HMS Ark Royal

[cnosni]

Just doing some digging about The Ark Roal that Leeds raised money for to be built during the WWII,copied below is an article on BBC Leeds"During WW2 various government-sponsored campains were mounted to encourage people to raise money for the war effort. One of these was Warship Week. In Leeds Warship Week was to be held on 30 January - 7 February 1942.In November 1941 the city of Leeds, as an additional incentive for the week, decided to adopt the HMS Ark Royal. Just days later the ship was torpedoed and sunk in the Mediterranean.The fund-raising objective for Leeds' Ark Royal Week changed from a target of £3.5m for a replacement hull and some refitting to over £5m for a replacement ship.A huge march took place down The Headrow in the city centre, led by the Navy and followed by military vehicles and personnel.The grand total raised by Leeds was over £9m. Contributions included money sent by children to buy nuts and bolts to sums of £250,000 from businesses to purchase Fulmar naval fighter planes, which cost £5,000 each."£9m is a staggering amount to raise.I wonder how much that would be in todays money,is there anyone on here that can find out.My mam told me they also contributed to the fund by donating"Bun Pennies",these were old pennies with Queen Victorias head on from the early part of her reign,when she wore her hair in a "Bun" on the back of her head.It was this fund raising that led to the crew of the Ark Royal having a close association with Leeds,and also the subsequent granting of the freedom of the City to its crew and the crews of the subsequent Ark Royals since its decommisioning in 1980.It was also this Ark Royal that appeared in the tv series Sailor

[wiggy]

yep! thats about what my gran once told me.

[electricaldave]

According to this site http://img.thisismoney.co.uk/calculator ... e.htmlYour £9mill would be £346 mill in todays money.When you look at the current Ark, it cost almost around £300 mill to construct, but this was back in 1978 so you can see just how much more expensive carriers are becoming, given that the 1978 isn't a proper carrier anyway and its quite small by carrier standards - in the meantime the Ark has had some major refits, so the cost will be very considerably more.These figures are utterley dwarfed by the next generation of RN carriers, which will be the full monty, angled flight deck, the lot and 3 times the tonnage of the current ones.Its going to cost around £300mill just to design them.http://www.mod.uk/DefenceInternet/Defen ... greed.htmI wouldn't like to be the driver who bumped that lot into a bollard, think of the insurance claim!

[cnosni]

So the citizens of Leeds managed to raise the equivalent of over £300 Mill,surely they cant have done that in a week,or did they.Just imagine the hoops they jump through when they raise a lot of money for children in need.Most of this money was raised,i would imagined,from the more down at heel.combine this with the time they were living in and the amount is truly astronomical.Good on yer old Loiners!!

[raveydavey]

The website for the current HMS Ark Royal (the Fleet Flagship no less) is athttp://www.royal-navy.mod.uk/server/show/nav.00h001001001001

[fevlad]

the ark royal that Leeds contributed to would have been built in any case.She was already under construction and was going to be one of a class of thee Ark Royal, Audacious and Sfrica. Africa was never completed, Audacious was renamed eagle.Construction of these ships was very slow, because there was no urgent need for them because of the way the war was progressing. The atlantic war had a prressing need for escort vessles and the pacific was the domain of the us navy with an in put the Royal and Commonwealth navis that was of more political significance than military.The two ships weren't completed until after the war. This meant that the Royal navy's main carrier force was of world war two design-ill equipped for the new generation of jet planes. The Ark Royal was up graded-whilst eagle was used for spares and operted jet aircraft but only had a small air wing compared to the US Midway and Forrestal classes.The new generation of carriers-the Prince Of wales Class will be as someone said 'full on' carriers as opposed to the Invincible class.

[Hats Off]

Anyone remember when the 'Ark' was given the freedom of the city ? It was about 1973/74ish. I recall the jets & helicopters from the ship flying over our house in Meanwood on at least two or three occasions (All very exciting to a young lad.) I was taken into town to watch a march past of the ships company down by the Town Hall or was it Briggate ? The old memory ain't what it was.

[cnosni]

fevlad wrote: the ark royal that Leeds contributed to would have been built in any case.She was already under construction and was going to be one of a class of thee Ark Royal, Audacious and Sfrica. Africa was never completed, Audacious was renamed eagle.Construction of these ships was very slow, because there was no urgent need for them because of the way the war was progressing. The atlantic war had a prressing need for escort vessles and the pacific was the domain of the us navy with an in put the Royal and Commonwealth navis that was of more political significance than military.The two ships weren't completed until after the war. This meant that the Royal navy's main carrier force was of world war two design-ill equipped for the new generation of jet planes. The Ark Royal was up graded-whilst eagle was used for spares and operted jet aircraft but only had a small air wing compared to the US Midway and Forrestal classes.The new generation of carriers-the Prince Of wales Class will be as someone said 'full on' carriers as opposed to the Invincible class. Thanks for that fevlad,never the less Leeds did raise the readies and was able to pay for a few exras as well.

[fevlad]

absolutely.I wasn't trying to minimise the effort made by the city.this kind of thing was quite common, before during and after the warfor instance HMS Sheffield was adopted by the City before WW2 when she was brand new-all her fittings were provided by the city in stainlkess steel-she was known as the 'shiny sheff', her name sake that wqas sunk in the falklands was treated similarly.Horsforth adopted trhe corvette HMS Aubretia.she was a member of the flower class of anti sumbarine escort vessels based on the design of a whaler. She and the destroyer Bulldog and the minesweeper seaham captured a U Boat complete with enigma machine in one of the most famous incidents of the war.There was in fact an HMS Leeds.She was an American world war one destroyer lent to Britain in exchange for bases in the south atlantic and carribean.They were obsolete but the Royal navy was desperate for destroyers after Dunkirk where many were lost.They were poor quality ships as well as being out of date. They were converted to escort vessels and named after towns and cities that were common in name in the US and the UK.I don't think there was any connection made between HMS Leeds and the City of Leeds