HMS Argus (I49)

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Career
Argus in harbour in 1918, painted in dazzle camouflage, with a Revenge class battleship.
Ordered:
Laid down:	1914
Launched:	2 December 1917
Commissioned:	19 September 1918
Decommissioned:	Paid off December, 1944
Fate:	Sold 5 December 1946 and scrapped 1947
Struck:
General Characteristics
Displacement:	net: 14,000 tons gross: 15,750 tons
Length:	576 feet (175.6 m) overall; flight deck 470 ft (143.3 m)
Beam:	79 ft 6" (24.2 m); flight deck 85 ft (25.9 m)
Draught:	22 ft 6" (6.9 m)
Propulsion:	Twelve cylindrical boilers; four Parsons geared turbines @ 20,000 hp, four shafts
Speed:	20.75 knots
Range:	4370 nautical miles @ 16 knots
Complement:	272, excluding air group
Armament:	four 1 x 4" AA; four machine-guns; four Lewis guns
Aircraft:	up to 18

For other ships with the same name, see HMS Argus.

HMS Argus was a British aircraft carrier from 1918 until 1944. She was the world's first example of what is now the standard pattern of aircraft carrier, with a "flush deck" enabling wheeled aircraft to take-off and land. Argus had the nickname "Ditty Box" due to its similarity to the article of a sailor's kit.

[edit] History

Argus was laid down in 1914 by William Beardmore and Company in Glasgow as the Italian ocean liner Conte Rosso. However, before she was launched, she was purchased by the Royal Navy for conversion into an aircraft carrier. She was built from the start with an unobstructed flight deck (the "flush deck") upon which conventional aircraft could take off and land. Prior to that, the aircraft carrier HMS Furious had been built with separate decks fore and aft of the main superstructure.

Argus was launched December 2, 1917 and was commissioned September 6, 1918, just before the end of the First World War. Due to her small size (approx 14,000 tonnes) and relatively slow speed, she was of limited use as a combat vessel. Instead, she was used primarily to develop the techniques of aircraft carrier combat and train aviators in the operation of aircraft at sea. At the end of the 1920s, having been superseded by larger and more modern vessels, she was removed from the front line force and used as a training carrier.

Argus initially served in a training role at the beginning of the Second World War, but after the significant losses suffered by the Royal Navy in the first years of the war between 1939-41 — during which HMS Courageous, Glorious and Ark Royal were sunk, and Illustrious was heavily damaged — Argus was recalled to front line service. Interestingly, Argus, with her tall and capacious hangar, was the only British carrier that served in the Second World War capable of striking down aircraft with non-folding wings.^[1]

Her first operational duties, 1941 - 1942, were ferrying aircraft for Malta, Gibraltar and Takoradi (en route to Egypt). Aircraft were ferried to within flying distance of their destination and then "flown off" to complete the journey.

Argus was allocated to Force H in the western Mediterranean and she was part of the strong covering forces that provided air cover for Operation Harpoon, a critical Malta convoy. In 1942, she supported the Allied landings in North Africa and in 1943 she reverted to her training role, before going into reserve as an accommodation ship in 1944.

She was sold for scrap in 1946.