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.
Design, description and construction Argus had her genesis in the Admiralty's desire during the First World War for an aircraft carrier that could fly off wheeled aircraft and land them aboard. Existing carriers could launch wheeled aircraft, but had no way to recover them as they lacked flight decks. In 1912, the ship builder William Beardmore and Company had proposed to the Admiralty an aircraft carrier design with a continuous, full-length flight deck, but it was not accepted. As the limitations of existing carriers became more apparent, this design was dusted off and the Admiralty located two large, fast hulls suitable for conversion into an aircraft carrier. Construction of the Italian ocean liners Conte Rosso and Giulio Cesare had been suspended by Beardmore at the outbreak of the war, and both met the Admiralty's criteria. Conte Rosso was purchased on 20 September 1916, possibly because her machinery was more complete than that of Giulio Cesare, and the company began work on converting the ship.McBride, pp. 73–75
James Graham, 6th Duke of Montrose, a director of the Beardmore company, proposed to the Admiralty a design, "A Parent Ship for Naval Aeroplanes and Torpedo Boat Destroyer" in 1912. The initial design had two islands with the flight deck running between them. Each island contained one funnel; a large net could be strung between them to stop out-of-control aircraft. The islands were connected by braces and the bridge was mounted on top of the bracing, which left a clear height of for the aircraft on the flight deck. Fairly early in the design process, the decision was made to delete the funnels to reduce turbulence over the flight deck. The exhaust gases were, instead, ducted aft in the space between the roof of the hangar deck and the flight deck and were enclosed by a casing through which cooler air was driven by electric fans. They normally exhausted underneath the aft end of the flight deck, but the exhaust could be vented through openings on the rear side of the hull by two large electric fans.Friedman, pp. 62, 65
In November 1916, the ship's design was tested in a wind tunnel by the National Physical Laboratory to evaluate the turbulence caused by the twin islands and the bridge over them. They were found to cause problems, but no changes were made until the ship was nearly complete. In April 1918, Argus was ordered to be modified to a flush-decked configuration after the sea trials of the carrier had revealed severe turbulence problems caused by her superstructure. The ship was given a bridge underneath her flight deck, extending from side to side, and she was fitted with a retractable pilot house in the middle of the flight deck for use when not operating aircraft.Friedman, pp. 65–66
Arguss stability had been a concern from the beginning. Despite having been originally conceived as a liner with a hull designed to minimise rolling, most of the changes made to the ship during her conversion added topside weight, raising her centre of gravity. Even the addition of of ballast still left the ship with a very low metacentric height of only lightly loaded and at deep load. This meant she was very steady, but heeled noticeably when turning. The ship proved to be very manoeuvrable at medium and high speeds, but steered badly at low speeds and in wind due to her large surface area.Friedman, p. 66
Argus had an overall length of , a beam of , and a draught of at deep load. She displaced at standard load and at deep load. Each of the ship's four sets of Parsons geared steam turbines drove one propeller shaft. Steam was supplied by 12 cylindrical boilers. The turbines were designed for a total of , but they produced during her sea trials in September 1918, and gave Argus a speed of . The ship carried of fuel oil, which gave her a range of at .Friedman, pp. 67, 365
The ship's flight deck was long and her hangar was long, wide, and high.McBride, pp. 76, 86 Aircraft were transported between the hangar and the flight deck by two aircraft lifts; the forward lift measured and the rear .Friedman, p. 365 Argus was the only British carrier serving in the Second World War capable of striking down (stowing away) aircraft with non-folding wings because of her wide lifts and tall hangar ceiling.Brown 2003, p. 115 Three fire curtains divided the hangar and another separated the hangar and the quarterdeck. She could accommodate between 15 and 18 aircraft. No arresting gear was fitted as completed. Two large cranes were positioned on the quarterdeck, beneath the rear of the flight deck. Petrol storage consisted of in tins stowed below the waterline. The ship's crew totalled 495 officers and men.McBride, p. 76
The ship was armed with four anti-aircraft guns, two on the quarterdeck and one on each side of the hull. She was also fitted with two low-angle 4-inch guns, one also on each side of the hull. The rear magazine and the torpedo warhead storage magazine were protected by a total of of protective plating on all sides, but the forward magazine and bomb storage rooms had only a 2-inch thick deck to protect them.
