To be honest I found this to be more interesting than the Titanic.
HMS Caroline is a decommissioned C-class light cruiser of the Royal Navy that saw combat service in the First World War and served as an administrative centre in the Second World War. Caroline was launched and commissioned in 1914. At the time of her decommissioning in 2011 she was the second-oldest ship in Royal Navy service, after HMS Victory. She served as a static headquarters and training ship for the Royal Naval Reserve, based in Alexandra Dock, Belfast, Northern Ireland, for the later stages of her career. She was converted into a museum ship. From October 2016 she underwent inspection and repairs to her hull at Harland and Wolff and opened to the public on 1 July 2017 at Alexandra Dock in the Titanic Quarter in Belfast.
Caroline was the last remaining British First World War light cruiser in service, and she is the last survivor of the Battle of Jutland still afloat. She is also one of only three surviving Royal Navy warships of the First World War, along with the 1915 monitor HMS M33 (in Portsmouth dockyard), and the Flower-class sloop HMS President, (formerly HMS Saxifrage) usually moored on the Thames at Blackfriars but as from February 2016, in Number 3 Basin, Chatham.
Caroline is listed as part of the National Historic Fleet. On her decommissioning, she was placed into the care of the National Museum of the Royal Navy at Portsmouth, though remaining moored in her position in Alexandra Dock in Belfast. Although no longer capable of making way under her own power, Caroline remains afloat and in excellent condition. Buffeting from waves and high winds have caused the ship to almost come away from her moorings several times. In 2005, during a storm, she ripped several huge bollards out of the jetty concrete, but failed to break free entirely. She was not normally open to tourists, although entrance was gained during the annual RMS Titanic celebrations.
Upon Caroline’s decommissioning in 2011, her future was uncertain. Proposals were made to return the ship to her First World War appearance, which among other things would have involved sourcing and installing 6-inch (152.4 mm) and 4-inch (102 mm) guns of that era and removing the large deckhouse from her midships deck. One proposal considered was to remain in Belfast as a museum ship within the Titanic Quarter development alongside SS Nomadic. Another was a move to Portsmouth, with many of her original fittings restored to return her as much as possible to her First World War appearance.
In June 2012 plans to move Caroline to Portsmouth were announced, subject to the availability of funding. However, in October 2012 the Northern Ireland government announced that the ship would remain in Belfast and that the National Heritage Memorial Fund had pledged £1,000,000 to help to restore her. In May 2013 the Heritage Lottery Fund announced an £845,600 grant to support conversion work as a museum.
In October 2014, the Heritage Lottery Fund announced a £12 million lottery funding boost to enable the National Museum of the Royal Navy to turn Caroline into a visitor attraction in time for centenary commemorations of the 1916 Battle of Jutland. Caroline remains moored in the Alexandra Dock in the Titanic Quarter in Belfast.
In June 2016, HMS Caroline was opened to the public as a museum ship and forms part of the National Museum of the Royal Navy
THE CELTIC ISLE TUG BOAT AT ANDERSON QUAY LAPP’S ISLAND CORK PORT
CELTIC ISLE (IMO: 8514693) is a Tug that was built in 1986 and is sailing under the flag of Ireland. Its carrying capacity is 386 t DWT and her current draught is reported to be 5.2 meters. Her length overall (LOA) is 34.19 meters and her width is 10.8 meters.
Lapp’s Island was once an island in the River Lee. It is now joined with the island which forms the center of Cork City, and refers to the eastern tip of that island. The island had probably been reclaimed from swamp.
In the 18th century it was separated from the main island by a canal which roughly followed what is now Parnell Place. It was fully joined to the main island by 1832.
Custom’s House, at the eastern extremity of the island, sits on what was called the tongue of Lapps’s Island, and the modern Lapp’s Quay sits on the southern shore of Lapp’s island.
John Anderson (1747–1820) was a Scottish businessman and entrepreneur. He was a commercial agent in New York and later a business owner in Cork. His business played a pivotal role in creating infrastructure that connected Dublin to Cork. Anderson purchased land in Fermoy that was later used as a military complex.
Anderson was born into a poor family at Portland near Dumfries, Scotland and moved to Glasgow in 1784. He later settled in Cork City, at that time the major provisioning centre on the Atlantic Coast. During the American wars he earned considerable sums as a commercial agent in New York, and made extensive land purchases in the Cork area.
His Cork enterprise was based at Lapp’s Island, and his business acumen was recognised as he grew rapidly in fortune and was appointed to the city’s committee of merchants. He was made a Freeman of the city in 1787. Among his business interests was a malting and warehouse complex at Ballinacurra on Cork Harbour in partnership with John Lapp, in the 1780s. In common with many Cork merchants he was in favour of union with Great Britain in 1800. Anderson’s Quay in Cork is called after him. He married a Miss Semple and had two daughters and two sons, one of whom, James Caleb Anderson (1782–1861), was a noted experimenter with steam-driven road vehicles.
His fortunes suffered a series of reversals with the fall in the value of land after the Napoleonic Wars, and he lost over £30,000 in a Welsh mining venture. He had been conducting banking business and with the economic downturn his bank collapsed in 1816.
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