Her Majesty's Ship, Ark Royal (R07) moors at Greenwich 25 years after the Falklands war. June 2007.

Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II's ship: Ark Royal, the flagship of the Royal Navy, sailed up the Thames to Greenwich, to commemorate 25 years since the end of the Falklands war; marking the liberation of Port Stanley, from Argentine forces. I'd seen a photograph on the London metro newspaper, of her sailing through the Thames barrier, and decided I had to go and visit.

I got up early on a Saturday morning a couple of days later, and made my way over towards Greenwich, changing at Canada water for the DLR, and getting off at Island Gardens; which is on the North bank of the Thames. I walked to the bank, and I could see Greenwich naval academy, though I couldn't see her. I thought missing an aircraft on the Thames was absolutely ridiculous, and I wasn't going to ask anyone... "Have you seen an aircraft carrier around here".

Panning over to the right she certainly was hard to miss, though a lot smaller than I would like. Why can't we have proper full size aircraft carriers like the United States Nimitz class? I suppose that she wouldn't fit on the Thames if she were that large, and besides wouldn't have the planes to put on it.

Still she was cool to see, and I used 2 types of film, Ilford PanF 50 and Fuji Velvia 50 as soon as I finished that roll.

The Falklands conflict is something which I've become very interested in, especially since visiting Buenos Aires and Ushuaia earlier this year, and seeing the graffiti and monuments declaring that Isla's Malvinas' is part of the motherland and will one day return? I've read about 4 books so far on the subject, and have a stack more to read through. People who were old enough to remember the war in 1982 will have their own opinions of the conflict, and was it just to get Mrs Thatcher re-elected? Well it's a complex subject, but I will attempt to summarise a century old disagreement by saying in my own words from what I believe to have learnt:

The Falklands war was a result of a failing and troubled fascist military government trying to distract from the dirty war, by carrying out a politically popular move, and invading the Falklands and South Georgia. The British government had a catalogue of failings in the late 1970's and early 1980's, which led the Junta to believe that they would not be disputed if invaded. Failings by the British government and neglect of the islanders, which had supported the United Kingdom for the last century, even to the extent of providing pilots, and planes for the Battle of Britain in 1940. The political standing of the United Kingdom would have counted for nothing on the world stage had Mrs Thatcher not taken the decision to reclaim the islands.

I used 3 of my lenses to take these shots, my highest quality lens: Canon EF 24-70L f2.8. I also used a yellow filter to increase contrast for most of the shots with the Black and white film. I also had a go with with my Canon 15mm f2.8 fisheye lens, but the ship was a bit too far away to give a really decent effect. I also used my cheap and nasty telephoto lens; Canon 75-300 f4-5.6, which I will replace later this year.

I started off on the north bank and then just after 1pm and the marking of midday by the Royal Observatory, I crossed the river using the foot tunnel underneath the river. I decided that some of the most interesting shots had to be from next to General Wolfe's statue on the hill adjacent to the observatory. The light was fairly bad though generally, it even started to rain at times and I struggled to keep droplets away from my lenses.

I took myself out for lunch in Greenwich high street after a quite exhausting morning of pack horsing photography equipment around. I'm fairly pleased with the results, though I suspect some people will say one shot of a ship is enough, still I enjoyed my morning, and hope that I've managed to document a quite interesting event. Click here for the official Royal Navy page.