HMS ARK ROYAL ARRIVES AT SHIP GRAVEYARD- LANGUISHING
HMS Ark Royal arrives in the Turkish port of Aliaga at the ship scrapping firm Leyal’s yard. The former flagship of the Royal Navy will now be turned into slabs of steel and sold by the Kilo. The 22,000 ton ship, which carried 22 aircraft and had a complement of 1,051, was retired five years ahead of schedule in 2011, a high-profile casualty of the government’s controversial defence cuts. Tears were shed when, after more than a quarter of a century of service, Britain’s most famous warship left Portsmouth last month and began her final solemn journey.The mighty aircraft carrier was sold to ship recycling firm Leyal for £2.9m, where it now faces the ultimate indignity of being taken apart like a scrapped second hand car.
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