You can e-mail us the information here. Oh, and if we've helped, a thank-you is appreciated! However, in early 1971 the Paymaster General decided against preservation. . The National Maritime Museum - holds 10% of surviving agreements and crew lists for the periods 1861-1938 and 1951-1976 The National Archives holds the following proportions of surviving crew. [27] The tugboat Krooman, towing gunnery targets for the exercise, released her targets and instead towed Belfast to Rosyth for initial repairs. The service records of those who served from the 1920s onwards are held by the Ministry of Defence (Naval Disclosure Cell). STOKER Served from 1946 - 1948 Served in HMS Belfast Bernard Spence STOKER Served from 1946 - 1948 Served in HMS Belfast Henry Carmichael CPL Served from 1941 - 1954 Served in HMS Belfast Michael Johnson SHIPWRIGHT 1ST CLASS Served from 1957 - 1969 Served in HMS Belfast Richard Pace PETTY OFFICER Served from 1952 - 1963 Served in HMS Belfast We do this by making available information about the records, and providing data drawn from crew lists and agreements. These contain seniority lists of all officers, cross-referenced with individual ships. [36], For the invasion of Normandy Belfast was made headquarters ship of Bombardment Force E flying the flag of Rear-Admiral Frederick Dalrymple-Hamilton, and was to support landings by British and Canadian forces in the Gold and Juno Beach sectors. [47], In 1952 Belfast continued her coastal patrol duties. During the Second World War, Renown was involved in the search for the Admiral Graf Spee in 1939, participated in the Norwegian Campaign of April June 1940 and the search for the German battleship Bismarck in 1941. An intervention by the King eventually prevented Churchill from going. During July and early August 1950, Belfast undertook coastal patrols and was based at Sasebo in Japan's Nagasaki Prefecture. Depending on your point of view, the project either grew a life of its own, or got out of hand. From the Chairman [91], HMS Belfast also serves as the headquarters of the City of London Sea Cadet Corps,[92] and her prestigious location in central London as a result means she frequently has other vessels berthed alongside. It must be emphasised, therefore, that these details should be used with caution. HMS Belfast is one of only three remaining vessels from the bombardment fleet which supported the Normandy landings on 6 June 1944. [65][c], By 1977, the financial position of the HMS Belfast Trust had become marginal, and the Imperial War Museum sought permission to merge the Trust into the museum. [16] She was launched on Saint Patrick's Day, 17 March 1938, by Anne Chamberlain, the wife of Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain. [26] Twenty officers and men required hospital treatment for injuries caused by the explosion, and a further 26 suffered minor injuries. Seaplanes carried aboard would enable shipping lanes to be patrolled over a wide area, and the class was also to be capable of its own anti-aircraft defence. She is now permanently moored as a museum ship on the River Thames in London and is operated by the Imperial War Museum. [97], Coordinates: .mw-parser-output .geo-default,.mw-parser-output .geo-dms,.mw-parser-output .geo-dec{display:inline}.mw-parser-output .geo-nondefault,.mw-parser-output .geo-multi-punct{display:none}.mw-parser-output .longitude,.mw-parser-output .latitude{white-space:nowrap}513024N 00453W / 51.50667N 0.08139W / 51.50667; -0.08139. 2004. [46], During 1951 Belfast mounted a number of coastal patrols and bombarded a variety of targets. He did, however, agree to postpone any decision on the scrapping of Belfast to allow the Trust to put together a formal proposal. HTML tags are not allowed. [11] The lead ship of the new class, the 9,100-ton HMSSouthampton, and her sister HMSNewcastle, were ordered under the 1933 estimates. Users should note that the particulars of Owners, Masters and Voyages have been extracted by a number of different people, most of them inexperienced in this work, and it has not been possible to check more than obvious discrepancies. [93], On 29 November 2011, two workmen suffered minor injuries after a section of gangway, connected to the ship, collapsed during renovation works. [22] On 9 October Belfast intercepted a German liner, the 13,615-ton Cap Norte, 50 miles (80km) north-west of the Faroe Islands. A number of further overseas commissions followed before she entered reserve in 1963. In January 1966 parts of the ship and power systems were reactivated and from May 1966 to 1970 she served as an accommodation ship (taking over those duties from Sheffield), moored in Fareham Creek, for the Reserve Division at Portsmouth. In June 1945, she was redeployed to the Far East to join the British Pacific Fleet, arriving shortly before the end of the Second World War. Search Discovery, our catalogue, by name of person or ship in T 335 to find what the award was, the person's rank at the time, and the ship they were serving on. ww2dbaseRetaliation came quickly on November 21, 1939 for as Belfast left the Firth of Forth, she ran into a German magnetic mine that the German submarine U-21 left behind. The plan was rejected in December 1961 as the time required to carry out the conversions was too great.