crew complement from 484 to 600, adding to the problem. Royalist was built by Scotts Shipbuilding and Engineering Company of Greenock laying down the keel on 21 March 1940. She was launched on 30 May 1942 and commissioned on 10 September 1943. She returned to the dockyard for alterations in November which were not complete until February 1944. Her French motto, Surtout Loyal, translates to "Loyal above all". Royal Navy career Following her commissioning, Royalist spent several months working up, during which time she underwent repairs for trial defects and for alterations and additions. These included modifications for service as a carrier flagship. In March 1944 Royalist joined the Home Fleet and served for a short period in the Arctic theatre. In this capacity she took part in Operation Tungsten, the carrier raid in April 1944 against the German battleship Tirpitz at anchor in a fjord in Norway, as the flagship of Rear Admiral Arthur La Touche Bisset commanding Force Two (based around five carriers). After Tungsten Royalist escorted carriers for attacks on shipping off Norway before entering dock for a refit. After completion of the work in June, Royalist was ordered to the Mediterranean to support the Operation Dragoon landings in the south of France in August 1944. Royalist was the flagship (Rear Admiral Thomas Hope Troubridge) of the RN/USN Task Force 88 (comprising carrier groups TG88.1 and TG88.2) that was to maintain air superiority over the beaches and support the landing operations. After Dragoon, Royalist joined the Aegean Force preventing enemy evacuation from the islands in the Aegean Sea. On 15 September, accompanied by the destroyer , she sank the transports KT4 and KT26 off Cape Spatha. She was then stationed in the Aegean until late 1944, when she was then in the eastern Mediterranean before a refit in early 1945 at Alexandria before transferring to the East Indies and joining the Eastern Fleet. By April 1945 she was with the 21st Aircraft Carrier Squadron as flagship, supporting the Rangoon landings of Operation Dracula. From 10 May Royalist was covering a search group of carriers in Operation Mitre looking for Japanese warships carrying out evacuations in the area of Nicobar and Andaman Islands. For the remainder of the war she covered the carrier raids against targets in the East Indies and Sumatra. Scottish author Alistair MacLean served on Royalist during the Second World War, and used his experiences