HMS Argus

HMS ARGUS, an aircraft carrier, was launched on 2nd December 1917 by Beardmore on the River Clyde. Her builders intended her to be an Italian liner called CONTE ROSSO, but stopped work on the uncompleted ship at the beginning of the First World War. The Admiralty bought the ship in August 1916 to convert into an aircraft carrier, and she joined the fleet on 16th September 1918 as the first ship with a flight deck extending from bow to stern. She served with the Fleet until the mid 1930s, when other, bigger and more capable aircraft carriers took over her tasks, since she was small and slow. Used mostly for pilot training until the Second World War, she also operated radio-controlled aircraft as targets for ships gunnery practices.

She continued her training tasks during the war, but also acted as an aircraft transport and convoy escort. Additionally, when the aircraft carrier ARK ROYAL was sunk in late 1941, ARGUS replaced her as an operational aircraft carrier in Force H in the Mediterranean, and also took part in Operation TORCH, the invasion of North Africa in October 1942. She then returned to the training role before becoming an accommodation ship in December 1944, and went to the scrapyard at Troon, in Ayrshire, in December 1946.

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