Glorious and Majestic old Warships

I would like to dedicate this thread to the glorious old warships (of all nations) of an era gone by. A fortunate few have survived the wars and age and become floating museums, while others were used as target vessels or worse broken up and turned into eating utensils.

Please feel free to post you old Naval photos and tell us the history and story behind them so they are not forgotten

Thank you

ARA Veinticinco de Mayo (V-2) was an in the from 1969 to 1997. The translation of the name is Twenty-fifth of May, which is the date of's in 1810.

As a aircraft carrier, she was named and saw service in the . Venerable only served three years in the Royal Navy before being sold to the Netherlands as .

After a boiler room fire, the carrier was rebuilt, and sold to Argentina.The Argentines already operated a carrier, , also a former Royal NavyColossus-class. After Independencia was decommissioned in 1970, Veinticinco de Mayo was the sole remaining carrier in the Argentine fleet. She could carry up to 24 aircraft.


Royal Navy:
Name: HMS Venerable (R63)
Orderer: 7 August 1942
Builder: Cammell Laird
Yard number: 1126
Laid down: 3 December 1942
Launched: 30 December 1943
Commissioned: 27 November 1944
Decommissioned: April 1947
Fate: Sold to the Netherlands 1 April 1948

Dutch Navy:
Name: HNLMS Karel Doorman (R81)
Namesake: Karel Doorman
Acquired: 1 April 1948
Commissioned: 28 May 1948
Decommissioned: 29 April 1968
Refit: 1955-1958
1965-1966
Fate: Sold to Argentina 15 October 1968

Argentine Navy:
Name: Veinticinco de Mayo
Namesake: Date of the May Revolution
Acquired: 15 October 1968
Commissioned: 12 March 1969
Decommissioned: 1997
Out of service: Inoperable by 1990
Refit: 1969
Homeport: Puerto Belgrano Naval Base
Fate: Provided spare parts for NAeL Minas Gerais and remainder was scrapped in 2000

I found some old pictures of the 25 de Mayo:

Before modifications:





After modifications to flight deck:





Back to bottling my Grenache

More pictures of the 25 de Mayo:

Central elevator with Super Etendard


Hanger area and elevator shaft


A-4Q coming in for a landing


A-4Q and Super Etendard operating on deck





Back to bottling my Grenache

Being refitted in port:








Back to bottling my Grenache

Pilots and A-4Q operating on deck of the 25 de Mayo:












Back to bottling my Grenache

More air operations on the deck of the 25 de Mayo:













Back to bottling my Grenache

Old Plans of the :







Back to bottling my Grenache

Removal of radar prior to being towed to India for dismantling:








Back to bottling my Grenache

And so she old HMS Venerable, HNLMS Karel Doorman and ARA 25 de Mayo dies a slow death………………







Back to bottling my Grenache

So sad to see it goes into the scrap.