In this series I propose to write a short monograph on the earliest aircraft carriers which can be of interest both for the general reader and casual visitors to this ACB website; and hopefully, for ship modelers as each article will make reference to kits, plans, and completed models whenever possible.  I invite critical comments, corrections, additions, additional pictures, diagrams and references.  In fact, if anyone wants to produce articles of a similar nature, please contact me by way of a Personal Message or Zoltan, the website administrator, by way of an e-mail.  I intend to write articles on each British carrier from 1917 up to but not including the Ark Royal of 1938.  That ship, and the classes of carriers laid down in British yards in WWII I will leave for others.  Of the American carriers, Langley, Lexington, Saratoga and Ranger are 'on my plate' but the Yorktown class, the Wasp, the Essex and Midway classes have all been extensively researched and vast amounts of useful information, readily available, exists.  For Japan, Hosho, Akagi, and Kaga will be my beginning point and I do not know how extensively I will treat IJN ships.  WWII construction such as the Shinano and re-builds such as the Ise will be outside the scope of my efforts (but again, others can certainly contribute articles so that eventually every carrier of every nation has a monograph).  Finally, the one country that tried to keep up with the 'Big Three' but did not succeed until well after WWII, France, will be referenced with an article on the Béarn. The 'never were' ships such as Germany's Graf Zeppelin and Italy's Aquila and Sparviero I again leave to others.  Even with all the above exclusions, I have committed myself to writing more than a dozen monographs and if I manage to produce one every three months, then this is still a four year project I am undertaking.  Any help would be appreciated.

The idea of an aircraft carrier rather obviously requires first the idea of an aircraft -- a vehicle, mechanism, device -- powered by neither muscles (as in Icarus) nor by the wind (as in balloons) which would carry humans to places they chose to go.  Once such a vehicle was conceptualized (in one form or another from the 1860's onwards), then one could speculate on the tasks that such a vehicle could perform.  Two ideas seem to have developed simultaneously; the first, to spy upon people on the ground; and the second, to drop things on them.  Before there were actual aircraft, the ideas of aerial reconnaissance and aerial attack (bombing) existed, such that once the Wright Brothers developed powered flight successfully, beginning Dec.17,1903, armies around the world were ready to apply military tasks to the new vehicles.(1)  But navies?  When flights were being measured in yards and metres, the idea of long flights over large bodies of water seemed impractical.  And yet ....

There are many lists made of famous, horribly-wrong predictions.  My personal favourite is the statement made in 1899 by Charles H. Duell.  He was in that year the Commissioner of the U.S. Patent Office and he suggested that his own department should be closed down because "Everything that can be invented has been invented."  It amused me to copy down his words with my ball-point pen the first time I read them.  Besides long lists of wrong predictions one can create much shorter lists of predictions that were prescient -- perfect predictions of what came to pass.  In this context, the French engineer Clément Ader's L'aviation militaire , a pamphlet first published in 1895, was astonishing.  He wrote of a ship whose upper deck "...will have to be cleared of any obstacles.  It will be flat, as wide as possible, not conforming to the lines of the hull....Servicing the aircraft will have to be done below this deck....Access to this lower deck will be by means of a lift long enough and wide enough to take an aircraft with its wings folded.  Along the sides will be the workshops of the mechanics....the speed of this vessel will have to be at least as great as that of cruisers." (2)  And in 1909, Victor Lougheed (3) wrote: "Fancy....when in some great conflict in the future a splendid up-to-date battleship of the traditional order.... finds itself beset in midseas by a couple of great, unarmoured, liner-like hulls, engined to admit of speeds and steaming radii such as will permit them to pursue or run away from any armoured craft yet built, and designed with clear and level decks for aeroplane launching.  Conceive them provided with storage room for hundreds of aeroplanes, with fuel, repair facilities, and explosive, and with housing for a regiment or two of expert air navigators.  Then picture the terribly one-sided engagement that will ensue -- the thousands of tons and millions of dollars worth of cunningly-fashioned mechanism all but importent against the ....attacks from aloft, and unable either to escape from or give chase to the enemy's floating bases... which ever warned and convoyed by their aerial supports, will unreachably maneouvre out of gun range.... reprovisioning, remanning, launching and relaunching their winged messengers of death until the cold waters close over the costly armada of some nation that has refused to profit by the lessons of progress."(4) As a description of the sinking of the Musashi in 1944 and the Yamato in 1945 (Picture 1), Lougheed's words need no improvement, but they were written only three years after HMS Dreadnought, the century's first modern battleship, was put into service.(Picture 2)  A battleship-building frenzy was occurring as Lougheed made his prediction.  By 1908, despite a triumphal tour of France, the Wright Brothers were being eclipsed by other aviation pioneers, so much so that a great air exposition was held at Rheims that summer.  But it was the flight of Louis Blériot on June 25, 1909, that held a real 'lesson of progress' for on that morning, Blériot crossed the English Channel. (Picture 3)

