British aircraft carrier HMS Furious (1915) 1925-1948 (1954)

Appearance around 1925

Originally a very lightly armoured and armed battle cruiser of a modified Courageous-design especially built to support the so-called Baltic Project of admiral Lord Fisher which was an invasion on the German coast of Pomerania, She was to support the landing. Laid down at the shipyard of Armstrong Whitworth, Wallsend, England on 8 June 1915, launched on 15 August 1916, commissioned on 26 June 1917, trials on 2 August 1917, first landing of an aircraft on a moving ship on 2 August 1917, returned to the dockyard for removal of her aft turret and instead fitting her out with a landing deck and 2 lifts for the hangars, decommissioned on 15 March 1918, laid up, converted into an aircraft carrier fitted out with a continuous flight deck of 175,6 x 28 metres between June 1921-September 1925, between 1 July 1930 and February 1932 again modernized, decommissioned in May 1932, deck landing training carrier since 1937, resevce since 15 September 1944, paid off and berthed at Loch Striven in April 1945 and finally sold to be broken up in 1948, which was completed at. Troon, Scotland in 1954. Pennant number 47. Nicknamed Spurious.

Technical specifications as a modified Courageous-battle cruiser. With a displacement of 19.826 tons/19.513 long tons (normal)-23.257 tons/22.890 long tons and as dimensions 239,8 x 26,8 x 7,6 metres or 786.9 x 88 x 24.111 feet. The horsepower of 90.000 ship supplied by 4 shafts 4 geared steam turbines and 18 Yarrow small tube boilers allowed a speed of 31,5 knots. Her crew numbered 737 men. The armour consisted of a 5,1-7,6cm/2-3” thick belt, 1,9-7,6cm thick decks, torpedo bulkheads of 2,5-2,8cm/1-1.5” while the barbettes, turrets and conning tower were protected by respectively 7,6-17,8cm/3-7”, 17,8-22,9cm/7-9” and 25,4cm/10”. De armament consisted of 2x1-19” breech loading Mk I guns, 11x1-5.5” breech loading Mk I guns, 2x1-3” quick firing 20 cwt anti aircraft guns and 2x1-53,3cm/21” submerged torpedo tubes.

Technical specifications as an aircraft carrier after 1925. She is in the literature sometimes in the early phase indicated as a sea plane carrier. With a displacement of 22.900 tons/22.500 long tons (normal)-26.900 tons/26.500 long tons (deep load) and as dimensions 224,1 (between perpendiculars)-239,8 (over all) x 26,8 x 8,3 metres or 735.2,25-786.9 x 88 x 27.3 feet. The 3 shafts Brown-Curtiss geared steam turbines and 18 Yarrow boilers supplied 89.745 shp allowing a speed of 28,8 30 knots and with a speed of 10 knots a range of 7.480 nautical miles. The crew numbered in 1939 795 men. Her armament consisted of 10x1-5.5” breech loading Mk I guns and 6x1-4” Mark V quick firing anti aircraft guns. She could take 36 planes with her. Further more was she armoured consisting of a 5,1-7,6cm/2-3” thick belt, 1,9-7,6cm thick decks, torpedo bulkheads of 2,5-2,8cm/1-1.5” and a bulkheads of 5,1-7,6cm/2-3”.