Ark Royal was an English galleon, originally ordered for Sir Walter Raleigh and later purchased by the crown for service in the Royal Navy. She was used as the English flagship in a number of engagements, including the battles that resulted in the defeat of the Spanish Armada, and had a long career spanning over 50 years. Her fame led to a number of later warships of the Royal Navy being named Ark Royal in her honour, including a number of flagships of the fleet.
HMS Ark Royal was the first Royal Navy ship to be completed as an aircraft carrier.She was renamed HMS Pegasus in 1934.
HMS Ark Royal was an aircraft carrier of the Royal Navy that served during the Second World War.
Designed in 1934 to fit the restrictions of the Washington Naval Treaty, Ark Royal was built by Cammell Laird and Company, Ltd. at Birkenhead, England, and completed in November 1938. Her design differed from previous aircraft carriers. Ark Royal was the first ship on which the hangars and flight deck were 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 two hangar deck levels. She served during a period that first saw the extensive use of naval air power; a number of carrier tactics were developed and refined aboard Ark Royal.
HMS Ark Royal was an Audacious-class aircraft carrier of the Royal Navy and, was the Royal Navy's last remaining conventional catapult and arrested-landing aircraft carrier. She was the world's first aircraft carrier to be commissioned with an angled flight deck, preceding the first American carrier commissioned with this feature, USS Forrestal, by eight months. She was decommissioned 11th March 2011.

Our “Ark Royal” is still going strong! Under the command of Captain Dave Macaulay.