All the aircraft in existence in 1909 look so very fragile in the century-old photographs and even with Blériot's flight, the idea of using aircraft -- from ships -- for fleet reconnaissance seemed a non-starter as a better alternative seemed to exist.  Count Graft von Zeppelin's rigid airships had been developed by 1909 to serve as excellent, long-range scouts for the German High Seas Fleet.  As well, they could carry useful loads.(Picture 4)  But the German's technological lead was such that only other power seriously tried to compete and that was Britain.  But the initial British efforts were very low key and produced little by way of results, and were re-started and cancelled again twice during WWI (5)  The first British airship, the R 1, was a failure.  In April, 1913, a Zeppelin made an emergency landing in Lunéville, France.  The French made diagrams and took many photos before releasing the airship and from these the British produced the R 9, essentially a copy.  But it was not ready until 1916 and its larger sisters until 1918 and later.  By then German Zeppelins had dropped bombs on Norfolk (Jan.19, 1915) and London (May 31, 1915).  Dropping bombs on civilians was a new and cruel twist in a war which saw, in the same early part of 1915, the sinking of the Lusitania with over 1000 drowned, and the first use of poison gas at Ypres in Belgium.  Zeppelins were 'baby-killers' and had to be dealt with.  When the LZ.33 crashed in southern England, almost intact in Sept.1916, thousands visited the site and a debate ensued in the press as to whether or not the surviving crew should be made prisoners of war or tried in a civilian court as murderers.(Picture 5) The British government ordered two copies of LZ.33 to be produced but they were not completed until 1919.  And to stop the Zeppelins it was obvious that only aircraft, with higher speed and time-to-climb performance, could be an effective counter.(6)  Land-based aircraft were used against Zeppelin bombing raids on cities, but they could do nothing to stop Zeppelins at sea where they were the eyes of Imperial Germany's High Seas Fleet.  The obvious solution was to bring aircraft to sea aboard ships -- specialized ships carrying specialized aircraft and thus the future of naval aviation for the British seemed to lie in the seaplane and the seaplane carrier.(7)

