If you provide contact details, we will be in touch about your request within 10 working days. [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. That night, the battleship Royal Oak was torpedoed by German submarine U-47, which had infiltrated the anchorage. These records were compiled at the Registrar General of Shipping and Seamen. We do this by making available information about the records, and providing data drawn from crew lists and agreements. [53][pageneeded], Belfast arrived in Singapore on 16 December 1959 and spent most of 1960 at sea on exercise, calling at ports in Hong Kong, Borneo, India, Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), Australia, the Philippines and Japan. HMS Belfast with a very different crew Written by Godfrey Dykes RN Communications Branch Museum/Library . The turret would represent a number of classes of cruiser (then disappearing from service) and would complement the museum's pair of British 15-inch naval guns. Many records are available online, sometimes on more than one site. 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. On 25 December 1943, Christmas Day, Scharnhorst left port in northern Norway to attack Convoy JW55B. The following day she boarded Tai Yin, a Norwegian ship. privacy policy, Registry of Shipping and Seamen: War of 1939-1945; Merchant Seamen's Service on Royal Navy Ships. British seamen who served under the T124X agreement; British seamen who served under the T124T agreement; Non-British seamen who served under the T124X agreement. Catalogue entries for this series have been enhanced as part of a project supported by volunteers. Her 1942 electronics suite also included a Type 270 echosounder. We can reunite you with your friends who served at HMS Belfast and we have a wealth of information on different units, bases and ships in the site. [38][56] On 14 April 1967 museum staff visited Gambia, a Crown Colony-class cruiser also moored in Fareham Creek at the time. She spent much of 1940 and 1941 assigned to Force H at Gibraltar, escorting convoys and she participated in the inconclusive Battle . These could be launched from a D1H catapult mounted aft of the forward superstructure, and recovered from the water by two cranes mounted on either side of the forward funnel. Finding records of individuals in this huge resource can be challenging, but it can also be rewarding The plan was rejected in December 1961 as the time required to carry out the conversions was too great.[55]. We explain what indexes are available and how to use them. Although the crew had no fatalities and twenty-one injured, HMS Belfast suffered heavy damage to her hull and machinery. CLIP data. After providing supporting fire for Operation Charnwood, Belfast returned to England for a short refit and rest before heading to the Far East. [16] She was launched on Saint Patrick's Day, 17 March 1938, by Anne Chamberlain, the wife of Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain. Crew: 748 sailors. On 5 October Belfast intercepted and boarded a neutral Norwegian factory ship that was sailing in company with six whaling ships. The two aft 6-inch turrets would be removed to accommodate a helicopter deck and two hangars capable of housing four Westland Wessex helicopters, while the 4-inch guns would be replaced by davits for four LCA landing craft. As flagship of the 5th Cruiser Squadron, Belfast was the Far Eastern Station's headquarters ship during the April 1949 Amethyst Incident, in which a British sloop, HMSAmethyst, was trapped in the Yangtze River by the communist People's Liberation Army. Her beam had increased to 69ft (21m) and her draught to 19ft (5.8m) forward and 20ft 2in (6.15m) aft. HMS Belfast is a Town-class light cruiser that was built for the Royal Navy.She is now permanently moored as a museum ship on the River Thames in London and is operated by the Imperial War Museum.. Construction of Belfast, the first ship in the Royal Navy to be named after the capital city of Northern Ireland and one of ten Town-class cruisers, began in December 1936. [64] While under tow to Portsmouth she was delayed by bad weather and arrived a day late: it had been intended that she would arrive on 6 June 1999, the fifty-fifth anniversary of the Normandy landings. In 1967, efforts were initiated to avert Belfast's expected scrapping and to preserve her as a museum ship. Merchant Navy gallantry awards for the Second World War, 1939-1947. HMS Belfast at anchor in Sydney Harbour, August 1945. Tai Yin had been listed by the Admiralty as suspicious, so a prize crew from Belfast sailed her to Kirkwall for investigation. Belfast saw action escorting Arctic convoys to the Soviet Union during 1943 and in December 1943 played an important role in the Battle of North Cape, assisting in the destruction of the German warship Scharnhorst. Her initial role during the Second World War was to accompany a convoy to Capetown from December 1940 to January 