HMS Argus (I49)

Argus in harbour in 1918, painted in dazzle camouflage
History
United Kingdom
Name	Argus
Namesake	Argus Panoptes
Builder	William Beardmore, Dalmuir
Yard number	519
Identification	Pennant number: I49
Nickname(s)	Hat Box Flatiron
Laid down	1914
Acquired	September 1916
Launched	2 December 1917
Commissioned	16 September 1918
Decommissioned	About 1929
Recommissioned	30 July 1938
Reclassified	As accommodation ship, December 1944
Fate	Sold for scrap, 5 December 1946
General characteristics (as built)
Type	Aircraft carrier
Displacement	14,450 long tons (14,680 t) (standard load)
Length	565 ft (172.2 m) (o/a)
Beam	68 ft (20.7 m)
Draught	23 ft 3 in (7.1 m) (deep load)
Installed power	12 × cylindrical boilers 20,000 shp (15,000 kW)
Propulsion	4 × shafts; 4 × steam turbines
Speed	20 knots (37 km/h; 23 mph)
Range	3,600 nmi (6,700 km; 4,100 mi) at 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph)
Complement	495
Armament	4 × 4 in (102 mm) AA guns 2 × low-angle 4-inch guns
Aircraft carried	15–18

HMS Argus was a British aircraft carrier that served in the Royal Navy from 1918 to 1944. She was converted from an ocean liner that was under construction when the First World War began and became the first aircraft carrier with a full-length flight deck that allowed wheeled aircraft to take off and land. After commissioning, the ship was involved for several years in the development of the optimum design for other aircraft carriers. Argus also evaluated various types of arresting gear, general procedures needed to operate a number of aircraft in concert and fleet tactics. The ship was too top-heavy as originally built, and had to be modified to improve her stability in the mid-1920s. She spent one brief deployment on the China Station in the late 1920s before being placed in reserve for budgetary reasons.

Argus was recommissioned and partially modernised shortly before the Second World War and served as a training ship for deck-landing practice until June 1940. The following month she made the first of her many ferry trips to the Western Mediterranean to fly off fighters to Malta; she was largely occupied in this task for the next two years. The ship also delivered aircraft to Murmansk, Russia, Takoradi in the Gold Coast, and Reykjavík, Iceland. By 1942, the Royal Navy was very short of aircraft carriers, and Argus was pressed into front-line service despite her lack of speed and armament. In June, she participated in Operation Harpoon, providing air cover for the Malta-bound convoy. In November, the ship provided air cover during Operation Torch, the invasion of French North Africa, and was slightly damaged by a bomb. After returning to the UK for repairs, Argus was used again for deck-landing practice until late September 1944. In December, she became an accommodation ship, and was listed for disposal in mid-1946. The ship was sold in late 1946 and scrapped the following year.