Royal Navy aircraft carrier HMS Glorious in naval art print by Ivan Berryman. HMS Glorious is seen after being converted from a battle cruiser into an aircraft carrier with HMS Ardent during world war two.

HMS Glorious, HMS Glorious started life as a light battle-cruiser. Laid down on the 1st May 1915 at the Harland and Wolff shipyards.  and launched on the 20th April 1916. and completed on the 14th October 1916.  This Battle Cruiser only saw one action during world war one at Heligoland bight on the 17th November 1917. It was then that a weakness to the ships decking was found when HMS Glorious had fired its main armament of four 15-inch guns (mounted in pairs ) one pair forward and pair aft.  the firing actually caused the structural damage. Probably due to this weakness HMS Glorious and her sister ship HMS Courageous were placed in the Royal naval reserve fleet in February 1919, at Devonport, Plymouth  HMS Glorious and her sister ship HMS Courageous  were converted into aircraft carriers. HMS Glorious was converted in 1930.  (an interesting fact, was that there main armament of 15inch guns were stored and finally re used for the last battleship of the Royal navy, HMS Vanguard,  HMS Glorious four 15-inch guns were mounted aft, and Courageous guns mounted forward. on HMS Vanguard.

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Arctic guardian - USS Washington by Anthony Saunders