Invincible arrives at her final resting place
AXED HMS Invincible
AXED aircraft carrier HMS Invincible has arrived at a Turkish scrapyard to be broken up.
The warship, which left Portsmouth last month, was towed to Izmir in Turkey by an ocean-going tug after she was bought by Leyal Ship Recycling earlier this year.
It will take eight months to dismantle the carrier at the same scrapyard which disposed of Type 42 destroyers HMS Cardiff, HMS Glasgow and HMS Newcastle.
Asim Ozdogan from Leyal Ship Recycling said: ‘Like most ships, the HMS Invincible is made out of steel. The process of ship recycling involves cutting the ship in smaller pieces which are then sent for processing and recycling in steel mills.
‘There the steel is melted using electricity and is recast in ingots or slabs, which in turn will be used to make anything out of steel.’
Crowds gathered on the quayside to bid her farewell to Invincible when she left Portsmouth for the final time last month – almost 29 years to the day after she left Portsmouth on April 5, 1982 to fight in the Falklands War.
Ironically, Invincible passed Libya on her final voyage – where many defence experts say Britain needs an aircraft carrier to enforce the United Nations’ no-fly zone.
The ship, which boasted Prince Andrew among her crew in the Falklands War, was commissioned in 1980 and was the first in class of the navy’s three new aircraft carriers. Her sister ships were HMS Ark Royal and HMS Illustrious.
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Comments
There are 10 comments to this article
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jacksonphreak
Friday, April 15, 2011 at 07:33 PMSo, who paid off HMS Invincible early?..........Labour and who left the Navy without an Air Defence fighter, the Sea Harrier by decommissioning them 10 or so years early? Funnily enough, Labour again. Not to mention of course, replacing 12 Type 42's with only 6 T45's and paying off 3 Type 23's....one was only 8 years old (Grafton). They were a complete joke of a party when it came to defence.
Graham Wheatley
Friday, April 15, 2011 at 03:15 PMwewannawin (2) who are you going to vote for instead? Labour!? --- You're right about her initial condition though - she was scrapped 21 months after coming out of a major refit (who was the bright spark who decided to announce her scrapping BEFORE the fleet review at IFoS-Traf200 in 2005? Couldn't it have waited until Jan1st 2006?). ----- KC (7) it will certainly have been the 5 years lay-up that did the damage though. I recall that MOD had stated that she was capable of being brought back into action at 'short notice'. Fat chance of that.
nmichael
Friday, April 15, 2011 at 10:44 AMEnd of the day Navy Chiefs did for Invincible as they will do for ark royal and all future ships not lost to conflict, ships left to rot beyond reactivation in reserved are a decision taken by Navy Chief's. Harrier Carriers are'nt obsolete and the Harrier is not obsolete, Italy for instance has a 3 year old Harrier Carrier, I guess the deactivation of the Invincible Class was part of the decision of where the Navy wanted to be on the conception of the new QE Class again a decision of Navy Chiefs..
King Chestnut
Thursday, April 14, 2011 at 11:31 PM@ wewannawin, I'm afraid you are going to have admit defeat on this one, she was laid up in the basin for 5 year's, during that time she became spares for the Ark and Illustrious, it would've cost more to send that back to see than you'd imagine, when they sit in salt water that long without moving the bottom rots away, if you saw her leaving you would've seen the tower was red in places, that was the undercoat showing through peeled off paint where she'd not seen a re-paint in so long, these boats were born in similar times we are seeing now, they were about all the country could afford, take the sentiment out of it and they aren't a lot of use, especially in today's theatre, in the Falklands she had Hermes to back her up, and Thatcher was petrified at the thought of losing a new ship like this and kept both carrier's well out of harms way, they actually came back having given a good account of themselves due to the crews onboard and more especially the pilot's who flew constantly to give air cover and quite a lot of dogfighting with the Arg pilot's who were much better than you'd imagine, one of the funniest things was when all three had the decks extended, the RAF got the blame for that because they were having trouble landing on them, but the real reason is they were just too small anyway, if it was down to me I'd have scrapped all three ten year's ago, they imo are embarasing, especially when you see other carrier's dock in the solent, it's like they have a supermarket and we have a corner shop.
eastneyboy
Thursday, April 14, 2011 at 10:05 PMObviously not the Conservative party Manifesto....
CTR
Thursday, April 14, 2011 at 08:20 PM@4 - where on earth did you get your 'facts' from? Utter gibberish!
eastneyboy
Thursday, April 14, 2011 at 07:14 PMAbsolute rubbish, mate. The Invincible was scrapped at least five years before her time - and was NOT in need of repairs other than normal maintenance. To reduce the ability of the armed forces below that needed to defend our shores is criminal. How easy it is to lay everything to blame at the door of the previous government.... That excuse has now run its time - and in any event simply does not stand up to critical examination. If Brown had listened to Cameron, we would have done nothing to avert the banking crisis. Cameron was in favour of allowing ordinary savers (mostly those who had NOT been living on loans and credit) to lose everything. He simply didn't understand the depth of the crisis or, worse, didn't care about the consequences for ordinary people of not saving the banking system from collapse! We are in real danger of a prolonged recession caused entirely by the policies of Cameron and Clegg and the electorate will have the opportunity to deliver their interim verdict on the CONDEM coalition in a few weeks time....
CTR
Thursday, April 14, 2011 at 06:15 PMShe was old and in need of repairs the made it uneconomical to keep her afloat. Brown and his Socialist clan should hold their heads in shame for what they did to this country and the debt they got us into! Now we all have to pay, well, those of us not on Benefit anyway!
eastneyboy
Thursday, April 14, 2011 at 05:58 PMHer final resting place, it would appear, will be in a multitude of places...one day we may all be using bits of her to shave in the mornings! What a sad end for a great naval ship. Gone but not forgotten - David Cameron and his cronies in this coalition of the lost should hang his head in shame, having reduced this nation's ability to defend itself......roll on the May elections!
nmichael
Thursday, April 14, 2011 at 02:17 PMHer final resting place was portsmouth she will have no rest in turkey!
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