Stingers!
What a great piece of maritime art!
Seen during a January 1946 visit by four RN aircraft carriers (the light carriers HMS Glory, along with sister Venerable, and along with the larger armored deck carriers Indefatigable and Implacable) to Melbourne, Australia, a yacht closes with the stern of one of the “I” class flattops, which is guarded by a four-pack of 20mm Oerlikons.
State Library Victoria H98.104/2508
Sisters Indefatigable (R10) and Implacable (R86) were laid down in 1939 as improved Illustrious class fleet carriers, but didn’t arrive in the fleet until well into 1944. This limited their European war to harassing Tirpitz in Norway until the call came to join the British Pacific Fleet for much more serious action.
Twin 33,000-ton armored carriers, Implacable and Indefatigable, Janes 1954
Post-war service was limited and, with planned angled-deck modernizations unfunded by a penny-pinching government, both sisters were sold for scrap within days of each other in late 1956.