_crop.jpg)
HMS Argus was a British aircraft carrier that served in the Royal Navy from 1918 to 1944. Converted from an ocean liner, she became the first example of the standard pattern of aircraft carriers, with a full-length flight deck allowing aircraft to take off and land. The ship was involved for several years in the development of the optimum design for other aircraft carriers. She spent one brief deployment on the China Station in the late 1920s before being placed in reserve. Argus was recommissioned and partially modernised shortly before the Second World War. In July 1940 she made the first of her many ferry trips to fly off fighters to Malta. In 1942 she was pressed into front-line service despite her lack of speed and armament. She provided air cover during the invasion of French North Africa and was slightly damaged by a bomb. Argus was used again for deck-landing practice until September 1944. She became an accommodation ship in December, was sold in late 1946 and was scrapped in 1947. (Full article...)