On Novemb er 14 the ship is towed into the Pool of London, above the Tower Bridge , where she will be opened to the public on Trafalgar Day, October 21. By special dispensation she is still called ''Her Majesty 's Ship ," and flies the Royal Navy 's white ensign.
Ship of the Portsmouth Division of Reserve Ships. Saving a Cruiser The idea of preserving HMS Belfast for the nation was born on 14 April 1967 when a four-man team from the Imperial War Museum, led by the Director, Dr. Noble Frankland , visited Portsmouth to examine the 6-inch turrets on the cruiser HMS Gambia, then about to be scrapped . The Museum had just acquired a pair of 15-inch guns from the battleships Resolution and Ramillies and hoped to obtain an example of cruiser armament. The party lunched on board HMS Belfast, due shortly to go out of service. As they left afterwards, the author of this article suggested that it might be far better to preserve HMS Belfast in her entirety than to save a single turret from the Gambia. During a subsequent train journey to Liverpool on other business, Dr. Frankland and the author discussed the idea in greater detail and began to form a plan of campaign for the preservation of the cruiser as a museum ship. The practical problems were immense. In the summer of 1967 a survey was conducted of similar schemes in other countries . As a result of this survey, the Trustees of the Museum agreed in November that, in view of the Belfast 's distinguished history and excellent condition, the chance of preserving her should not be missed . Accordingly , a committee consisting of representatives of the Ministry of Defence, the Imperial War Museum and the National Maritime Museum was created to investigate the methods and costs of preserving the ship. The committee reported in June 1968 that the preservation of HMS Belfast as a floating naval museum was highly desirable, and technically and financially feasible. After much deliberation, the Government announced on 9 February 1971 that it could not provide the funds for preserving the Belfast and that the ship was to be put on the disposal list in April of that year. The Imperial War Museum, together with Rear-Admiral Morgan Giles MP, a friend of the project and a 10
former Captain of the Belfast, responded to this emergency by forming the HMS Belfast Trust-the aim being to raise the necessary funds from private sources and thereafter to administer HMS Belfast as a self-supporting museum ship. Shortly before midnight on 8 March 1971 , Admiral Morgan Giles, chairman of the Trust, appealed in the House of Commons for a stay of execution for the ship " to give the Trust a chance to show what it can make of its ideas. ' ' She was granted this temporary reprieve. During the four months of intense activity which followed, a generous gift of ÂŁ100,000 by John Smith, the banker and former MP for the Cities of London and Westminster , put the Trust into effective business. On the day before the temporary preservation order was due to expire, Admiral Morgan Giles was able to inform his fellow Trustees that the Government had finally agreed to allow the Trust to preserve the ship as a private venture . Although proposals for displaying the Belfast at Plymouth or Portsmouth had been considered , the Trust decided that it was essential to secure a site in London, to benefit from the flow of visitors to the capital. Arrangements were therefore made for a special berth to be prepared in the Pool of London, and on 14 October 1971 HMS Belfast edged her way slowly up-river to her new berth , her topmast clearing the upper works of Tower Bridge by only a few feet. Appropriately, HMS Belfast was opened to the public on Trafalgar Day, 21 October 1971 . In the presence of the Lord Mayors of Belfast and London and the Mayor of Southwark, the ship was formally handed over to the Trust by the Navy Minister. Admiral Sir Michael Pollock, the First Sea Lord, presented the White Ensign to Admiral Morgan Giles, for although she was no longer in commission, the Belfast was accorded the special privilege of flying the Ensign and styling herself "Her Majesty's Ship ." Opening the ship to the public on limited resources and for a fraction of the Government's estimate of what was required had been a considerable achievement, but the task of completing her restoration and establishing her as a pop-
ular museum and a successful business was even more complex. The Trust and its staff, directed first by Vice-Admiral Sir Donald Gibson and, from 1973, by Rear-Admiral Philip Higham, tackled these problems with great vigor. By 1974 a substantial part of the ship, including the Admiral's bridge and the forward boiler and engine rooms had been restored with the help of private benefactors , commercial organizations, volunteers and the Royal Navy itself. The Imperial War Museum also helped by mounting historical displays and lending models and other exhibits. Within a short time, HMS Belfast became an internationally known tourist attraction, the 1,500,000th visitor passing through the ship in December 1975. But the Trust still operated on a hand-to-mouth basis , depending from year to year upon revenue from admission charges and the generosity of private benefactors. The Trustees of the HMS Belfast Trust and the Trustees of the Imperial War Museum therefore sought the Government's permission for the Belfast to merge with the Museum . The Government agreed and on 1 March 1978 HMS Belfast became an integral part of the Imperial War Museum, which now has three wings : its main building in Southwark; Duxford Airfield, the former Royal Air Force station in Cambridgeshire; and HMS Belfast herself, in the Port of London. The Imperial War Museum will continue the policy established by the HMS Belfast Trust of preserving and restoring the cruiser in a manner consistent with naval tradition and historical accuracy. New displays about the role and history of the ship are being progressively developed. Exhibitions on broader aspects of naval history are also being introduced, thus enabling the Museum to show many of its models, uniforms and other naval exhibits in the highly appropriate setting of a cruiser of the period they illustrate. A new program of talks and other activities for schools and colleges similarly helps to explain the historical significance of this unique ship to the younger generation of visitors-in whose hands the preservation of the Royal Navy's heritage will ul.t timately rest. SEA HISIDRY, SPRING 1983