Ark-19

The Ark-19 is an Autobot starship from the 2005 IDW portion of the Generation 1 continuity family.

Rising from the sea like some vast, plankton-hungry whale.

The Ark-19 is one of many starfaring vessels used by the Autobots in their struggle against the Decepticons' burgeoning interplanetary conquests. It and other Arks are named for the original Ark that disappeared on an expedition within the Benzuli Expanse. Spotlight: Galvatron

Fiction

2005 IDW continuity

Rusting like some vast, nonliving hunk of steel...

Thousands of years ago, Optimus Prime and Bumblebee attempted to contact Prowl's crew aboard the Ark-19. Their transmission was instead received by the passing Maximal ship Axalon, which confused the crew aboard. Strange Visitors

The Ark-19 was used by Prowl's detachment on Earth. Hidden below Lake Michigan, northeast of Chicago, it acted as their planetside headquarters. Infiltration #3

The ship's location was eventually discovered by the Machination, who observed a number of the returning Autobots driving off of a pier into the water. Escalation #1 When the Autobots realized this, they decided to move the vessel for security purposes.

Prowl oversaw the operation, with Jazz, Hardhead, Nightbeat, Ratchet and Bumblebee at the controls. While most of the Autobots used manually operated controls on the bridge, Bumblebee was hooked up to the ship's systems directly via a triple-corded interface that plugged directly into his open chest.

As soon as the ship breached the surface, it was sighted by Ratbat, who called in the coordinates to Megatron. Sixshot was dispatched to intercept the Autobot ship. High above Knoxville, Tennessee, he opened fire on it, destroying its engines and sending it plummeting to Earth. Devastation #1

Continuing the long tradition of Cybertronian ships violently crashing.

The Autobots on board the crashing vessel managed to use its bow reverse thrusters to pull it out of its nosedive, seconds before it would have crashed into a human neighborhood. The damaged ship immediately became visible, however, as its stealth countermeasures were knocked out by Sixshot's attack. The Autobots evacuated to a cargo compartment and launched their human passengers with Ratchet to safety in an escape pod. They then dumped the ship's data to Ark-32 and set a self-destruct mechanism to prevent human discovery of Cybertronians and avoid the ship's technology falling into the wrong hands, in accordance with the Code of Interplanetary Conflict.

The burning wreck of Ark-19 crashed into the Gulf of Mexico and exploded seconds later. Devastation #2 The Autobots aboard all escaped unharmed. Devastation #3