Seaplane carrier

The first were the French Foudre of 1911 and the British cruiser Hermes, converted in 1913. In August 1914 the Admiralty took over fast cross-Channel ferries, Engadine, Riviera and Empress, whose seaplanes attacked the airship base at Cuxhaven on Christmas Day. Ark Royal, converted while still on the stocks, supported the Dardanelles operation, and in August 1915 the first torpedo aircraft took off from Ben-my-Chree. The Russians in the Black Sea, the Japanese and the Germans also had seaplane carriers.

The ship had to stop to lower or recover an aircraft, which in a swell could be impossible. So the British tried taking off from a deck: Campania had a flying-off deck, and in 1917 the light battlecruiser Furious was given a hangar and deck forward, on which on 2 August Edwin Dunning made the first landing on a ship under way. On 19 July 1918 Sopwith Camels from Furious destroyed the airships L 54 and L 60 at Tondern. In September 1918 Argus, with a full-length flight deck, entered service.