The second ''Ark Royal'' , after a gap of almost 300 years, was a merchant ship converted on the building stocks to be a seaplane carrier and was the world's first Aircraft Carrier . Built in Blyth, Northumberland , she was launched in 1914 , she served in the Dardanelles Campaign and throughout World War I . She was renamed HMS ''Pegasus'' in 1934 , to free the name ''Ark Royal'' for a new ship, and was broken up in 1950 .