Britain to Have no Battleship in Home Fleet

Grey River Argus, 14 October 1948, Page 5

Britain to Have no Battleship in Home Fleet

LONDON, October 12,

The naval correspondent of the “Daily Express’’ says: “When H.M.S. Duke of York, at present flagship of the Commander-in-Chief, Home Fleet (Vice-Admiral Sir Rhoderick McGrigor) returns from her present cruise to the West Indies, she will go into reserve and the aircraft-carrier Implacable, now refitting at Rosyth, will fly the Commander-in-Chief’s flag. “When the Duke of York goes into reserve the Home Fleet will have no battleship in full operational order. The Anson and Howe are being used as naval training establishments at Portland and the King George V., for a similar purpose, at Portsmouth, while the Vanguard will be detached from the fleet for the Royal visit to New Zealand and Australia. “Although aircraft-carriers have, on several occasions, acted as flagships of the Home Fleet during the recent war, this will be the first time a carrier has been flagship in peacetime. “While the modern Implacable is being prepared at Rosyth, the ancestor of this famous line of ships, the old French ship of the line Implacable, captured after Trafalgar, is to be broken ud at Portsmouth dockyard. The old Implacable, which is to-day, the only floating survivor of Trafalgar, was ordered to be scrapped 40 years ago, but was reprieved after personal intercession by King Edward VII. The Admiralty disposed of the ship in 1925, but took her back as a training ship in 1941. The Admiralty authorities have not yet decided whether the ship will be blown up or taken to sea and scuttled.”