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Prince Charles 'saves Ark Royal’
The name HMS Ark Royal – one of the most historic in Navy history – will pass to a new aircraft carrier, after an intervention by the Prince of Wales.
Workers construct a section of a new aircraft carrier at BAE Systems
Photo: PABy Thomas Harding, Defence Correspondent 7:30AM BST 02 May 2011
The Prince is understood to have privately agreed to allow HMS Prince of Wales, which is under construction, to be renamed Ark Royal, after the former flagship bearing the name was decommissioned.
A senior Navy officer is understood to have approached the Prince, who holds the rank of admiral in the Navy, who made clear that he had no objection to the name change.
A defence source said: “The Prince of Wales has been asked and he is pretty relaxed about it.”
A senior Navy officer said it was virtually unheard of to change the name of a ship that was already being built.
“But this does recognise that the name Ark Royal is iconic. The name conjures up the whole history of these islands and it would represent the future of the Navy and its past,” he said.
Clarence House said no formal approach had been made on the name change
A Ministry of Defence official said no decision had yet been made on naming the ship, which would be the sixth to be called Ark Royal.
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