HMS Belfast: Ship's Don't Bend That Way!

Рет қаралды 59,796

Күн бұрын

Пікірлер: 50

@ImportantNavalHistory 6 ай бұрын

Thanks for watching everyone! Due note the thumbnail and several of the photos used in the video are after her repairs and upgrades as I could find a total of five photos in 1939, just so you know! Edit: I should note the audio might sound a bit different, I've been messing with settings to see how it sounds. Saturday's video will sound even more different.

@patkennedy7095 6 ай бұрын

I was a junior ordinary seaman on a Blue Funnel ship, the Memnon, in 1960. We were outward bound from Birkenhead, in between Hong Kong and Shanghai, when one of the crew collapsed with a perforated appendix. As we didn't carry a doctor, only a male nurse, it was decided to radio for help to any nearby ships with a doctor on board. HMS Belfast responded, she was 12 hours steaming away from us, and we rendezvoused with her somewhere in the South China Sea, and the casualty was picked up from us and taken over to Belfast where he was operated on immediately. We picked him up in Hong Kong homeward bound and brought him home to Liverpool, fully recovered. Belfast was an amazing sight as she steamed up out of the murk lit up like a Christmas tree, turned parallel to Memnon, and carried out the transfer at high speed.

@moosifer3321 6 ай бұрын

And She`s Still around! Definately worth a visit.

@andrewmcalister3462 6 ай бұрын

I visited just a few weeks ago in May.

@Andymelvin006 6 ай бұрын

She was my father’s first ship, he joined her for the first convoy escort trip to Murmansk after she went back into service. Before she died from Alzheimer’s I took my mother aboard to show her where her husband started his war. To anyone reading this do visit HMS Belfast in London, it’s well worth the visit.

@bahoonies 6 ай бұрын

@Andymelvin006 Sorry to read about your mum but what a lovely thing to do for her. I've visited HMS Belfast twice and it's nice to think I walked the same decks and spaces as your dad did all those years ago.

@Andymelvin006 6 ай бұрын

@@bahoonies Thanks mate, appreciated.

@johnswift1736 6 ай бұрын

My old physics teacher designed the degaussing and it was brought out and fitted during the war. His name was Potts

@bigsarge2085 6 ай бұрын

Remarkable recovery after her keel was essentially broken.

@hbsailorettegeek107 6 ай бұрын

Such a resilient ship

@lyedavide 6 ай бұрын

She was so very lucky not to have been sunk, given the power of the mine's explosion. It is most gratifying that the ship has been restored as a museum. Definitely worth a visit if you find yourself in London. If only HMS Waspite had been preserved too.

@gordonbergslien30 6 ай бұрын

What a tragedy that Warspite went to the breakers!

@francesconicoletti2547 6 ай бұрын

Belfast needs its own TV series. It just materializes everywhere during the sea battles of WW2

@roum22 6 ай бұрын

I heard somwhere that the ship surveyors advised she was passed economic repair, and was only brought back into service at Churchills insistance..

@kristoffermangila 6 ай бұрын

Probably due to practical reasons. The Royal Navy needs every hull they had, and I remember correctly, the Edinburgh sub-class of the Southampton-class cruisers (HMS Edinburgh and HMS Belfast) were the most expensive of the Southamptons, due to the quite extensive mods to the Southampton-class design.

@colinmartin2921 6 ай бұрын

That is true, in normal circumstances she would have been scrapped, but these were not normal circumstances.

@DaveArguesback 6 ай бұрын

I've been on board Belfast twice while visiting London, a very interesting experience I would recommend it 👌

@nigelmorroll3343 6 ай бұрын

I remember visiting the ship many years ago when I must younger. Hopefully I'll go again.

@malcolmyoung7866 6 ай бұрын

Great video. I live in south Fife and overlook the ‘Firth of Forth’ although I can’t see the old railway bridge or Rosyth.. more recently there has been an ‘uptick’ in Naval activity including many NATO partners vessels and of course HMS Queen Elizabeth II which has been plagued by serious engineering faults since commissioning.. currently at Rosyth for major repairs..

@davemitchell9941 6 ай бұрын

Good informative vid, thank you. Always find it interesting that she was shored up @ Rosyth & made fit to tow (considering her back was broken she held up together well), all the way to Devonport (Guz). The doubling patches on her are remarkable & in dock they would have to have weighted her correctly to regain the alignment/datum. The gyro seating recovery would have been an interesting piece of work. Considering that the dockyard was relentlessly targeted by the Luftwaffe during her stay in dock. Her AA armament was put to good use. 1941/42 was the time of the Plymouth blitz.

@rupertbear6883 6 ай бұрын

personal note.. my dear brother was the last sailor (CPO) injured on belfast. she was a dormatary ship in london where he lived.. he got drunk in london and fell down the ladders going to his birth... a week in hospital and two black eyes..

