HMS Campania

HMS Campania was a First World War seaplane tender and aircraft carrier built from an old Cunard liner. She lies in the Firth of Forth off Burntisland in Fife, where her wreck is now a Historic Marine Protected Area. The ship began as RMS Campania, holder of the Blue Riband for speed on the Liverpool–New York run in the 1890s. In 1914 the Royal Navy bought her from breakers for £32,500 and converted her at Cammell Laird. She carried seaplanes in two holds and flew them off a 160-foot deck, later lengthened to 245 feet. Campania never saw combat but pioneered carrier operations. Her first deck take-off in August 1915 used a Sopwith Schneider floatplane on a wheeled trolley. After lengthening the flight deck she carried seven Short Type 184 torpedo bombers and smaller Sopwith fighters. The Admiralty ordered the Fairey Campania biplane because of her trials, and she also launched kite balloons. She exercised with the Grand Fleet seven times but missed Jutland and later served as a training ship. Visitors can see the wreck where she sank in November 1918. A Force 10 squall drove her into the battleship Royal Oak and the battlecruiser Glorious, flooding her engine room. The crew were rescued and the wreck settled by the stern. Today the remains of four Campania aircraft and seven 1½ Strutters lie entombed in the hull beneath the Firth’s waters.