The torpedo hit and Ark Royal's accelerating list

Ark Royal was returning from another Malta aircraft-delivery mission when a torpedo struck amidships beneath the bridge on 13 November 1941. The explosion killed Able Seaman Edward Mitchell, the sinking's only fatality, and opened a hole roughly 130 feet long by 30 feet high. The torpedo ran deep enough to hit below much of the side-protection system, whose limited depth reflected weight pressure from the carrier tonnage limits. Flooding reached a boiler room, switchboard spaces, oil tanks, and more than one hundred feet of the starboard bilge while internal communications and much of the starboard power train failed. Because a runner had to carry the stop order, the moving ship enlarged the breach and developed an eighteen-degree list within twenty minutes.