HMS Invincible 

The present Invincible, is the sixth ship of the Royal Navy to bear the name and the first of the Invincible Class of Anti-Submarine Warfare Carriers, was laid down at the Barrow-in-Furness yard of Vickers Shipbuilders Limited in July 1973 and was launched by Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II on 3 May 1977.
Powered by four Rolls-Royce Olympus Marine Gas Turbine engines from the same family as the Concorde engines, it has a top speed of 30 knots and cruises at 18 knots. The engines drive two shafts through the largest reversing gearboxes installed in any ship in the world.
Invincible is protected by the Sea Dart missile defence system, the Goalkeeper close-in weapons system - which can fire 4,500 rounds per minute - and by DLJ chaff rocket launchers designed to distract missiles. The vessel can carry up to 24 aircraft. At the moment it is carrying Sea Harrier fighters and bombers. It also has Sea-King helicopters onboard - some anti-submarine, some kitted out with early warning radar-systems.
This Task Force, lead by carriers HMS Hermes and HMS Invincible, each of which carried six Sea Harriers and up to 20 Sea King, Commando and Lynx helicopters, entered the waters around the Falklands on 27 April 1982, and at this moment opposing air arms meet for the first time, with Royal Navy/Fleet Air Arm Sea Harriers intercepting several Boeing 707 patrol aircraft of the Fuerza Aérea Argentina, which were searching for British shipping.

HMS ATTACKER

The 12,000 tonne ship saw war service as the aircraft carrier HMS Attacker,  before being converted firstly into a cargo ship and then a cruise liner in 1958. Initially used for line voyages from Europe to Australia, she later became a full time cruise ship, serving until 1977,


HMS Attacker was one of the lend-lease Escort Carriers built for the US Navy but subsequently allocated to the Royal Navy. She was laid down by the Western Pipe and Steel Corporation of San Francisco, USA, as a standard C3 cargo vessel, hull No. 171, and named 'Steel Artisan' She was launched uncompleted and taken over by the US Navy for completion as the escort carrier, USS Barnes (CVE-7). CVE-7
was subsequently transferred on lend-lease to Great Britain and commissioned into the Royal Navy as HMS Attacker on the 7th of October 1942. Attacker was then berthed at Liverpool for 2 months to allow her to be modified to Royal Navy standards, The modifications included lengthening her flight deck to suit British aircraft, the addition of between 1000 and 2000 tons of ballast and changes to her aviation fuel storage system. Mediterranean Theatre On 3rd August 1943, Attacker left her home base on the Clyde for Gibraltar, having been allocated to the Mediterranean Fleet. After a short period at Gibraltar, she sailed with her sister ships Battler, Hunter and Stalker and the light carrier HMS Unicorn to Malta as Force V under the command of Rear Admiral Sir Philip Vian. This force was created to provide air cover for the Salerno
landings (Operation Avalanche) on the 9th September 1943. Each escort carrier operated two squadrons of Seafire fighters, with Unicorn operating three squadrons. For this operation, Attacker embarked 879 and 886 Sqns.On 17th August1945, Attacker left Trincomalee for Penang with 879 Sqn embarked, as part of British Task Group B under Vice Admiral Walker in HMS Nelson. The Task Group marked time off the Nicobar islands to allow the unconditional surrender of Japanese Forces to be signed in Tokyo Bay, before arriving in Penang on September 2nd. On that day, the Japanese surrendered their Penang area forces in a ceremony on board HMS Nelson. Attacker left Penang the same day and joined a convoy of troop ships travelling through the Malacca Straights towards Singapore. Attacker's embarked Seafires flew tactical reconnaissance sorties over Singapore Island on the 5th whilst the ship waited for a channel to be swept through the Japanese minefields. On the
7th of September, Attacker made her ceremonial entrance into Singapore harbour with the entire crew on deck on their tropical whites, the first British Capital ship to enter Singapore after the Japanese surrender.

Post War
She was laid up for a while before being sold to National Bulk Carriers Inc. In 1947 work started to convert her to a tanker, but not completed. In 1950 she was purchased by the Sitmar Italian Line, laid up again and in 1952 sent to Newport News, USA and converted to a cargo ship, named Castle Forte. In 1957 there was a surge in the Australian migrant traffic and the ship was sent to Bethlehem Steel Company (Staten Island) for conversion to a passenger ship. Renamed Fairsky, her maiden voyage was on 26th June 1958 from Southampton to Australia with 1461 passengers. In 1959 she became Fair Sky but reverted back to Fairsky in 1964. In 72 she was laid up in Southampton for a time before re-entering service in November. In 1976, she was transferred to Australia for Pacific cruises and the following year, during a cruise from Sydney to Bali she struck the wreck of the Indonesian ship Klinei in (Djakarta Bay). When this happened she was navigating to avoid a collision with a sampan. She was holed and flooded with heavy bottom damage, was beached and the cruise abandoned. Refloated after six days, the
vessel was escorted to Singapore following temporary repairs and period of lay-up in Eastern Roads. She was then sold to Fuji Warden Co. Hong Kong for scrapping. She was not broken up but sold to the Peninsular Tourist Shipping Co. She proceeded to the Philippines to become a floating hotel and casino. In 1978 she left for Manila for reconstruction by Bataan Shipyard and Engineering Co. She was renamed Philippine Tourist .In Nov 1979 she caught fire and was gutted while at the south pier of Manila Harbour. She was later sold for scrapping to Fuji Warden Co Hong Kong. She arrived Hong Kong May 1980. Demolition began June 1980. According to the records she was the last Lend-Lease escort carrier still afloat. Her career spanned some forty years before her unfortunate end.