Forums Forums Wirral History : Chasing the Past Wirral History Battle of Jutland

Due to the services being held to remember the battle of Jutland,I thought I would give a mention of HMS Chester and HMS Birkenhead both built in Camell Lairds, I never heard much mention of them in the local news, certainly HMS Chester was famous as the ship in which Jack Cornwall won his VC at the age of 16, I just thought it was worth a mention.

The cruiser HMS Caroline, the last surviving Navy ship that took part in the battle, was also built at Laird's. It is now a floating museum in Belfast ....

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Caroline_(1914)

That what made me mention it yoller, HMS Caroline got all the mentions as she is as you say the last surviving ship, just thought I would mention the other two as being from here, HMS Chester was I believe the first ship in action, hit 17 times she was severely damaged with her guns out of action and took no further part in the battle, we have a lot of navel history from here and I sometimes feel it is overshadowed by other events.

BBC1 Northern Ireland broadcast an hour-long programme on the restoration of HMS Caroline last Sunday entitled "Belfast's Forgotten Hero: HMS Caroline". You can catch it on BBC iPlayer until the end of this month. Well worth a look, as some 80% of the ship is much as it was when she left Laird's yard in 1914.

Thanks for the heads-up about this programme - it was very interesting. The ship really is something of a time capsule of Laird's workmanship, although the makeover has markedly altered it in some respects.

One niggle was that the presenters repeatedly emphasised that the engines were Parsons turbines, powered by oil, but kept showing clips of blokes shovelling coal into ships' fireboxes.

However the restoration really was a painstaking effort, especially building the replica guns and caulking the deck planks with oakum. That's one job I wouldn't fancy! If I ever get to Belfast, I'll definitely have a look at the Caroline.

Perhaps they had to get steam up with coal or temperatures high enough to vaporise the bunkers (crude oil). I know later diesel was used or still is for this. It is a bit like the pre heater in a diesel car or the rag with meths on a paraffin blow lamp. The only reference I can find is, "James Hansen system" steam was raised with coal before the oil system was turned on.Worth a thought!

This may help,

http://causewaycoastalroute.com/hms-caroline-belfast.html

Thanks, Bert, that explains it - it burned coal as a well as oil. My mistake!