Construction and career Argus, named after Argus of the 100 Eyes from Greek mythology,Silverstone, p. 211 was laid down in 1914 as yard number 519 by Beardmore at its shipyard in Dalmuir as the Conte Rosso. She was renamed after her purchase in September 1916 and was launched on 2 December 1917, construction having been slowed by labour shortages,McBride, pp. 75, 77 and commissioned on 16 September 1918.Friedman, p. 363 The ship was nicknamed the "Hat Box", "Ditty Box" or the "Flatiron" because of her flat-topped appearance.McBride, p. 79
1918–1939
After commissioning too late to participate in the First World War, Argus was tasked to conduct deck-landing trials with longitudinal arresting gear transferred from Furious. The first landings on the ship were made on 24 September1918 by two Sopwith Ship Strutter aeroplanes from the Grand Fleet's airbase at Turnhouse.Hobbs, p. 44, MacKay, p. 49 The same month, the ship was used in trials to evaluate the effects which an island superstructure would have on flying operations, with a canvas-and-wood dummy island being installed with a smoke box to simulate funnel gases. By 19 December, 36 successful landings had been made by Ship Strutters and Sopwith Pups. Argus was refitted from 23 December to 21 March 1919 with modified arresting gear. The wires of the arresting gear had been lifted off the deck so they could engage the hooks on the undercarriages of the aircraft, but this prevented the use of the flight deck for any other purpose. The after lift was therefore lowered , which allowed aircraft to use the area when the lift was raised flush with the rest of the flight deck. Trials began in April and the lift was widened in October. Argus joined the Atlantic Fleet in January 1920 for her Spring Cruise carrying a total of sixteen airplanes, eight Ship Strutters, four Sopwith Camel fighters, two Airco DH.9A bombers and two Fairey floatplanes. Operational experience confirmed that the aircraft should attempt to land directly onto the arresting gear lest they be blown over the side of the carrier, as happened three times during the cruise.Friedman, pp. 67–69
After the ship's return from her cruise, a conference was convened aboard Argus on 19 May to consider revised landing arrangements. It was decided that a longer system of wires was needed, and the landing well system was abandoned in favour of ramps that could be raised and lowered as needed. Powered palisades were also needed on the side of the flight deck to help retain aircraft aboard that had not engaged a wire. The revised system was successfully tested aboard the carrier later in the year and Argus arresting gear was modified accordingly in time for the 1921 Spring Cruise, during which the ship carried ten Parnall Panther spotter and reconnaissance aircraft and three Fairey IIIC reconnaissance aircraft. In addition, the ship's aft lift was permanently locked in the raised position and of ballast were added to compensate for the additional weight of the equipment high in the ship. This cruise was deemed very successful as 45 landings were made, only two of which resulted in serious accidents, an accident rate comparable to those of land-based units. The time required to launch two aircraft and land one aboard was forty minutes during this cruise, primarily because the rotary engines of the time were very difficult to start.Friedman, p. 69
In September 1922, Argus, equipped with Gloster Nightjar fighters, was deployed to the Dardanelles as a response to the Chanak crisis. As well as operating her own aircraft, Argus was used to fly off Bristol Fighters that had been ferried to the Dardanelles aboard the seaplane carrier to an airfield at Kilia on the European side of the straits. (The aircraft could not be flown off Ark Royal since she was a seaplane carrier with no flight deck. The Bristol Fighters were transferred to Argus by crane).Halley, p. 38
In July 1922, Argus was inclined to evaluate her stability in light of the additional weights that had been added since her completion and it was discovered that her metacentric height had been reduced by . The Director of Naval Construction proposed to fit her with a girdle at her waterline to increase her beam and thus her stability. He intended to do this under the 1923–1924 Naval Programme, but this was delayed several times as the ship was needed for training and when she was finally modified it was under the 1925–1926 Naval Programme. Girdling increased her deep displacement to and her beam to , and reduced her draught to and her speed by a quarter of a knot. The ship was also fitted with bulk petrol storage, new four-inch guns that used fixed ammunition, and new radio masts.Friedman, p. 67