HMS Belfast

HMS Belfast is a Town-class light cruiser built for the Royal Navy and now moored on the River Thames in London. She was launched in 1938 and commissioned just before the Second World War began. The ship saw action in the Arctic, at Normandy and in the Far East. After the war she served in the Korean War and was modernised in the 1950s. In 1971 she became a museum ship on the Thames near Tower Bridge. Belfast is one of ten Town-class cruisers and displaced more than ten thousand tonnes when completed. Her main armament was twelve 6-inch guns in four triple turrets, supported by twelve 4-inch guns and sixteen 2-pounder anti-aircraft guns. She carried two Supermarine Walrus seaplanes launched from a catapult aft of the forward funnel. The ship’s armour belt was 4.5 inches thick and her machinery spaces were protected by 2-inch deck armour. Visitors board the ship via a walkway from the Thames embankment. Inside they find the nine 6-inch gun turrets, the operations room with its Admiralty Fire Control Table, and the engine rooms with Parsons steam turbines. The Walrus aircraft hangars and catapult remain visible on the upper deck. From the fo’c’sle the view stretches east along the river towards Tower Bridge and west towards the City of London.