[55]. Photographs. Enter the tag you would like to associate with this record and click 'Add tag'. Secondly, we claimed vessels which had been built in Southampton and, thirdly, ships which mainly used this port, especially the passenger liners which were so important to Southampton but few of which were registered here. [44] On 25 June 1950, while Belfast was visiting Hakodate in Japan, North Korean forces crossed the 38th Parallel, starting the Korean War. In 1971, however, the government decided against preservation, prompting the formation of the private HMS Belfast Trust to campaign for her preservation. When the documents were made available by the Public Record Office in 1966, this office asked for the records of ships in three categories. None of what CLIP has achieved would have been possible without the kind assistance of many people. ILLUSTRIOUS-Class Fleet Aircraft Carrier ordered on 19th March 1937 from Harland and Wolff Ltd. at Belfast under the 1937 Programme. On 27 September 1952 Belfast was relieved by two other Town-class cruisers, HMSBirmingham and HMSNewcastle, and sailed back to the UK. On 8 May Belfast returned to Scapa Flow and carried the King during his pre-invasion visit to the Home Fleet. We have no plans to organise more ourselves, but that is far from the end of CLIP. Belfast remained in Hong Kong during 1949, sailing for Singapore on 18 January 1950. Please ensure the tag is appropriate for the record. Uncategorized . This had the benefit of freeing up room for more armor and anti-aircraft protection. [56], Following the government's refusal, a private trust was formed to campaign for the ship's preservation. ww2dbaseAfter refits that lasted from January 1956 to January 1959, HMS Belfast would participate mainly in naval exercises for three more years before the Royal Navy removed her from active service in 1962. ww2dbaseDue to efforts of the Imperial War Museum, which began in 1967, HMS Belfast did not end up in the scrap heap and ended up as a museum ship in October 1971. In the first category, the attempt was made to obtain all available records except for those of vessels known to be yachts under 40 tons or dumb barges. var monthlist= ['January', 'February', 'March', 'April', 'May', 'June', 'July', 'August', 'September', 'October', 'November', 'December']; Ships of larger Companies included in Crew Lists (and a few local companies with several ships), When requesting crew lists please quote the reference number and the year of the crew list required. [97], The closure delayed the construction of a new two-storey bank-side pavilion to replace Belfast's existing retail and admissions building. She was completed in 1941 and, after a successful WARSHIP WEEK National Savings campaign in March 1942, was adopted by the civil community of Belfast. It is planned to make at a later date an index of Owners and Masters. This series contains records of Merchant Seamen's Service on Royal Navy Ships. The ship left Singapore on 26 March 1962 for the UK, sailing east via Hong Kong, Guam and Pearl Harbor, San Francisco, Seattle, British Columbia, Panama and Trinidad. February 1944 saw Belfast resume her Arctic convoy duties, and on 30 March 1944 Belfast sailed with the covering force of Operation Tungsten, a large carrier-launched Fleet Air Arm airstrike against the German battleship Tirpitz. Tai Yin had been listed by the Admiralty as suspicious, so a prize crew from Belfast sailed her to Kirkwall for investigation. The next day Force One, which had left Murmansk on the 23rd, encountered Scharnhorst, prevented her from attacking the convoy, and forced her to retreat after being damaged by the British cruisers. Made the first full transcription from the shipping registers for a group of ports. From left to right: Bugler Volker, Marine Askew, Boy Blakely, Captain Parham, Boy Wallis, Colour Sergeant Oldfield, A B Stratt and Master at Arms Taylor. CLIP is run by Pete and Jan Owens as a not-for-profit volunteer project. [37][39] During her five weeks off Normandy, Belfast had fired 1,996 rounds from her six-inch guns. Many records are available online, sometimes on more than one site. We'd like to use additional cookies to remember your settings and understand how you use our services. By navigating the hazardous Pentland Firth, Belfast successfully evaded the Home Fleet. British shipping, at that time the largest merchant fleet in the world, is also well documented and we explain how to access those records too. and useful information about WW2. On 14 August, Belfast took part in her first exercise, Operation Hipper, in which she played the role of a German commerce raider attempting to escape into the Atlantic. Belfast is a cruiser of the third Town class. This was the first time she had been to sea in 28 years and thus required a Certificate of Seaworthiness from the Maritime and Coastguard Agency. The fee is currently 30. 