Forty-five years ago, in June 1981, the mighty aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal was launched at the Wallsend yard of Swan Hunter, a name synonymous with shipbuilding on the River Tyne. This event marked a proud moment for the region, as crowds gathered to witness the vessel slide into the water.
A Busy Working River
At that time, the Tyne was still a bustling industrial river, with Swan Hunter at its heart. The yard had built legendary ships like the Mauretania, Carpathia, and Esso Northumbria, along with 1,600 other vessels. On June 2, 1981, another notable ship joined that list.
The Journal reported: 'The Queen Mother launched the aircraft carrier Ark Royal. The £220 million, 16,000-tonne vessel splashed into the Tyne at Wallsend.' The senior royal declared: 'The creative genius of our nation flowers as brightly as ever. British craftsmanship cannot be rivalled anywhere in the world.'
The Fifth Ark Royal
This was the fifth Royal Navy ship to bear the name. The first Ark Royal, built for Sir Walter Raleigh, earned honours against the Spanish Armada in 1588 and at Cadiz in 1596. The second, commissioned in 1913, served at the Dardanelles, in the Aegean, and later in the Russian Civil War and Somaliland. The third helped track the Bismarck before being sunk by a U-boat. The fourth served for 30 years and featured in the BBC's 1976 television series Sailor, before being scrapped in 1980.
Construction and Controversy
The keel of the latest HMS Ark Royal was laid at Swan Hunter, Wallsend, in December 1978. Initially intended to be named Indomitable, the carrier was renamed after public anger over the scrapping of the previous Ark Royal. Even so, the future of the new vessel remained unclear. In 1981, the unfinished ship was reportedly offered to the Royal Australian Navy as defence cuts loomed.
In the event, the Queen Mother duly christened the ship on the Tyne in June 1981, with the outbreak of the Falklands War in the spring of the following year confirming the importance of Britain having modern naval air power.
Service and Decommissioning
Finally commissioned in November 1985, the Ark Royal would serve for nearly three decades. Throughout her career, she operated Harrier GR9 jets, Merlin and Sea King helicopters, and carried a crew of up to 600. She saw active duty during the Bosnian conflict in the 1990s and played a key role in the 2003 invasion of Iraq, earning battle honours during Operation Telic. A major refit in 1999 temporarily shifted Fleet Flagship duties to her sister ship Illustrious, but Ark Royal reclaimed the title in 2007. In 2010, when volcanic ash grounded flights across Europe, she was deployed to bring stranded travellers home.
Later that year, the Government announced her decommissioning. In November 2010, she made an emotional five-day farewell visit to the Tyne. Proposals to preserve the vessel as a heliport, nightclub, school, or casino were all rejected. In 2013, Ark Royal departed for Turkey to be scrapped - her fate mirroring that of Swan Hunter itself, the shipyard where she was built and which now belongs to history.
End of an Era
For 130 years, Swans - in common with other shipyards that lined both banks of the River Tyne - helped indelibly shape the identity of our region and the lives of its people. The yards not only provided a livelihood for thousands of families over successive generations, they shaped a whole way of life and a vibrant working-class culture.
The last ship to be built and completed at Swan Hunter was the Largs Bay in 2006, while in 2010 in a highly symbolic move the yard's cranes, which had defined the skyline for generations, were dismantled. It was the end of an era.
Today the Swan Hunter name lives on in maritime design and the subsea industry, but the Tyne shipyards are gone, the river is quieter, and that all-encompassing way of life is slowly fading from living memory.
