After the sinking of the Bismarck, HMS Cossack picked up a cat from the floating wreckage and named it Oscar. When Cossack got sunk by a german U-Boat the cat was one of the survivors and went with them to Gibraltar. There Oscar joined the crew of HMS Ark Royal and, of course, survived the sinking of this ship too. For some unfathomable reason no other ship made Oscar part of its crew so it found a place with the governor of Gibraltar (did not sink) and later in a seamans home in Belfast (did not sink either).

Ship names like Formidable, Invincible, Indefatigable, Victorious, Irresistible, Triumph, Conqueror all make me wonder if the British navy just can’t resist ship names that simply invite doom.

"Aircraft launched for a second strike circled King George for a while but were told to please go away" :-) could almost believe that's exactly how the British would have said it.

"The catapult was told that aircrafts were not in fact projectiles, and they should never do this again!" 😂

Hide your destroyers

You left out my favorite part of the whole story. The way I read it, the Bizmark's guns missed the incoming Swordfish torpedo planes, because their targeting computers had been calibrated with the expectation of being attacked by faster, more modern planes. But the best part is one of the pilots made a mistake, and failed to prepare his torpedo for release, it seems there were two levers he needed to pull, one to get the torpedo ready at the last moment, and the second one to launch it. So when he tried to drop the torpedo, it failed to release. So what does he do? He turned around and went back by himself. This is the last thing the Germans expected, and they never saw him coming. He got right up to their stern without opposition, and shoved that torpedo right up the Bizmark's ass.That's how their steering gear got broken.

"Fortune favours the Fortunate" seems like a good ship motto.

I fought with and drank with Royal Marines from HMS Ark Royal (R09) in the late sixties, great bunch of men. My shipboard service was aboard the USS Newport News (CA-148) and USS Springfield (CL-66/CLG-7/CG-7)

Ark Royal was a good looking ship.

The Enterprise also had a nasty habit of refusing to show up for her own funeral. The IJN kept thinking they sank her, a few weeks later she'd pop back up.

10:30

7:23

My great uncle was on Ark Royal from commissioning until her loss, serving as an aircraft mechanic. It was ironic that the only hit she ever took was to sink her, one of the several pieces of bad luck she suffered. The only man lost, Able Seaman Edward Mitchell was also very unlucky, being deep in the hull right where the torpedo struck - apparently having a tea break according to shipmates, in what was somewhat dark humour. Many of the factors in the loss, notably the angled uptakes, featured heavily in the loss of Prince of Wales as the same issue cut the power there too.

"and the catapult was explained that planes are not projectiles and it should never do that again "

Ark Royal: is immensely tall

I'd love to have been a fly on the wall when HQ learned about that swordfish incident...

Best warships channel on KZread and you all know it.

Ark Royal:

BAD CATAPULT!! BAD!! NO!

US Navy ships of that era had a voice sound powered wired phone system. (think of many tin cans connected by taught a sting). which went throughout the ship. During battle-stations or disasters, these head phones / microphone contraptions were donned by a crew member in each compartment . Much like an open party telephone line allowing all the various compartments to listen and receive orders and reply as required.