Taking off from land; returning to land; taking off from the water; landing on the water; taking off from a ship; landing on a ship --- six different operations requiring different structures, techniques, and piloting skills.  On Nov. 14, 1910, Eugene Ely piloted a Curtiss-pusher biplane of an 83' (25m) ramp built on the foredeck of the cruiser USS Birmingham. (Picture 6)  On 18 Jan. 1911 Ely landed on the 120'(37m) platform built over the stern of the cruiser USS Pennsylvania.  The cruiser was at anchor and there was a 10knot tailwind which made the landing very tricky.  Twenty-two wires, weighted with sand-bags at each end, were to 'catch' and slow down the aircraft.  Ely put his aircraft low over the stern and cut the engine -- he floated past the first 11 wires and then was  caught and stopped in 30' (9m).  Later that day his aircraft was turned around and he took off from the Pennsylvania.(Picture 7).  As demonstrations, these flights stirred the imagination but as a practical matter it was felt that the seaplane (or more properly, 'floatplane') offerred the best chance to achieve useful results quickly.  The very first 'floatplane' was built by Gabriel Voisin and was towed into flight on the Seine River in 1905: it was not powered.  On March 28, 1910, Le Canard, built by Henri Fabre, took off from the Seine and the Voisin brothers soon bought the design and the French navy in 1912 created the first seaplane carrier, La Foudre. (Pictures 8 and 9)  The United States was quick to follow.  Less than a month after Ely's take off and landing on the Pennsylvania, the same ship saw Glen Curtiss take off from the ship's ramp, then land in the water and be hoisted aboard again by the ship's crane.  In April, 1914, six 'hydroaeroplanes' were aboard the USS Mississippi and were used to provide scouting for a U.S. 'punitive expedition' into Mexico.(8).  The British were diverted from their original rigid airship focus by the complete failure of R 1 ('the Mayfly') to become airborne in May 1911 and then by its destruction by wind in September of that year.  The Admiralty's airships section was (not for the last time) disbanded.  In November 1911 the first take-offs and landings were made on the River Medway.  On Jan.10, 1912, using a S.27 biplane, Lieutenant Charles Samson, RN, made the first British take-off from a warship (a ramp built over the guns and forecastle of the battleship Africa), and then, more importantly in May, 1912, the first take-off from a ship underway, HMS Hibernia (Picture 10).  By the end of the month, the Admiralty ordered an old cruiser , HMS Hermes, be taken in hand and converted into the Royal Navy's first seaplane carrier. (Picture 11)  A platform over the bows was used to launch floatplanes and a platform on the quarterdeck was used to stow them, once picked out of the water by the ship's crane.  The aircraft were sheltered by canvas, but the 1913 fleet maneouvres showed that while aircraft were useful, they were too easily prone to damage when protected only by canvas on board, and when landing in rough water.(9) Next the British converted a merchant steamer which became HMS Ark Royal. She too was meant to be experimental, thus her slow speed was acceptable.  A 130' x 44' (40m x 13.5m) flight deck was built forward and aft was a hold that, in effect, became a hangar 150' x 45' with a 15' head clearance.  She also had large workshops and could hold up to 10 aircraft. (Pictures 12 and 13) The war arrived before her conversion was complete and she was deemed too slow for North Sea operations so in February, 1915, she was sent to the Mediterranean with eight aircraft aboard. (10) By that time the British had several seaplane carriers in service and had had one remarkable success.

The war was only a week old but by that time Hermes had re-commissioned and three fast Channel steamers were taken over by the Admiralty and converted into seaplane carriers (HMS Engadine [Picture 14], HMS Riviera [Pictures 15 and 16], and HMS Empress [Picture 17]).  They would carry three floatplanes each in canvas screens fore and aft: these aircraft would be able to take off from the water, each with a light torpedo (Picture 18) to attack the German fleet in its bases, or with bombs to attack the hangars where the Germans kept the Zeppelins.  On October 25, 1914, an attempt was made but not a single floatplane could lift itself from the rought water.  Obviously, launchings had to take place from ramps built on ships in order that flights, with useful loads, could take place.  But none of these three vessels had ramps.  On Christmas Day, 1914, standing off only 12mile (19km) north of Heligoland, nine aircraft were hoisted into the water from these three carriers and seven managed to lift off.  The ships left when only three aircraft had returned since the small squadron had been spotted by a Zeppelin.  Three of the remaining planes put down on the smooth see by the British submarine E.11, put there to destroy the planes and pick up the crews, and the last plane landed near a Dutch trawler and the crew was interned in Holland.(11)  Little damage was caused by the small bombs dropped through low clouds but the raid was a success in that it convince the British to continue with seaplanes and seaplane carriers.

