Originally designed as a Hawkins-class heavy cruiser and laid down under the name Cavendish, she was converted into an aircraft carrier while still being built.

The following year she participated in the British campaign in the Baltic against the Bolsheviks, during which her aircraft made numerous attacks against the naval base at Kronstadt.

Vindictive returned home in 1944 and was damaged by a German torpedo off the coast of Normandy after the Allies invaded France.

This required a large ship to provide the necessary endurance for sustained operations away from supporting bases and high speed to catch the raiders.

Sir Eustace Tennyson d'Eyncourt, the Director of Naval Construction, included both coal and oil-fired boilers to provide the ship with fuel no matter the supply conditions.

The initial order had to be cancelled in April 1917 for lack of building facilities, so the Admiralty decided to convert Cavendish, already under construction, in June 1917.

[10] A port side gangway 8 feet (2.4 m) wide connected the landing and flying-off decks to allow aircraft with their wings folded to be wheeled from one to the other.

For the rest of the year she conducted flying trials and exercises, including those of the Port Victoria Grain Griffin reconnaissance aircraft, of which two were lost in accidents.

[14] Experiments conducted earlier aboard the larger Furious, with a similarly intact superstructure and funnels, had demonstrated that the turbulence from these was enough to make successful landings almost impossible at high speed.

Some 2,200 long tons (2,235 t) of stores were also off-loaded, but the ship could not be towed free by the combined efforts of the light cruisers Danae and Cleopatra and three tugboats.

Eight days after grounding a fortuitous westerly wind began that raised the water level by 8 inches (203 mm), just enough to pull the ship free.

[17] The carrier unloaded her air group, commanded by Major Grahame Donald, at Koivisto, Finland on 14 July.

Their airfield was still under construction, but they were able to fly a reconnaissance mission over the major Bolshevik naval base at Kronstadt on 26 July while Vindictive sailed to Copenhagen, Denmark, to load aircraft and spares left for her by the carrier Argus.

Accurate anti-aircraft fire kept the aircraft too high for an effective attack, but Donald's men claimed two hits on the submarine tender Pamiat Azova.

That same day eight RN Coastal Motor Boat (CMB)s arrived; Vindictive served as their depot ship.

[18] Vindictive's aircraft continued to support British operations against the Bolsheviks until they left the Baltic in December, although no further missions were flown from the carrier.

[21] Furious and Vindictive had proven that the idea of "cruiser-carriers" was unworkable due to the turbulence from their superstructures and that a complete flight deck was necessary to successfully operate aircraft at sea.

Vindictive was thought to be too small to be an effective carrier and the financial restrictions in place after the war vitiated against such a major reconstruction.

[23] She sailed for the China Station on 1 January 1926 with six Fairey IIIDs aboard for anti-piracy patrols and departed for home on 14 March 1928.

[24] In July 1935 the ship was briefly sailed from her reserve mooring to join in the King George V's Silver Jubilee Fleet Review held on the 15th.

Her armament, including the above-water torpedo tubes, was replaced by a pair of 4.7-inch (120 mm) guns forward and a quadruple QF 2-pounder ("pom-pom") AA mount aft.

Her armament now consisted of six single 4-inch QF Mk V AA guns, all on the centreline, two quadruple "pom-pom" mounts, one on each side, and six depth charges.

Her light AA armament had also been augmented by six Oerlikon 20 mm autocannon, three on each side of the roof of the large workshop abaft the funnel.

In early August 1944, the ship was damaged by a long-range, circling, "Dackel" torpedo dropped by the Luftwaffe off the coast of Normandy.