HMS Ark Royal Put On Auction Website

28 March 2011, 13:03 | Updated: 30 March 2016, 13:50

The Royal Navy's former flagship, Portsmouth based, HMS Ark Royal has been put up for sale on the Ministry of Defence's auction website.

Just two weeks after the aircraft carrier was decommissioned at its home port of Portsmouth Naval Base, the Ark Royal has been advertised on the edisposals.com website.

The sale follows that of its sister ship HMS Invincible, which was towed away last week to a scrapyard in Turkey after being sold on the same internet site.

Although the Ark Royal could also be sold for its scrap metal, other proposals for it include a commercial heliport in London as well as a base for special forces to provide security at next year's Olympic Games.

And a move could be made to turn it into a nightclub and school in China.

Bidders have until 10am on June 13 to put their tenders forward for the ship.

The website edisposals.com is run by the Defence Equipment and Support (DE&S) arm of the MoD which has a budget of £14 billion to equip the UK's armed forces.

Also on sale on the site are three Type-42 destroyers HMS Exeter, HMS Southampton and HMS Nottingham.