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Divers locate Ark RoyalWed, December 18, 2002Source: AnanovaDivers filming a BBC documentary have located the wreck of the famous wartime ship HMS Ark Royal.Divers locate Ark Royal
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The aircraft carrier's torpedo planes hit the German battleship Bismarck in 1941, allowing other British warships to close and sink her. But she was torpedoed by a German submarine 30 miles off Gibraltar, as she returned from delivering Hurricane fighters to Malta. One sailor died while the rest of the 1,500 crew were picked up by other ships when the boat sank on November 13, 1941.
After the Ministry of Defence gave film makers a rough idea of where the ship was thought to be, divers located it in 3,500ft of water. A BBC spokesman says the ship will not be raised. "We had been given information by the MoD about where the ship was and we located it. We do not intend to try to raise the ship. It still belongs to the MoD," the spokesman said. The programme was made by producer Mike Rossiter who filmed the raising of Donald Campbell's Bluebird boat, in a BBC1 documentary.
The Ark Royal was discovered as part of a project to investigate the marine archaeology of great battles in the history of the Royal Navy.