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Frederic Logghe
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R 49 Hercules



The INS Vikrant (formerly the HMS Hercules (R49)) was a Majestic-class light aircraft carrier of the Royal Navy. Her keel was laid down November 12, 1943 by Vickers-Armstrong was launched on September 22, 1945. Construction was suspended after World War II and she was laid up for possible future use. In January 1957 she was sold to India, and construction was completed at Harland and Wolff with an extensively modernized design, including an angled deck with steam catapults, a modified island, and many other improvements.

The Indian high commissioner to the United Kingdom, Vijayalakshmi Pandit, commissioned her as INS Vikrant on March 4, 1961 while she was still at Belfast, Northern Ireland. The name Vikrant was taken from Sanskrit vikr?nta = "stepped beyond", i.e. "courageous", "victorious". Captain Pritam Singh was the first commanding officer of the carrier. She formally joined the Indian fleet at Bombay on November 3, 1961, when she was received at Ballard Pier by Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and other high-ranking dignitaries.

The Vikrant's initial airwing consisted of British Hawker Sea Hawk fighter-bombers and a French Alize anti-submarine aircraft. On May 18, 1961, the first jet landed on board, piloted by Lieutenant (later Admiral) R H Tahiliani.

In 1965, Pakistan claimed that it had sunk the Vikrant. At the time, however, the ship was under refit in dry dock.

Despite a crack in a boiler, she saw real combat against Pakistan in the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971. She was considered important enough by the Pakistan Navy that they sent the submarine Ghazi all the way to the Bay of Bengal to mine the Visakhapatnam harbor in an unsuccessful attempt to sink the Vikrant; the Ghazi itself falling prey to INS Rajput. The Vikrant played an instrumental role in sinking several Pakistani patrol boats and other naval vessels. During the war the crew of Vikrant earned two Mahavir Chakras and 12 Vir Chakras.

Vikrant was given an extensive refit, including new engines and modernization between 1979 and January 3, 1982. Between December 1982 and February 1983 she was refitted again to enable her to operate Sea Harriers. After the retirement of the Breguet Alizé from carrier service in 1989, she received a 'ski jump' for more efficient use of her Sea Harriers.

Vikrant was India's only carrier for over 20 years, but by the early 1990s she was effectively out of service because of her poor condition. Even following major overhauls she was rarely put to sea. She was formally decommissioned January 31, 1997 and is preserved as a museum at Mumbai. (Source: Wikipedia)

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R 97 Leviathan



HMS Leviathan was a Majestic-class aircraft carrier laid down at Swan Hunter on 18 October 1943, and launched on 7 June 1945. However, the ship was suspended after World War II ended, and, unlike the other members of her class she was never completed. She was scrapped before ever being commissioned. (Source: Wikipedia)

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Magnificent



HMCS Magnificent was a Majestic class aircraft carrier of the Royal Canadian Navy, in service from 1946 to 1956.

The third ship of the Majestic class, Magnificent was built by Harland and Wolff, laid down 29 July 1943 and launched 16 November 1944. Purchased from the Royal Navy to replace HMCS Warrior, she served in a variety of roles, operating both fixed and rotary-wing aircraft. She was generally referred to as the Maggie.

Her last role was as a transport during the Suez Crisis, carrying a large part of the Canadian peacekeeping force to Egypt, its vehicles parked on her deck. She was replaced by HMCS Bonaventure. (Source: Wikipedia)

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Majestic



HMS Majestic (R77) was the lead ship of her class of aircraft carriers of the Royal Navy. She was laid down by Vickers-Armstrong Limited at Barrow-in-Furness in England on 15 April 1943 as HMS Majestic and launched on 28 February 1945. Construction was suspended in May 1946 but when it was decided to acquire two aircraft carriers for the Royal Australian Navy in 1947, work was resumed in 1949. However, it took another six years of work before she was ready to enter service, due to the decision to modify the ship to contain the latest developments in aircraft carrier technology - angled flight deck, steam catapault and mirror landing sight. On 28 October 1955 she was renamed HMAS Melbourne [1] in a ceremony performed by Lady White, wife of the then Australian High Commissioner in the United Kingdom, Sir Thomas White and commissioned as the flagship of the Royal Australian Navy.

During her extensive service she was involved in two major collisions: one with the Daring class destroyer HMAS Voyager off the south coast of New South Wales which sank with the loss of 82 lives on 10 February 1964, and later with the destroyer USS Frank E. Evans which sank in the South China Sea with the loss of 74 of her crew on 3 June 1969. In both cases the destroyers crossed in front of Melbourne's bows while she was at flying stations at night. The ultimate cause of both accidents appears to have been errors on the bridges of the destroyers.

