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Designedin 1934 to fit therestriction s of the Washington Naval Treaty, Ark Royal wasbuilt by Cammell Laird and Company, Ltd. at Birkenhead, England,and completed in November 1938. Her design differed from previous aircraftcarriers. Ark Royal was the first ship on which the hangars and flight deckwere an integral part of the hull, instead of an add-on or part of the superstructure. Designed to carry a large number of aircraft, she had twohangar deck levels. She served during aperiod that first saw the extensive useof naval air power; a number of carrier tactics were developed and refinedaboard Ark Royal. ArkRoyal served in some of the most active naval the atres of the Second World War.She was involved in the first aerial and U-boat kills of the war, operationsoff Norway, thesearch for the German battleship Bismarck,and the Malta Con voys. Ark Royal survived several near misses and gained areputation as a 'lucky ship'. The Germans incorrectly reported her as sunk on multiple occasion s. She was torpedoed on 13 November 1941 by the German submarine U-81 and sank the following day. Her sinkingwas the subject of several inquiries; investigators were keen to know how the carrier was lost, in spite of effor ts to save the ship and tow her to thenavalbase at Gibraltar. They found that severaldesign flaws con tributed to the loss, which were rectified in new Britishcarriers.
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