1941. Made the first complete record of British registered ships, from 1855 to the 1950s, with 200,000 entries from the Appropriation Books at RSS in Cardiff. She conducted further bombardments and patrols before receiving a month's leave from operations, returning to action on 23 December. It started from trying to trace the sea-going career of Pete's great-grandfather, who ran away to sea in the 1860s. Her tripod masts were replaced with lattice masts and timber decking replaced with steel everywhere except the quarterdeck. [59] Among the MPs who spoke in support of Morgan-Giles was Gordon Bagier, MP for Sunderland South, who served as a Royal Marine gunner aboard Belfast and was present at both the sinking of Scharnhorst and the Normandy landings. Her empty hangars were converted to crew accommodation, and her aircraft catapult was removed. It had previously been used by a battlecruiser sold in 1921. 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. [72] The production of the masts, to replace corroded originals, had been supported by a number of Russian businesses at a reported cost of 500,000. The next day Belfast took charge of a silver ship's bell, a gift of the people of Belfast. [64] In 1976 Belfast was reaffiliated with the successors to the British Army's Royal Ulster Rifles, the Royal Irish Rangers,[b][64] and in the same year the Royal Naval Amateur Radio Society restored the ship's Bridge Wireless Office to working order. 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. A joint committee of the Imperial War Museum, the National Maritime Museum, and the Ministry of Defence was established and then reported in June 1968 that preservation was practical. 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. As well as the engine and boiler rooms, other compartments include the transmitting station (housing the ship's Admiralty Fire Control Table, a mechanical computer), the forward steering position and one of Belfast's six-inch shell rooms and magazines. On 12 June Belfast supported Canadian troops moving inland from Juno Beach and returned to Portsmouth on 16 June to replenish her ammunition. Veterans of the Arctic convoys were in attendance to receive medals from the Russian Ambassador Yuri Fedotov. At the same time, the IWM stated that the museum would be renamed as "HMS Belfast (1938)" as a means of avoiding confusion. [52] In order to save weight, her torpedo armament was removed. 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. We'd welcome any feedback and suggestions - there's a link to our contact details on the menu bar above. We are glad to list them on our acknowledgements page: NB! On 4 January 1940 Belfast was decommissioned to Care and Maintenance status, becoming the responsibility of Rosyth Dockyard, and her crew dispersed to other vessels. That year also saw the refurbishment of the ship's Operations Room by a team from HMSVernon, and the return of Belfast's six twin Bofors mounts, along with their fire directors. [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. HMS Formidable was an Aircraft Carrier of the Illustrious class. HMS Mohawk (destroyer) B top Baldwin, CharlesEdward Son of Catherine M. Baldwin, of Stamshaw, Portsmouth. We'll do our best to advise. Let us know. HMS Belfast - Wikipedia b) Lent to HMS Holderness 04/04/1945 - 07/04/1945 "Type 1 Hunt Crew List of September 1939, while attempting to return to Germany, in a position off Peenambuco in Iceland, the vessel was captured by HMS Belfast. Bruce Fraser, C-in-C Home Fleet, expected and hoped that the German battleship Scharnhorst would sortie from its Norwegian base and attempt to attack Convoy JW 55B sailing from Scotland to Murmansk in the USSR. Alternatively, search more than 1 million objects from 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. Download theapplication forms. You are currently a guest member, registered members receive the following benefits: Please enter a password with 6 characters or more, REM, LREM, R-MECH3,2,1 AND A/L CHIEF RADIO MECHANI, POM(E) CHIEF STOKER RNR (WITH ICE CHARGE TICKET). This is a listing of people associated with this ship.We also have a detailed page on the British Light cruiser HMS Belfast (35). She had steamed over 80,000 miles (130,000km) in the combat zone and fired more than 8,000 rounds from her 6-inch guns during the Korean War. [51] Her close-range armament was standardised to six twin 40 mm Bofors guns, and her close-range fire direction similarly standardised to eight close-range blindfire directors fitted with Type 262 radar. 11 czerwca 2022 . 