HMT Thames (1938): The Tug That Towed Ark Royal for Nine Hours

Requisitioned for War

Thames was launched in 1938 as a civilian rescue tug, before being requisitioned by the Royal Navy in June 1940 following the outbreak of the Second World War and fitted with a 12-pounder anti-aircraft gun for her own protection, a modest but essential upgrade for a vessel about to find herself working in some of the most contested waters of the Mediterranean.

Gibraltar's Workhorse

Based at Gibraltar for the duration of her naval service, Thames performed the unglamorous but vital work of moving large warships in and out of the crowded harbour and standing ready to assist damaged Allied vessels, her crew prepared either to tow stricken ships to safety or to evacuate survivors when a ship proved beyond saving.

The Loss of HMS Ark Royal

On 13 November 1941, the aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal was torpedoed by the German submarine U-81 roughly thirty miles off Gibraltar. Thames was the first vessel on the scene and succeeded in attaching a tow line to the wounded carrier, but the powerful current running through the Strait of Gibraltar made meaningful progress impossible.

Her crew towed Ark Royal for nine gruelling hours at little more than two knots, a determined and exhausting effort that ultimately could not save the carrier, which capsized and sank on 14 November. That nine-hour towing effort later misled investigators as to where the wreck actually lay, and Ark Royal was not rediscovered until 2002, a curious postscript to Thames's brave but unsuccessful rescue attempt.

Return to Civilian Life

Thames remained in Royal Navy service until 1944, by which point Allied control of the Mediterranean was largely secured and the demand for wartime rescue tugs at Gibraltar had eased, bringing to a close a naval career defined above all by nine hours spent fighting, unsuccessfully but valiantly, to save one of the Fleet Air Arm's most famous carriers.