@Someone.southafrica 5 ай бұрын

My great grandad was also on board the ships in the communication room during ww2, nice to see another related to a crew member on board

@1987phillybilly 6 ай бұрын

Nice, I do believe the is the only town-class left. I knew a little of her history but never knew of how bad the mine damage was.

@MikeDrew-p8i 6 ай бұрын

I was a second engineer in the Union Castle Pretoria Castle South African mail service in my youth. Built shortly after WW II I understand the machinery was very similar to RN standards so she could be converted into an aircraft carrier in an emergency. When visiting Belfast many years later at her Thames berth, I was taken by the great similarity to Pretoria’s Engine arrangements. Mike Drew.

@martinhogg5337 6 ай бұрын

Interesting story! Keep up the good work.

@davidyendoll5903 29 күн бұрын

Liked your video , subbed ! If you visit London try to visit the Belfast . Well worth a visit . Highlight for me was the engine room , completely restored , a real steam punk experience ! Seeing the main gun magazine and the sighting computer system , before playing captain at the bridge made my day .

@mbryson2899 6 ай бұрын

I was so surprised to see you do a video on _HMS Belfast's_ mining. Didn't see that one coming. 😝

@NathanStickney-xv6dy 6 ай бұрын

That's the best way

@Riccardo_Silva 6 ай бұрын

Magnificent ship! I hope One day i'll be able to visit her on the Thames. The pictures of her bent and wrinkled hull are astonishing. Apparently, the hull gave way to the shock, without suffering major flooding. Am i right? Thank you IH, another interesting video!

@drd1962 6 ай бұрын

Because she was so new she wasn't work-hardened and bent rather than broke. She did have one engine room and boiler room flooded. I volunteer on her so have spent hours wandering round her. One of her turrets was fitted in a Colony class cruiser (I forget which one) during the extensive refit as that was a bottleneck. . She crabbed slightly and also lost a couple of knots because of the bulges added to strengthen the hull.

@StephenGlencross-yg4nt 6 ай бұрын

My uncle sailed on belfast during the 2 nd w w he was on the artic convoys to ark angel to help save Russia against Hitler,,, many seamen died on them convoys only had two minutes in the artic water if your ship was sunk frozen to death. Belfast was a great ship.

@raymondvincent204 6 ай бұрын

In 1992 i was a RNR officer based on Belfast in the pool of London. In what was the Royal Marine messdeck ran a 8 inch fire main, this had leaked for years. It was decided to take it apart at the leaking flange. When it was unbolted the two halves sprung apart, and were out of alignment by six inches. This was attributed to the damage caused by the mine and twisting the whole ship.

@dettie1948 6 ай бұрын

My uncle George Ettie BEM was in the asdic dome during this event and his bruises are evident in the pictures of his wedding which occured shortly after, he won his BEM as a recognition of his work developing anti-submarine watfare later in the War.

@tonystevens9278 6 ай бұрын

Good video thank you. Interestingly Belfast was the only Town Class' cruiser to retain four main gun turrets. As more anti aircraft weapons were added to her earlier sister ships, and the succeeding Colony Class, their X turrets were landed giving them a main armamament of nine six-inch barrels. I am not an enginerr but the bulges installed during her post mining rebuild possibly added to her stability and strength which enabled Belfast to retain her fourth turrets.

@justinhaslam-lucas8711 6 ай бұрын

She picked up my father from the North sea as he had bailed out in 1943

@mahbriggs 6 ай бұрын

Despite her excessive damage, a lot was learned about restoring a ship that suffered such damage!

@MichaelCampin 6 ай бұрын

She helped to sink the Scharnhorst in the Battle of the North Cape

@davidwright7193 6 ай бұрын

Degaussing wasn’t an option for Belfast the technology wasn’t developed for another 6 months or so.

@southerneruk 6 ай бұрын

HMS Belfast was the ship that started D-Day, she fired first to signal others that D-Day to commence

@mattwilliams3456 6 ай бұрын

She’s a tough old girl.

@TheRealRedAce 6 ай бұрын

they obviously DO bend that way! And she's still afloat opposite the Tower Of London by Tower Bridge to prove it.

@Olleetheowl 6 ай бұрын

Just a heads up… Royal Navy ships don’t have a “Crew”. They have a “Ship’s Company”. Nice video.

@GrenMagg 6 ай бұрын

In late November coming from Rosyth, I find it hard to believe the men were stripped to the waist it’s bloody freezing at that time of year. Meal preparation in the Forenoon would have been lunch not dinner, never seen crew with helmets and lights attached. Just saying.

@ImportantNavalHistory 6 ай бұрын

Trust me, I did too. However, that’s what the first hand accounts report. I’m taking them at their word.