Melbourne was due for a refit during the early 1980s. However, the Australian government decided to purchase a new aircraft carrier from the Royal Navy (intended to be HMS Invincible). Melbourne was paid off on 30 June 1982 and laid up at Sydney, was sold to China United Shipbuilding Company Limited in February 1985 and broken up in the port of Dalian in China where it is suspected she had been studied to help design a Chinese aircraft carrier. Several events, including the Falklands War and the 1983 Australian election led to no replacement being purchased. (Source: Wikipedia)

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Powerful



HMCS Bonaventure was a Majestic class aircraft carrier which served in the Royal Canadian Navy and Canadian Forces Maritime Command from 1957 to 1970. It was the last aircraft carrier to serve Canada.

As HMS Powerful she was laid down at Harland and Wolff in Belfast on 21 November 1943, and launched 27 February 1945. Work was suspended after the end of World War II, and was not resumed until the ship was bought by Canada. She was acquired in the early 1950s by the Royal Canadian Navy, which was looking to replace its aging WW2-vintage light carriers Magnificent and Warrior which were deemed too small and slow for the jet age. Several surplus US and UK ships were considered, and the then-mothballed HMS Powerful, a Majestic-class light fleet carrier, was purchased in 1952 from the Royal Navy on the condition that it be refitted with an angled flight deck and steam catapult.

Bonaventure - named after Bonaventure Island, a bird sanctuary in the Gulf of St. Lawrence - was commissioned into the Canadian Navy on 17 January 1957, upon completion of its refit and modernization. The navy's new flagship, affectionately known as the "Bonnie", carried a force of about 34 McDonnell Douglas F2H-3 Banshee jet fighters, Grumman CS2F Tracker ASW aircraft (built by de Havilland in Toronto), and Sikorsky HO4S helicopters.

Even with the refit, landing a Banshee on the Bonaventure's relatively short deck was pushing the envelope. While Canadian pilots did it routinely, American Banshee pilots flatly refused to even attempt landing on Bonaventure during joint operations. The wide-winged Trackers were also a tight fit. Despite this, and because of the hard work and dedication of her crew, the Bonaventure was able by 1958 to conduct around the clock SUSTOP (SUSTained OPeration) operations, keeping four Trackers and two HO4S's in the air at all times, saturating an area of 200 square miles (518 kmē) with ASW aircraft. This made the Canadian Navy the only one in the world at the time other than the US Navy capable of conducting around the clock air operations for sustained periods.

The retirement of the Banshees in 1962, allowed in 1964 new Sea King helicopters to be added to Bonaventure's arsenal, and in 1966 she docked in Quebec for a "mid-life" refit. This second refit took eighteen months and costs escalated to $11 million. Post 1968 unification of the Canadian Armed Forces the Bonaventure was de-commissioned in Halifax on 3 July 1970 (only three years after her refit) and was scrapped in Taiwan in 1971. (Source: Wikipedia)

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R 93 Terrible



HMAS Sydney was a Majestic-class light aircraft carrier laid down by HM Dockyard Devonport in England as HMS Terrible (R93) on 19 April 1943, and launched 30 September 1944. As with other ships in the class, work was suspended upon the end of hostilities in 1945. Terrible was eventually commissioned 16 December 1948 as HMAS Sydney, the first aircraft carrier of the Royal Australian Navy. Sydney, and her sister HMCS Magnificent, were the first Majestic class carriers completed after the war because they were the most advanced ships of the class at the war's end.

She was equipped with Hawker Sea Fury fighters and Fairey Firefly attack aircraft. In 1951 and 1952 Sydney operated with the United Nations forces in Korean waters. She participated in many actions and created a light fleet carrier record when she achieved 89 aircraft sorties in one day.

The ship continued in service as a carrier until her newer sister ship, HMAS Melbourne, took over the RAN's aircraft carrier role. Sydney disembarked her air squadrons 22 April 1955 and served as a training ship until paid off to Special Reserve in Sydney 30 May 1958, and recommissioned as a Fast Troop Transport on 7 March 1962. She was heavily committed to the support of the Australian Task Force in Vietnam and made 24 troop transport visits to Vietnam, which earned her the nickname "Vung Tau Ferry".

Sydney paid off for disposal 12 November 1973, was sold for scrap to the Dongkuk Steel Mill Company Limited of Seoul in South Korea on 28 October 1975 and left Sydney under tow 23 December 1975. (Source: Wikipedia)

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