The year 1915 saw the conversion of three larger ships, Ben-my-Chree (Pictures 19 and 20), Manxman (Picture 21), and Vindex (Picture 22).  And in early 1915 seaplanes from Ark Royal in Turkish waters were doing useful reconnaissance work but the ship was so slow (maximum 10 knots) that she was vulnerable to U-boats and shore artillery: she was replaced in August by Ben-my-Chree which could make 24 knots (Picture 23).  Seaplanes from Ben-my-Chree launched successful torpedo attacks and sank a tug and some supply ships, but the 14" 1000 pound torpedos, the largest the floatplanes could then carry, could do little damage against an armoured warship.(12) Meanwhile, in the North Sea, the dream of torpedo attacks on the German fleet at anchor or on the Zeppelins in their shed, met frustration after frustration.  Every attack failed to either take place (sea too rough; mechanical failures; fog or mist over the target) or accomplish anything.  And in the Battle of Jutland, May 31, 1916 only one seaplane carrier, Engadine, was involved and it only managed to send off one aircraft (piloted by Lieutenant F.J. Rutland -- foreverafter known as 'Rutland of Jutland') but its actual contribution was far less than its potential.(13)  The much larger HMS Campagnia (Pictures 24 and 25) with its 200' (61m) flying-off deck missed the message to weigh anchor and joint the fleet; thus it missed the battle entirely. (14) After two years of war it was obvious that seaplanes and seaplane carriers could not perform the tasks the Royal Navy wanted -- sustained reconnaissance  for the fleet; attacking German warships and Zeppelins in their bases.(15)  Taking off from the water proved to be far too limiting in terms of payloads that could be carried and opportunities for engagement -- even a moderate wind would make the water too rough for effective and safe take-offs and landings.(16)  The obvious solution was to put aircraft, not floatplanes, on a ship and have them take off and land on that ship.  The solution, far less than perfect as it turned out, was HMS Furious.

All manner of World War I ship models -- plastic, resin, and metal -- can be found of all the major combatants of all the fleets involved but hours of searching on the web for kits and plans of the ships mentionned in this article was quite frustrating.  No one makes kits or provides plans of WWI seaplane carriers with three minor exceptions.  A company called Navis has a scale model of HMS Engadine and another of HMS Campagnia, both as seaplane carriers in WWI: the latter ship is also produced by a company called Neptun.  A company called Youngerman Ship Models has an Engadine and an HMS Ben-my-Chree. All these models are made of metal in 1:1250 scale. (17)  My searches failed to find any of these ships represented in plastic, or resin, or even as plans.  Outline drawings of many of the British seaplane carriers can be found in Friedman's British Carrier Aviation but they are plan and profile views only, lacking hull cross-sections and other details.  This is also true of the three seaplane carrier plans found in Robbin's The Aircraft Carrier Story and while Ships of the World no. 649 has excellent pictures, only small profile views are provided.  I did find a scratch-built 1:96 model of HMS Ark Royal as a WWI seaplane carrier (18) but that was it.  Nothing is to be found in the 'regular ship scales' (1:700; 1:600; 1:400; 1:350).  The diorama possibilities are great with seaplane carriers (see Picture 26 of HMS Hermes settling down by the stern after having been torpedoed).  In the air, WWI aircraft have become well represented in 1:144 scale but less so in the more popular 1:72 and 1:48 scales. Perhaps the most interesting  model relating to WWI naval aviation is that of a hollow-resin kit of Zeppelin LZ.41.  It is done in 1:144 scale so it is large (113.5cm - 44½"), gorgeous, and not cheap.(19)

