Going through a large brown envelope full of old photos back at my mum's recently, I came across this photo from the 1950s which had been sent / given to her by an old boyfriend.

He was in the Navy and served on carriers, but unfortunately my mum couldn't ID / couldn't remember the ship. All it says on the back, written in pencil, is "Grand Harbour, Valetta Malta". No date either, unfortunately.

I think it must be HMS Eagle or HMS Ocean, though I really can't be sure.

In any case though, I thought this was a good place to share it, as it shows a nice line-up of Gannets, Sea Hawks and (I think) Sea Venoms behind them on the flight deck.

Click for large image:



Regards

- Steve

Hi Steve
I've got a few similar pics. Many of them have a "Times of Malta" stamp on the back. It seems they snapped any vessel entering the harbour but irritatingly didn't note the name!
I'll have a shufty next time I visit my mother (keeper of the records) and see if I can help you out.
Cheers
Steve

I can't see the photo cos I'm looking at work, but if the island is visible, the pennant number should be painted on it. With that, you can look up UK aircraft carriers on Wikipedia and pin it down. Failing that, the deck letter might be visible near the stern, and that's usually fairly easy to narrow down.

Ocean: R68, deck letter O
Eagle: R05, deck letter E (I think, from memory)

However, as Ocean and Eagle were from different classes, if it looks like one of them, it could be any of the Colossus class (cf Ocean) or Ark Royal (cf Eagle).

Cheers Steve. Give us a shout if you come up with anything.

Sean - the only numbers visible are those on some of the aircraft.

- Steve

You can see the deck letter on the bottom left. It is E.
All the planes have E on their tail fins too. Great photo. Will we be able to assemble a flight like that for the
the Airedale navy campaign?

Thanks J-P. Well spotted!

Looks like it's the Eagle then!

- Steve

Great photo Steve, if you look behind the Gannets you can make out Wyverns and behind them the dark shape of Skyraiders.

The 'E' is below the port (left) Gannet

Luciano

Right then folks ,I've got two images of a carrier with the letter Z on the deck and a nice selection of aircraft. From dad's logbooks I'm guessing she is either HMS Glory or HMS Theseus.





Next is this. The R looks like the R on the tailplane of many of the Sea Furies in my piccies. If it is relevant that should make this HMS Glory,hence the confusion.



Finally a later photo of dad flying a Whirlwind and testing a contraption ( designed by Barnes Wallace) for plucking survivors from the sea. I've never seen one since so I guess it didn't work!



I have quite a few helicopter piccies but I don,t suppose this is where they should be posted. Maybe over on rotary wing if I get them scanned.
Cheers
Steve

Can't help with Z, but deck letter R would be Ark Royal, I think.

Love a treasure hunt

Z is HMS Alblion in 1954-1958 according to
http://www.btinternet.com/~a.c.walton/navy/rn-cv3.html

Are the two photos the same ship?
Is that R just part of the pennant number so that could be any ship?

However if you zoom in you can read the battle honours
Greneda 1779 Martinque 1780
?????? ???? Algiers 1?16
?????????? Sebastapol 1??4
Gallipoli 19?5

You've got the original yeah?
If you can get a magnifier and read the battle honours for this ship
we might get a bit closer to its identity. Or the crest should have the ship
name on there.

Keep us posted as to your progress
JP

Thanks chaps
I took your advice JayPee and bought a magnifying glass.So thus armed I have divined the following.
Battle honours: Greneda 1779 Martinique 1780
Washington 1814 Algiers 1816
Navarino 1827 Sevastopol 1864
Gallipoli 1915
I'm about 95% sure that the ship is indeed Ark Royal. On the crest it is a three letter word and a longer word. The first bit does look like Ark, I'm sure it is not HMS. My dad did spend some time on her.

HMS Albion is interesting. I don't doubt it but I'm now intrigued to know why my dad would have two pictures in an album of a ship that I don't believe he ever served on!

Washington 1814 - was that when they burnt the original Whitehouse? It somehow seems very odd to modern eyes to see a British battle honour from a conflict with the United States!

Where the hell is Navarino?

It's all good fun

Cheers

Steve

Sorry folks NOT Ark Royal. Crest is wrong and battle honours are too. The search continues.

Well folks my old eyes tricked me. From the ship's badge ( not crest apparently) and the battle honours, I can state that this ship is definitely HMS Albion. The R may have been a bit of a red herring.
So that makes three pictures of her. I know she was a Centaur class carrier and took part in the Suez debacle. My dad flew 45 commando into Port Said for their assault (he had converted to helicopters) but I always thought that was from HMS Theseus.
I shall rummage through his log books next time I see the "keeper of the records" - me mum.
Thanks for all your help
Steve

Hi Steve,

The crest is HMS Albion


as is the Z on the fleet deck. The R is part of the pennent number for Albion thats R07.

Hope that helps.
Luciano

The naval Battle of Navarino was fought on 20 October 1827, during the Greek War of Independence (1821–32) in Navarino Bay, on the west coast of the Peloponnese peninsula, in the Ionian Sea. A combined Ottoman and Egyptian armada was destroyed by a combined British, French and Russian naval force. It is notable for being the last major naval battle in history to be fought entirely with sailing ships

Luciano

Thanks Luciano,that explains th R as well
Steve

Another mystery solved

Steve a great find many thanks for sharing them here

Just to clarify my earlier post, as others have spotted the flaw: the pennant number is on the island and starts with R (no idea why); the deck letter is on the, er, deck, usually the port side at the stern, and that's the letter that the aircraft have on their fins too. It's replaced by a different code (generally two letters) when they're shore-based - which must make the fitters very happy. As I couldn't see the photos - this system at work again - I didn't realise which R I was commenting on.

This may sound daft,but did they bother to keep re-painting. All my the pictures of 801 squadron Sea Furies show them with an R on the tail. Some were taken at Halfar (malta). For this period 801 was on HMS Glory. In my dad's logbook from the page with the entry "lee to HMS Glory" until the page with the entry "Glory to Lee-on-Solent", that is November '53 to March '54, the top of each page is marked H.M.S Glory
.
The pictures from Bardufoss (Norway) also show an R on the tail. At this time,again according to his log book 801 were based at R.N.A.S.Ford
.
Log books are great fun to read. I love entries like "strike on 5th gloucestershire regmt." or "Strike on "Perseus" "Obdurate". I thought the Royal Navy was on our side!!!

I'm not sure about the RATOGs. I remember reading that the navy stopped these because the rockets did not always fire at the same time. The resultant asymmetric thrust could have fatal consequences. In 1953/4 they were still doing them relatively frequently.

Cheers

Steve