837 Naval Air Squadron (flying Barracuda aircraft) and No. We are delighted to help with advice about finding records (that's what CLIP and this web site is all about) but please do not ask us Speaking for the government, the Under-secretary for the Navy, Peter Kirk, said that Belfast was "one of the most historic ships which the Navy has had in the last 20 years",[59] but that he could not prevent the stripping of the ship's removable equipment, as this was already too far advanced to be halted. Object Details Over the last twenty years we have worked with hundreds of people and many archives around the world to make the largest database of . [17] From March to August 1939, Belfast was fitted out and underwent sea trials. Finding records of individuals in this huge resource can be challenging, but it can also be rewarding [64] As of 2011, nine decks are open to the public. Although the crew had no fatalities and twenty-one injured, HMS Belfast suffered heavy damage to her hull and machinery. [5] She was capable of 32.5 knots (60.2km/h; 37.4mph) and carried 2,400 long tons (2,400t) of fuel oil. On the night of 6 July Belfast was threatened at anchor by German motor torpedo boats ("E-boats"). Alongside the Germans, the Belfast had to deal with the harsh weather of the Arctic Ocean. HMS Belfast is a Town-class light cruiser that was built for the Royal Navy. We are currently providing database and transcription facilities for an ongoing project at Glamorgan Archives, with other projects in the pipeline. [68] She was not expected to require further drydocking until 2020. [60] She was towed to her berth above Tower Bridge on 15 October 1971 and settled in a huge hole that had been dredged in the river bed; then she was attached to two dolphins which guide her during the rise and fall of the tide. The Imperial War Museum's guidebook to HMS Belfast divides the ship into three broad sections. Photographs 2. She also received a Type 273 general surface warning radar, Type 251 and 252 sets for identification friend or foe (IFF) purposes, and a Type 281 and Type 242 for air warning. Her tripod masts were replaced with lattice masts and timber decking replaced with steel everywhere except the quarterdeck. If so, please consider supporting us on Patreon. Or perhaps additional information?If you wish to add a crewmember to the listing we would need most of this information: ship name, nationality, name, dob, place of birth, service (merchant marine, ), rank or job on board. Seamen's records ('pouches') are in: BT 372, Crew agreements and log books are in: BT 380, Coast trade crew agreements and log books are in: BT 381, Fifth Register of Seaman's Service is in: BT 382, Crew agreements and log books for requisitioned or chartered Allied foreign ships are in: BT 387, Special Operations Records, merchant seamen, are in: BT 391, Registrar General of Shipping and Seamen, 1872-1992, Have you found an error with this catalogue description? Full records will be released to proven next of kin. [6][nb 1] On her return to the Home Fleet Belfast was made flagship of the 10th Cruiser Squadron, flying the flag of Rear-Admiral Robert Burnett, who had previously commanded the Home Fleet's destroyer flotillas. In July 1963 Belfast was recommissioned for the last time, with a crew of the Royal Naval Reserve (RNR) and a number of Sea Cadets flying the flag of the Admiral Commanding Reserves, Rear Admiral Hugh Martell. Recommissioned in July, she made a final visit to Belfast from 2329 November before paying off into reserve on 25 February 1963. Opened to the public in October 1971, Belfast became a branch of the Imperial War Museum in 1978. HMS Belfast technical sheet . He described Belfast as being in "a really wonderful state of preservation" and that saving her for the nation represented a "case of grasping the last opportunity". 1990 to the present day (production), 1990 to the present day (content) Creator. Help us improve catalogue descriptions by adding tags. Early June 1945, it was deployed to the Far East. Read tagging guidelines. [50] Belfast recommissioned at Devonport on 12 May 1959. For more information, please see our Privacy Policy. [34] Moored in Altafjord in northern Norway, Tirpitz was the German navy's last surviving capital ship. She returned two days later for further bombardments. Scroll down to see more. With our small band of volunteers from around the world, and with the help of many archivists, we have: We have now completed all the transcription projects that we manage. [69] During the maintenance work, Belfast's hull and topsides were repainted in her specific camouflage scheme officially known as Admiralty Disruptive Camouflage Type 25, which she had worn from November 1942 to July 1944. At 5:30am on 6 June, Belfast opened fire on a German artillery battery at Ver-sur-Mer, suppressing the guns until the site was overrun by British infantry of 7th Battalion, Green Howards. Set up this site which is widely used as a single resource for researchers into maritime records. [59], Following the Trust's efforts, the government agreed to hand over Belfast to the Trustees in July 1971, with Vice Admiral Sir Donald Gibson as her first director. At 11:40 that morning, Belfast received the message Commence hostilities at once against Germany. Her commander was Captain G A Scott DSO RN. Language links are at the top of the page across from the title. Catalogue entries for this series have been enhanced as part of a project supported by volunteers. CREW LISTS AND SHIPS' AGREEMENTS | The National Archives Home Discovery DCrew Start new search Print Discovery help Bookmark You are in 43 - Southampton Archives Office This record (browse from. Description: Registers, arranged numerically giving date of birth, ship or shore establishment and an account of service. In between convoy duties, she participated in offensive sweeps with British battleships and aircraft carriers. Download theapplication forms. 