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". [21] On 8 October the ship sighted the Swedish merchant ship C. P. Lilljevach but, in poor weather, did not intercept or board her. [27] The tugboat Krooman, towing gunnery targets for the exercise, released her targets and instead towed Belfast to Rosyth for initial repairs. No attempt has been made to indicate whether the information covers the whole year, though this can sometimes be deduced. ww2dbaseAfter participating as an escort for a British carrier strike against the German battleship Tirpitz in March of 1944, HMS Belfast would head back to England. CLIP databases provide a range of indexes and finding aids to help your research. All comment submissions will become the property of WW2DB. 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. [64] As of 2011, nine decks are open to the public. IWM holds an almost complete run from 1914 and some of those from 18881970 are onAncestry(). With a rate of fire of up to eight rounds per gun per minute, her main battery was capable of a total maximum rate of fire of 96 rounds per minute. Alongside the Germans, the Belfast had to deal with the harsh weather of the Arctic Ocean. ww2dbaseIn 1936, the British Royal Navy attempted to acquire two enlarged and improved versions of the Southampton class light cruisers. The additional information given here was gathered partly from the original registration of the vessels, but mainly from the documents themselves. HMS BIRMINGHAM was a light cruiser of 5,440 tons, armed with nine 6-in guns, and was built by Messrs Armstrong Whitworth and Co Limited being launched on 7 May 1913. Changes included: individual MRS8 directors for the new twin Mk 5 40mm and the twin 4-inch mount; the 4-inch guns training and elevation speed was increased to 20 degrees per second; and protecting key parts of the ship against nuclear, biological or chemical attack. Subscribe now for regular news, updates and priority booking for events, All content is available under the Open Government Licence v3.0, except where otherwise stated, About our
[5] She was capable of 32.5 knots (60.2km/h; 37.4mph) and carried 2,400 long tons (2,400t) of fuel oil. Belfast returned to action in November 1942 with improved firepower, radar equipment, and armour. Scroll down to see more. We've spent a lot of time trying to make it as clear and helpful as possible. The Royal Navy would build two ships under the specifications and named them Belfast and Edinburgh, with their sub-class bearing the name of the latter. C. Peter Chen of Lava Development, LLC. [19] On 25 September, Belfast took part in a fleet operation to recover the submarine Spearfish, during which the ship was attacked by German aircraft, but suffered no damage. Recommissioned in July, she made a final visit to Belfast from 2329 November before paying off into reserve on 25 February 1963. The covering dates relate to the dates of opening the registers. [56] On 4 May 1971 Belfast was "reduced to disposal" to await scrapping. 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. On June 6, 1944 and as the flagship of bombardment force E as part of the Eastern Naval Task Force, Belfast participated in the D-Day landings. On 1 June she arrived at Singapore for refitting, arriving back on patrol on 31 August. [11] The lead ship of the new class, the 9,100-ton HMSSouthampton, and her sister HMSNewcastle, were ordered under the 1933 estimates. 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. data is focussed on tracking down crew lists, but we provide other resources, such as indexed images of the Mercantile Navy List, as well as a comprehensive set of links to other sites. The following day, 21 October 1948, the ship's company marked Trafalgar Day with a march through the city. Armament (1944): 12x 152 mm guns, 8x . Information is contained in pouches and includes personal details such as name, age, rank, rating/grade and qualifications, together with details of the vessels on which the individual served. Alongside that we provide data and image sets relating to Served on indicates the ships we have listed for the person, some were stationed on multiple ships hit by U-boats. Lava's technical capabilities. Title: Admiralty: Royal Navy Registers of Seamen's Services. This was objected to by some, due to the anachronistic conflict between her camouflage, which reflects the majority of her active Second World War service, and her present configuration, which was the result of the ship's extended refit from January 1956 to May 1959. At the time of her decommissioning in 2011 she was the second-oldest ship in Royal Navy service, after HMS Victory. These agreements and crew lists usually include such information as the destination of the ship and the names of individual crew members with age, rank, place of birth, former ship and wage. [89] A 4-inch gun mount and a shell hoist are kept in working order and used during blank-firing demonstrations by the Wavy Navy re-enactment group. [44] On 25 June 1950, while Belfast was visiting Hakodate in Japan, North Korean forces crossed the 38th Parallel, starting the Korean War. [64] While in dock, her entire hull was cleaned, blasted, and repainted, her hull blanking plates inspected and an ultrasonic survey carried out. [15] Her expected cost was 