[Steven Scharf]

As per wiki the was 1924 HMS Hermes which was one of the first aircraft carrier.

The advent of fixed-wing aircraft in 1903 was followed in 1910 by the first flight from the deck of a US Navy cruiser. Seaplanes and seaplane tender support ships, such as HMS Engadine, followed. The development of flat top vessels produced the first large fleet ships. This evolution was well underway by the early to mid-1920s, resulting in the commissioning of ships such as Hōshō (1922), HMS Hermes (1924),[1] Béarn (1927), and the Lexington-class aircraft carriers (1927).

[elcid1970]

How about the USS Langley, the first American aircraft carrier?

[Rockpile]

The Essex class Yorktown is the oldest carrier in the world that is still above water.

[sukhoi-30mki]

That was an earlier ship, which the Japanese sunk.

[PAR35]

Wrong ship. Ship names get recycled. The ship to which you refer was sunk by the Jap planes in April 1942. You might as well have invoked an earlier HMS Hermes - perhaps the one captured from the Dutch in 1796, or the one sunk by the Americans in 1811. Or closer would have been the seaplane tender sunk by a German u-boat in 1914.

The ship sold to the Indians was originally slated to be the HMS Elephant but was renamed Hermes when the Elephant was cancelled in 1945.

There have been 11 HMS Hermes. The name is not currently in use.