First World War Cruiser returns home after restoration work

Maritime December 21, 2016

HMS Caroline is slowly eased into her mooring as she returns to Alexandra Dock in Belfast’s Titanic Quarter following repairs to her hull.

The veteran light cruiser opened to the public in June, a day after the centenary commemorations for the WW1 battle, but vital work on her hull was delayed in order to capture summer visitors, with 16,000 people going aboard in five months to witness the result of her £15m restoration project.

During the work at Harland and Wolff’s Heavy Industries Dock, the sole surviving vessel from the Battle of Jutland had 1,700 rivets repaired.

At the peak of the work, 14 teams of welders were repairing one rivet every 90 seconds.

Tonnes of barnacles were blasted off her hull before having a marine-grade paint scheme applied. It was the first time in 32 years that the ship had been out of the water.

Repairs to the ship which displaces 4,000 tonnes and is 122 metres long were completed last year, making the ship safe for the next stage of restoration.

She was one of more than 150 British warships that locked horns with the Kaiser’s High Seas Fleet in the North Sea at Jutland, when she charged at the German lines on at least one occasion to unleash torpedoes.

Caroline is the last survivor of the Battle of Jutland in what was the First World War’s longest, most strategically important sea battle and the only time the full German and British navies engaged directly.

HMS Caroline, which was nicknamed Lucky Caroline, was one of the fastest afloat in her day and during Jutland was used as a scout and escaped any major damage.

She was later taken to Belfast and used as a drill training ship and even a Naval operations headquarters during WW2.

Caroline boasts the accolade of being the most accessible ship in the National Museum of the Royal Navy’s collection, thanks to the installation of three glass lifts giving access to three of her decks.

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HMS Caroline