The demise of HMS Hermes rekindles indelible memories of the carrier’s emotional return to Portsmouth after serving as the Royal Navy’s flagship in the Falklands War.
The warship, which is set to make her final voyage after ending her service life with the Indian Navy, was greeted by thousands when she returned from the conflict in 1982.
Relatives and friends crowded the dockside to welcome home the 1,700-strong crew and her complement of Royal Marines plus survivors of the sinking of HMS Sheffield.
The rust-streaked aircraft carrier - named after the winged messenger of the Greek gods - had begun her 8,000-mile mission to the South Atlantic on April 5, 1982.
Just over 100 days later, she was saluted by flypasts by RAF Harriers, Army Lynx helicopters and a naval Hunter training squadron as she arrived in Portsmouth, replying a 17-gun national salute.
One side of the ship has been daubed with a scoreboard marking the 46 enemy aircraft shot down by the Sea Harrier fighters launched from her deck.
The Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, had been flown onto the carrier by helicopter as she approached port.
Captain Lynley Middleton was modest about his ship’s role in the South Atlantic. ‘It was all absolutely routine, daily attacks, nothing untoward’ he said.
Hermes had been set to be decommissioned in 1982 after a 1981 defence review but when the Falklands War broke out, she was made the flagship of the British forces.
She set sail for the South Atlantic just three days after the Argentine invasion of the Falkland Islands, carrying 12 Sea Harriers - to be famously counted out and then counted back in again by BBC reporter Brian Hanrahan - and 18 Sea King helicopters.
