Modern naval warfare is built around aircraft carriers, and the current nuclear-powered behemoths are typically referred to as “super carriers.” The term fits, as they’re considerably larger than the first ships that carried and deployed planes in combat. In fact, the first aircraft carriers weren’t built for that purpose, but were designed for other uses, received a flat-top of some kind, and went on their way. The term “super carrier” came about in the lead-up to World War II, but it wasn’t for a ship belonging to the United States Navy.
The first ship to be dubbed a super carrier was the HMS Ark Royal (91) of His Majesty’s Royal Navy. The New York Times wrote an article describing Germany’s newest cruise ship, the Wilhelm Gustloff, which was the first of 20, costing $5,000,000 ($115.9 million in 2026), and compared it to the Ark Royal, which it dubbed a “super carrier.” The comparison was apt, as the Wilhelm Gustloff was comparable in size and could have been converted into an aircraft carrier, which was all the rage back in 1938.
Had that happened, the paper surmised that the German cruise ship could accommodate around 35 unspecified aircraft, which was half the amount that the Ark Royal was capable of carrying. At the time, the Ark Royal was about to undertake its sea trials, which were to begin in early May 1938. Aircraft carrier design underwent numerous innovations and advancements throughout WWII, and the Ark Royal’s designation as a “super carrier” by The New York Times was a bit off the mark in hindsight.
The HMS Ark Royal of the His Majesty’s Royal Navy
Modern aircraft carriers are incredibly heavy, weighing in at 100,000+ tons, but the HMS Ark Royal was significantly smaller. The carrier weighed approximately 22,000 tons, and it entered service in 1938. The Ark Royal served for a few years until 1941, when it was sunk by the German submarine U-81, commanded by Kapitänleutnant (Lt. U.S. Navy equivalent) Friedrich Guggenberger. The attack occurred on November 13, 1941, when the Ark Royal was operating in the vicinity of Gibraltar during Operation Perpetual.
U-81 fired a spread of four torpedoes, one of which struck its target, causing it to sink. At the time, the ship was being towed, and only one of 1,488 personnel perished in the attack, though almost all of the Ark Royal’s aircraft were lost. The ship was capable of carrying around 70 aircraft of various types and had participated in several combat operations throughout its service life. In comparison to the carriers operated by the U.S. Navy only a few years later, the Ark Royal was fairly close in size and capability to Essex-class carriers.
As for American super carriers, those wouldn’t come along until the Forrestal-class aircraft carriers entered service in 1955. They received this unofficial designation due to their size and weight, which far exceeded that of their predecessor, the Midway-class. The first ship in that class, the USS Midway (CV-41), displaced around 45,000 tons of seawater, while Forrestal-class ships displaced up to 81,000 tons.
