The 'Ark Royal' first saw action over the Dardanelles in February 1915, bombing Turkish ports and aircraft. She also covered the Gallipoli landings from April of that year. Upon the arrival of German submarines in May 1915 she became a depot for land-based aircraft. During the Battle of the Falklands, the British battle cruisers 'Invincible' and 'Inflexible' sank the German armoured cruiser 'Scharnhorst' in December 1914.

The 'Ark Royal' won battle honours for the Dardanelles Campaign 1915.

Answer: British Somaliland

From 1899 Sheik Mohamed Abdulle Hassan and his army of dervishes, led a political, religious and military resistance to British and Italian rule. In 1920 the British led an offensive to bring peace to the area. This they achieved, but without capturing Hassan who died from influenza in early January 1921. (Much later, after WWII, British Somaliland and Italian Somalia united and gained independence in 1960 as the United Republic of Somalia).

Answer: A new 'Ark Royal' had been commissioned

The sole reason for renaming was to make way for a new 'Ark Royal'. Under her original name she was recommissioned as a trials ship to test aircraft catapult equipment, after renaming she took on the role of a training vessel. She went to the breaker's yard in 1950.

Answer: False

Taken into service in 1938, this 'Ark Royal' was the second aircraft carrier of the Royal Navy to be specifically designed for this purpose. The first such vessel was 'HMS Hermes', completed in 1924. She was sunk by Japanese dive-bombers off Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) in 1942.

The second 'Hermes' was the Royal Navy's Flagship during the Falklands War of 1982, subsequently being sold to the Indian Navy and recommisssioned as 'INS Viraat'.

Answer: Bismarck

On 26th May 1941 aircraft from 'Ark Royal', part of Force H, launched crippling torpedo strikes on the 'Bismarck' which was sunk the following day by the British ships 'Rodney', 'King George V' and 'Dorsetshire'. The pocket battleship 'Graf Spee' was scuttled in Montevideo in 1939; The 'Scharnhorst' was sunk in 1943 by the British ships 'Duke of York' and 'Jamaica', and the 'Tirpitz' was sunk by Lancaster bombers in November 1944.

The Ark Royal was torpedoed and sank in November 1941 off Gibraltar with the loss of one crew member from a complement of almost 1,600.

She won battle honours for Spartivento (night attacks on the Italian fleet off Cape Spartivento, Sardinia) 1940; Norway 1940; Mediterranean 1940-41; 'Bismarck' 1941 and Malta Convoys 1941.

Answer: Sailor

'Sailor', the 1976 BBC documentary series portrayed the day-to-day life of crew on board 'Ark Royal'. Rod Stewart topped the UK charts with the title song to the series entitled 'Sailing'. The official quick march of the Royal Navy is 'Heart of Oak' while 'Rolling Home' is a traditional sea shanty.

Answer: 'Invincible' and 'Illustrious'

'Ark Royal' the fifth was built at Swan Hunter's Tyneside shipyard and launched in 1978 by HRH Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, and went into service in 1985. The ship's motto is 'Zeal Does Not Rest'. 'Invincible' is the sixth RN ship to bear the name and in September 2003 assumed the role of Fleet Flagship. 'Illustrious', also built by Swan Hunter, was commissioned to her home base of Portsmouth in 1982. HM ships 'Endurance' and 'Roebuck' are oceanographic survey ships; 'Glasgow' and 'Gloucester' are Type 42 Destroyers and 'Iron Duke' and 'Portland' are Type 23 Frigates.