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HMS ''Ark Royal'' was the first ship in history designed and built as a seaplane carrier.〔 She was purchased by the Royal Navy in 1914 shortly after her keel had been laid and the ship was only in frames; this allowed the ship's design to be modified almost totally to accommodate seaplanes. In World War I, ''Ark Royal'' participated in the Gallipoli Campaign in early 1915 with her aircraft conducting aerial reconnaissance and observation missions. Her aircraft later supported British troops on the Macedonian Front in 1916, before she returned to the Dardanelles to act as a depot ship for all the seaplanes operating in the area. In January 1918, several of her aircraft unsuccessfully attacked the German battlecruiser when she sortied from the Dardanelles to attack Allied ships in the area. The ship left the area later in the year to support seaplanes conducting anti-submarine patrols over the southern Aegean Sea. After the end of the war, ''Ark Royal'' mostly served as an aircraft transport and depot ship for those aircraft in support of White Russian and British operations against the Bolsheviks in the Caspian and Black Sea regions. She also supported Royal Air Force (RAF) aircraft in British Somaliland in the campaign against the Mad Mullah in 1920. Later that year, the ship was placed in reserve. ''Ark Royal'' was recommissioned to ferry an RAF squadron to the Dardanelles during the Chanak crisis in 1922. She was reduced to reserve again upon her return to the United Kingdom the following year. ''Ark Royal'' was recommissioned in 1930 to serve as a training ship for seaplane pilots and to evaluate aircraft catapult operations and techniques. She was renamed HMS ''Pegasus'' in 1934 and continued to serve as a training ship until the beginning of World War II in September 1939. Assigned to Home Fleet at the beginning of the war, she took on tasks as an aircraft transport, in addition to her training duties, until she was modified to serve as the prototype fighter catapult ship in late 1940. This type of ship was intended to defend convoys against attacks by German long-range maritime patrol bombers by launching fighters via their catapult to provide air cover for the convoy. ''Pegasus'' served in this role until mid-1941 when she reverted to her previous duties as a training ship. This lasted until early 1944 when she became a barracks ship. The ship was sold in late 1946 and her conversion into a merchant ship began the following year. However, the owner ran out of money during the process and ''Anita I'', as she had been renamed, was seized by her creditors in 1949 and sold for scrap. She was not broken up until late 1950. ==Design and description== The Royal Navy had conducted trials in 1913 with a modified cruiser, , to evaluate the ability of seaplanes to work with the fleet. They were successful enough that the Admiralty allocated £81,000 in the 1914–1915 Naval Programme to purchase a merchant ship for a more thorough modification than had been possible with ''Hermes'' to better accommodate seaplanes. A tramp steamer was purchased in 1914 that had just begun construction at the Blyth Shipbuilding Company so it could be easily modified to suit its new role.〔Layman 1976, pp. 91–92〕 ''Ark Royal'' was laid down on 7 November 1913 by the Blyth Shipbuilding Company in Blyth, Northumberland, as a freighter, probably intended for the coal-for-grain trade in the Black Sea. She was purchased in May 1914〔Layman 1976, p. 92〕 and was launched on 5 September 1914. The ship was commissioned on 10 December 1914.〔Friedman, p. 363〕 Extensive changes to the ship were made in converting her to a seaplane tender, with the superstructure, funnel, and propulsion machinery moved aft and a working deck occupying the forward half of the ship. The deck was not intended as a flying-off deck, but for starting and running up of seaplane engines and for recovering damaged aircraft from the sea. The ship was equipped with a large aircraft hold, long, wide and high along with extensive workshops. Two steam cranes on the sides of the forecastle lifted the aircraft through the sliding hatch of the hangar onto the flight deck or into the water. She carried of petrol for her aircraft in standard commercial tins.〔Friedman, pp. 28, 363, 368〕 She could carry five floatplanes and two to four regular, wheeled aircraft. The latter would have to return to land after launch, but the seaplanes would take off and land in the water alongside the carrier, lifted on and off the ship by the cranes. Her original complement of aircraft consisted of a Short Folder, two Wight Pushers, three Sopwith Type 807 seaplanes and two to four Sopwith Tabloid wheeled aircraft.〔Layman 1976, pp. 95–96〕 ''Ark Royal'' had an overall length of , a beam of , and a draught of . She normally displaced , with a displacement of at deep load.〔Friedman, p. 364〕 The ship had one vertical triple-expansion steam engine driving one propeller shaft. The ship's three cylindrical boilers generated enough steam to produce from the engine.〔Layman 1989, p. 45〕 The ship had a designed speed of , but she made a speed of during her sea trials with in December 1914.〔Friedman, pp. 363, 368〕 ''Ark Royal'' carried of fuel oil, enough to give her a range of at .〔 The ship was armed with four QF 12-pounder 12 cwt guns〔"cwt" is the abbreviation for hundredweight, 30 cwt referring to the weight of the gun.〕 and two machine guns.〔Friedman, p. 28〕 Including 60 aviation personnel, her crew totalled 180 officers and men.〔 "Her truly unique feature was the steadying sail on the mizzen to help keep her head to the wind; she remains the only aircraft carrier to have been fitted with a sail."〔Brown 1999, pp. 76–77〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「HMS Ark Royal (1914)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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