HMS Ark Royal IV R09
In this photographic slideshow, the last Royal Navy Fleet Carrier, HMS Ark Royal IV R09 is seen displaying her paying off pennant as she passes Devil's Point and enters her home port of Devonport Naval Base on 4th December 1978. Ordered in 1942 and laid down on 3rd May 1943, An Audacious Class Carrier, Ark Royal was not commissioned until February 1955, and originally had a displacement of 36,800 tons, although this had grown to almost 54,000 tons by the time of her decommissioning in 1979. The sister ship to HMS Eagle, she was originally to be named HMS Irresistible, before receiving the name Ark Royal prior to launch. Decommissioned in February 1979, HMS Ark Royal IV departed Devonport for the final time on 22nd September 1980, bound for scrapping at Cairnryan in Scotland. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bOZXnryiskE