2,141,514; of which the guns cost 75,000 and the aircraft (two Supermarine Walruses) 66,500. Over the last twenty years we have worked with hundreds of people and many archives around the world to make the largest database of . Construction of Belfast, the first ship in the Royal Navy to be named after the capital city of Northern Ireland and one of ten Town-class cruisers, began in December 1936. The efforts of the Trust were successful, and the government transferred the ship to the Trust in July 1971. [40], On 29 July 1944, Captain Parham handed over command of HMS Belfast to Captain R M Dick, and until April 1945 Belfast underwent a refit to prepare for service against Japan in the Far East which improved her accommodation for tropical conditions, and updated her anti-aircraft armament and fire control in order to counter expected kamikaze attacks by Japanese aircraft. Belfast was recommissioned at Devonport on 3 November 1942, under the command of Captain Frederick Parham. From the Chairman We have listed the main sources but there may be others. We enjoy dealing with awkward questions; we don't think there is such a thing as a silly question, and we often HMS Belfast is a Town-class light cruiser that was built for the Royal Navy. HMS Belfast (Navy Photos, click to enlarge) return to Contents List Improved SOUTHAMPTON-Class heavy cruiser ordered on 15th August 1936 from Harland and Wolff at Belfast under the 1936 Estimates on with sister ship HMS EDINBURGH from Swan Hunter in Newcastle. The aim of CLIP is simple - to improve access to the records of seafarers on British registered ships of the late 19th and early 20th century. To access the records in this section you will either need to visit us or, where you can identify a specific document reference, order a copy ().. [9] As a branch of a national museum and part of the National Historic Fleet, Belfast is supported by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, admissions income, and the museum's commercial activities. Her commander was Captain G A Scott DSO RN. We are continuing to add to HMS Nelson. Help us improve catalogue descriptions by adding tags. 20 Dec 1940. [43] She sailed for Hong Kong on 23 October to join the Royal Navy's Far East Fleet, arriving in late December. The fee is currently 30. We hope that visitor conversations at WW2DB will be constructive and thought-provoking. [77], In 2017, it was announced that the third of the Royal Navy's Type 26 frigates would be named Belfast. IWM collections. Her armament was updated with newer 2-pounder pom-pom mountings, and her anti-aircraft armament improved with eighteen 20mm Oerlikon guns in five twin and eight single mountings, replacing two quadruple 0.5-inch Vickers guns. The operations room was restored to its appearance during Exercise Pony Express, a large British-Australian-American joint exercise held off North Borneo in 1961. One man, Painter 2nd Class Henry Stanton, was hospitalised but later died of a head injury, having been thrown against the deckhead by the blast. [33], After North Cape, Belfast refuelled at Kola Inlet before sailing for the United Kingdom, arriving at Scapa to replenish her fuel, ammunition and stores on New Year's Day 1944. Carolinewas launchedand commissionedin 1914. Her first captain was Captain G A Scott with a crew of 761, and her first assignment was to the Home Fleet's 2nd Cruiser Squadron. On 8 May Belfast returned to Scapa Flow and carried the King during his pre-invasion visit to the Home Fleet. She also received two more single Bofors guns, in place of two of her single 2-pounder mountings. He did, however, agree to postpone any decision on the scrapping of Belfast to allow the Trust to put together a formal proposal. resources which are widely used by maritime researchers. 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. A Type 274 set was fitted for main armament fire direction. The Belfast Trust was established; its chairman was Rear-Admiral Sir Morgan Morgan-Giles, captain of Belfast from January 1961 to July 1962. var lastmod=new Date(document.lastModified); By 28 June she had been repaired sufficiently to sail to Devonport, arriving on 30 June under the command of Lt Cdr H W Parkinson.