NEXT: Part 2:  Almost There: HMS Furious and HMS Vindictive

1. The first aerial bombings on troops were accomplished by Italian airmen during the brief 1911 war against Turkey; Libya was won for Italy by this war.
2. Layman, p.9 Ader's pamphlet went through several editions, but the last was printed in 1909 -- still an amazing prediction.
3. Idem. Victor was the half-brother of Malcolm and Allan Lougheed who modified their name and created the Lockheed Corporation.
4. Idem.
5. Only R 29 did anything useful for the British during the war, helping to sink two U-boats when on patrol in 1918. The two copies of the LZ.33, the R 33 and R 34 had short but interesting careers. The R 34 became the first airship to cross the Atlantic in 1919: it was destroyed by wind in 1921. The R 33, ready in March 1919 served as a platform for experiments until 1928. One experiment was capturing approaching aircraft with a 'trapeze' device.
6. In the same month that the LZ.33 was forced down, another Zeppelin was destroyed by an aircraft having an interrupter-gear allowing forward-firing machine guns through the arc of the propellor, Earlier, the method for destroying a Zeppelin, actually done in 1915, was for an aircraft to fly over the Zeppelin and drop bombs on it!
7. It took a few years for the word 'seaplane' to be generally adopted in English: the first versions were originally called 'hydroplanes' but the First Lord of the Admiralty, a young Winston Churchill, banned the word in the Royal Navy in favour of 'seaplane'. Preston, p.11
8. Preston, p.10
9. Friedman, p.28
10. Ibid. p.29
11. Ibid. p 32 and Preston, p.14
12. Preston, p.15
13. Even the Campagnia, a converted liner that could carry up to 10 seaplanes, would have to stop to pick up returning aircraft, thus she (and all seaplane carriers) were vulnerable to U-boat attack. Later the British developed a system for hoisting aircraft out of the water while the ship moved slowly forward, but the system was tricky and again, could not be used in rough water.
14.Preston, pp.16-17
15. But seaplane carriers did not disappear: they found a useful role in supporting the battle against the U-boats, which intensified in 1917.
16. So unnerved were the British that they made many proposals: wheeled lightweight fighters were but on the few seaplane carriers that had ramps for take-offs in the hopes of destroying a Zeppelin spying on the fleet: after the one-way mission, the planes would have to ditch and hopefully the pilot would be picked up in time by a friendly ship. Friedman, p.48
17. Check the 1:1250 section of the Steel Navy website to find a wide selection of companies and shops that offer metal (and sometimes metal with resin) kits.
18. The model maker is Ken Sharpe ; do a search of his name and you can find the website where his model is displayed
19. Found on the Air Alex website.

Chesneau, R., The World's Aircraft Carriers 1914-1945, Arms & Armour Press,  Ltd., London, 1986

Friedman, N., British Carrier Aviation: The Evolution of the Ships and their Aircraft, Conway Maritime Press, London,  1988

Kiza, T., (ed.) Ships of the World no. 649 History of British Aircraft Carriers, Kaijinsha Co. Ltd., Tokyo, 2005

Layman, R.D., Before the Aircraft Carrier: The Development of Aviation Vessels: 1849-1922, Conway Maritime Press, London, 1989

Preston, A., Aircraft Carriers, Galahad Books, New York, 1979

Robbins, G., The Aircraft Carrier Story 1908-1945, Cassel & Co., London, 2001

Main Photo - Beginning of Article: Imperial War Museum (IWM) Q90115: A Short Folder seaplane (S.64) being hoisted aft from HMS Hermes in 1913. The first folding-wing aircraft was developed in France a year earlier.

1. U.S. Naval Historical Center (USNHC) Photo # 80-G-309662.
2. USNHC Photo NH 61017
3. Blériot leaving Calais (unauthenticated image)
4. from the WWI Aviation website: Zeppelin LZ.37 in 1916
5. New York Times, Sept. 24, 1916
6. USN Photo # NH 77601
7. USNHC Photo #1385
8. French Navy
9. French Navy
10. IWM Q71041
11. found on Haze Grey and Underway website:
12. found on Haze Grey and Underway website:
13. found on Maritime Quest website:
14. IWM # SP413
15. found on ThreeTowners website
16. found on ThreeTowners website
17. IWM # SP115
18. unaccredit photo
19. Australian War Memorial ID no. AO 1598
20. from Haze Grey and Underway website
21. from Haze Grey and Underway website
22. from Haze Grey and Underway website
23. from Haze Grey and Underway website
24. from Haze Grey and Underway website
25. from Haze Grey and Underway website
26. IWM number uncredited
last photo: Real Photographs, Ltd.

Note: all the above photos, being 90-100 years old, are in the public domain