23 Jan 1941. [2] Her six-inch turrets were protected by up to 4 inches (102mm) of armour. Providing gunfire support to British and Canadian forces hitting the Gold and Juno beaches, Belfast was one of the first ships to begin the opening bombardment at 5:30am. var lastmod=new Date(document.lastModified); She was launched on St Patrick's Day, 17 March 1938. 1. pathway to victory sermon outlines . For inquiries about military records for members of the World War II armed forces, please see our FAQ. [52] In order to save weight, her torpedo armament was removed. [15] Her expected cost was 2,141,514; of which the guns cost 75,000 and the aircraft (two Supermarine Walruses) 66,500. In 1945 the crew gave up their chocolate ration for us and we ate the lot, so when we left HMS Belfast in 2005 we were each given a 'goody bag' containing among other things a DVD of the . ww2dbaseCompleted on March 17, 1938 and joining the fleet on August 5, 1939, HMS Belfast joined the 18th cruiser squadron. [77], In 2017, it was announced that the third of the Royal Navy's Type 26 frigates would be named Belfast. ww2dbaseSources: Imperial War Museum HMS Belfast, HMS Belfast article on Wikipedia. In September 1951 Belfast provided anti-aircraft cover for a salvage operation to recover a crashed enemy MiG-15 jet fighter. If an individual was commissioned from the ranks or moved between different services you may find service records in more than one set of files. ww2dbaseIn 1936, the British Royal Navy attempted to acquire two enlarged and improved versions of the Southampton class light cruisers. Merchant Navy gallantry awards for the Second World War, 1939-1947. Shipwrecks and maritime incidents in November 1939, 19391942: Commissioning, prize capture, mining, and repairs, 19421943: Recommissioning, Arctic convoys and Battle of North Cape, Modernisation and final commissions 19551963, Reserve, decommissioning, and preservation efforts 19631971, Parham recorded an oral account of his career in May 1976, which was later acquired by the, The admiral is not identified in Wingate (2004), but may have been Rear Admiral, Operation Seahorse was named for the ship's badge, which shows a seahorse (which also appears on the. A full set of these publications is held by TNA. She was towed from Portsmouth to London via Tilbury, where she was fitted out as a museum. ww2dbaseFive years later, HMS Belfast participated in the Korean War when she provided gunfire support for United Nations land-based forces. On October 9, 1939, Belfast successfully seized the . Gambia had already severely deteriorated, so attention turned to the possibility of saving Belfast. In late 1939, she had to self-refit in the Falkland Islands, which led to the remainder of . There is one snag - the huge pile of records has no index (that's the point of CLIP). Production date. A 75mm shell struck a forward compartment, killing a British sailor of Chinese origin in his hammock and wounding four other Chinese ratings. [41] She was recommissioned on 22 September 1948 and, before returning to the Far East, visited her home city of Belfast, arriving on 20 October. ww2dbaseRemaining in the area for five weeks, HMS Belfast provided impressive gunfire support to British and Canadian forces as they fought their way inland near the city of Caen. when a wealth of detail about their lives is revealed. We have added some case studies to illustrate research into records of seafarers and ships. After Scharnhorst turned away from the convoy, Admiral Burnett in Belfast shadowed her by radar from outside visual range, enabling her interception by Duke of York. The mine broke Belfast's keel, and wrecked one of her engine and boiler rooms. and many archives around the world to make the largest database of seafarers' records and provide unique [34][35] Belfast underwent minor repairs at Rosyth from 23 April to 8 May, while her crew received a period of leave. learn something along the way. The T124X records detail the sea service of merchant seamen who served on Royal Navy ships (or Royal Navy auxiliary vessels). [11] The Admiralty rejected a design featuring five triple turrets as impractical, while an alternative design fitting four quadruple turrets was rejected as an effective quadruple turret could not be developed. For long distance voyages, the authorised destination is often given in the most general terms and the only clues lie in entries made at various ports of call. [80][90] In addition to the various areas of the ship open to visitors, some compartments have been fitted out as dedicated exhibition space. We explain what indexes are available and how to use them.

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