[28]. For the most of the 1930s, she served off China with the 5th Cruiser Squadron. Her Type 281 air warning set was replaced by a single-antenna Type 281B set, while a Type 293Q was fitted for close-range height-finding and surface warning. Coastal vessels sometimes give a detailed schedule of calls but at others only a general description. The ship was laid down on 17th June that year and launched on 17th August 1939 . [32], On 26 December 1943, Belfast participated in the Battle of North Cape. She saw action duirng the Second World War and was sunk with great loss of life on the 10th April 1940, during the First Battle of Narvik. [14] This modified design became the 10,000-ton Edinburgh subclass, named after Belfast's sister ship HMSEdinburgh. [18], On 31 August 1939 Belfast was transferred to the 18th Cruiser Squadron. Made the first full transcription from the shipping registers for a group of ports. [54], In 1961 plans were drawn up for the conversion of Belfast to a hybrid helicopter cruiser for amphibious operations. The site also provides information and data about the records of British merchant shipping with records of every British registered ship from 1855 to the 1950s - all 200,000 of them. By 1949, the political situation in China was precarious, with the Chinese Civil War moving towards its conclusion. [nb 3][46] On 6 August she sailed for the UK for a short (but needed) refit, after which she again set sail for the far east and arrived back at Sasebo on 31 January 1951. Based at Scapa Flow in the Orkney islands, 18th Cruiser Squadron was part of the British effort to impose a naval blockade on Germany. This was the only time Belfast was hit by enemy fire during her Korean service. The pouches are arranged in three sequences: Each sequence is in alphabetical order by the seaman's last name. If you provide contact details, we will be in touch about your request within 10 working days. Belfast remained in Hong Kong during 1949, sailing for Singapore on 18 January 1950. 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. Two infantry companies, 30 officers and 230 other ranks, would be carried. Catalogue description Registry of Shipping and Seamen: War of 1939-1945; Merchant Seamen's Service on Royal Navy Ships Search within or browse this series to find specific records of interest.. Set up a site giving access to images of 70 editions of the Mercantile Navy List - both our own images and sets from the Maritime History Archive in Newfoundland, (with their kind permission). The service records of those who served from the 1920s onwards are held by the Ministry of Defence (Naval Disclosure Cell). This last consideration meant significantly enlarging and enclosing her bridge, creating a two-tiered, five-sided superstructure which radically altered her appearance. We also have a detailed page on the British Light cruiser HMS Belfast (35). Source: Royal Navy/Wikimedia Commons HMS Belfast saw further combat action post-war during the 1950-52 Korean War and underwent an. Transcribed 57,000 entries of foreign-going masters and mates from the records in BT 124 at TNA. Crew lists, originally termed muster-rolls or muster-books, began in the 18th century and were initially kept in order to collect a levy from seamen's wages for a relief fund, and as a record of the names, ratings, dates of entry and final discharge for all men serving on board a ship. Compiled a further 470,000 records of ships from the Mercantile Navy List, making the largest database of British registered ships of the era. You can click on any of the names for possible additional information. During the First World War. site is two fold. An intervention by the King eventually prevented Churchill from going. Between the end of WW2 [1945] when he was promoted to Commander, and 1959 when he was appointed to a Whitehall Department, he had had a couple of staff jobs, commanded two ships [the Sluys and the Bigbury Bay as . In June 1944, Belfast took part in Operation Overlord supporting the Normandy landings. Originally part of the US Navy's Task Force 77, Belfast was detached in order to operate independently on 5 July 1950. learn something along the way. The National Archives guide to Royal Naval Division service records Service records (ADM 339) on TNA , Lives of the First World War and FindMyPast () An index with links to TNA records on Ancestry () Approximately 50,000 original service records at NMRN [19] On 8 September Belfast put to sea from Scapa Flow with the battlecruisers Hood, Renown, her sister ship Edinburgh and four destroyers, on a patrol intended to intercept German ships returning from Norway. of preserving an entire ship. The Town class had originated in 1933 as the Admiralty's response to the Imperial Japanese Navy's Mogami-class cruiser, an 11,200-ton cruiser mounting fifteen 6-inch (152mm) guns with a top speed exceeding 35 knots (65km/h; 40mph). HMS Belfast is a museum ship, originally a Royal Navy light cruiser, permanently moored in London on the River Thames and operated by the Imperial War Museum. As Scharnhorst attacked again at noon she was intercepted by Force Two and sunk by the combined formations. document.write("This page was last modified on " + lastmod.getDate()+" " + monthlist[lastmod.getMonth()] +" " + lastmod.getFullYear()+""); Transcribed and checked nearly 1,000,000 (one million) entries from crew lists. This information will help us make improvements to the website. The [66] The ship was transferred to the museum on 1 March 1978,[64] and became the Imperial War Museum's third branch, Duxford aerodrome having been acquired in 1976.
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