HMS Eagle was an early aircraft carrier of the Royal Navy. Ordered by Chile during the South American dreadnought race as the Almirante Latorre-class battleship Almirante Cochrane, she was laid down before World War I. In early 1918 she was purchased by Britain for conversion to an aircraft carrier; this work was finished in 1924. Her completion was delayed by labour troubles and the possibility that she might be repurchased by Chile for reconversion into a battleship, as well as the need for comparative trials to determine the optimum layout for aircraft carriers. The ship was initially assigned to the Mediterranean Fleet and then later to the China Station, spending very little time in home waters other than for periodic refits. Eagle spent the first nine months of World War II in the Indian Ocean searching for German commerce raiders. During the early part of the war, the Fleet Air Arm was desperately short of fighters and Eagle was equipped solely with Fairey Swordfish torpedo bombers until late 1940. She was transferred to the Mediterranean in May 1940, where she escorted convoys to Malta and Greece and attacked Italian shipping, naval units and bases in the Eastern Mediterranean. The ship also participated in the Battle of Calabria in July but her aircraft failed to score any hits when they attempted to torpedo Italian cruisers during the battle. Whenever Eagle was not at sea, her aircraft were disembarked and used ashore. The ship was relieved by a more modern carrier in March 1941 and ordered to hunt for Axis shipping in the Indian Ocean and the South Atlantic. Her aircraft sank a German blockade runner and disabled a German oil tanker in mid-1941 but did not find any other Axis ships before the ship was ordered home for a refit in October. After completing an extensive refit in early 1942, the ship made trips delivering fighter aircraft to Malta to boost its air defences in the first half of 1942. The German submarine U-73 torpedoed and sank Eagle on 11 August 1942 as Eagle was escorting a convoy to Malta during Operation Pedestal.
In 1911, the Chilean Navy ordered one 28,000-long-ton (28,450 t) super-dreadnought battleship, with an option for a second ship, each to be armed with ten 14-inch (356 mm) and sixteen six-inch (152 mm) guns, that were named Almirante Latorre and Almirante Cochrane.[1] Almirante Latorre was laid down in December 1911, followed by Almirante Cochrane at the Armstrong yards at Newcastle upon Tyne on 20 February 1913. On the outbreak of the First World War, construction of the two ships was suspended. The British Admiralty purchased the almost-complete Almirante Latorre, which then in 1915 entered service as HMS Canada. At the outbreak of war, Almirante Cochrane was almost complete up to the forecastle, although her side armour had not yet been installed. No further work was carried out during the war until the British decided to complete her as an aircraft carrier for the Royal Navy. They purchased her from Chile on 28 February 1918 to be converted into the carrier HMS Eagle.[2] She was the fourteenth ship of the Royal Navy to bear that name.[3] The Director of Naval Construction began preliminary design work even before the ship was purchased and submitted an outline design on 8 February 1918. This design had a full-length flight deck. Its most distinctive features were the two islands separated by the flight deck. Each island was to be 110 feet (33.5 m) long, containing two funnels and a tripod mast. They were staggered to make it more difficult for an enemy ship to estimate the ship's course and were to be connected to each other with heavy bracing. The bridge was to be mounted on top of this bracing which left a clear height of 20 feet (6.1 m) for the aircraft on the flight deck. There was to be a 68-foot (20.7 m) wide space between the islands where the aircraft were to be assembled before taking off. Aircraft would be transported between the hangar and the flight deck by two aircraft lifts (elevators). A crane was to be located at the aft end of each island to lift aircraft aboard and to recover seaplanes. Bulk petrol storage consisted of 15,000 imperial gallons (68,000 l; 18,000 US gal) in 2-imperial-gallon (9.1 l; 2.4 US gal) tins stowed on the forecastle deck and protected by 1-inch (25 mm) plating. Two ready-use tanks near the islands would allow aircraft on the flight deck to refuel. The ship's planned armament consisted of nine 6-inch guns and four 4-inch (102 mm) anti-aircraft guns mounted on the platform between the islands.[4] Eagle retained the battleship's mixture of coal and fuel oil, but the quantities were increased to 3,200 long tons (3,300 t) of coal and 1,750 long tons (1,780 t) of oil, as the forward and rear 14-inch magazines and shell rooms were converted to be used as oil tanks.[5]
