HMS Caroline was very fortunate to survive the Battle of Jutland.
Five hours into the largest naval battle in history to that date – which took place 100 years ago today – Caroline fired two torpedoes at a large German dreadnought, SMS Nassau.
The dreadnought responded with a volley of 11-inch shells which would have sent her and the 289 crew to the bottom of the North Sea. If they had hit their target.
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Unlike 14 other Royal Navy ships which sank that day, with the loss of 6,000 lives during the battle, the Caroline returned to port unscathed.
One hundred years ago to the day, she will be the focus of Irish commemorations for the Battle of Jutland which take place in Belfast.
The ship has been in Belfast for 90 years, since the Northern Ireland government requested a Royal Navy presence in the city, but was nearly lost to the scrapyard in 2011.
It has been battered by storms over the decades and almost came loose from its moorings in 2005.
Intervened
The Royal Navy announced it was going to decommission the ship, but the Northern Ireland Executive and the people of Belfast intervened to save it for the city.
It has since received a £15.4 million (€19 million) refit, mostly with UK National Lottery money, and will open tomorrow as the city’s latest tourism project, a companion attraction to the nearly Titanic Centre.
HMS Caroline is not only the only extant battleship of the 250 that participated in the Battle of Jutland, but it is one of only two left from the first World War, the other being the USS Texas.
"Caroline is a very iconic ship," said National Museum of the Royal Navy chief of staff Captain John Reese, who has been in charge of its refurbishment. "This ship is as important as HMS Victory (the flagship at the Battle of Trafalgar now in Portsmouth).
"This is a world-class heritage asset and the only ship remaining from the Grand [British] and High Seas Fleet [German] of some 250 vessels," says Captain Rees.
“We must not underestimate the value of this ship. It is a matter of pride for us as well as a contribution to local communities that the ship is brought back to life as a museum and visitor attraction.”
Everything has been done to authenticate the refit though 80 per cent of the ship remains as she did at the end of the first World War.
Replica four- and six-inch guns were made locally by Acapple Construction and lowered into place with a 60-tonne crane.
The wheelhouse has been remade from brass alloys as iron would have sent the magnetic compass awry.
Hierarchy
Even the tiling in the crew quarters has been relaid to reflect the hierarchy on the ship: fancy for the fastidious captain
Captain Henry Crooke
who had a different toothbrush for every day of the week, to the plain for the ship’s ratings.
The magnificent engines which powered the ship to an incredible speed of 29 knots are still as they were 100 years ago. Commemorations for the Battle of Jutland will take place in front of HMS Caroline at Alexandra Dock today and will be an all-Ireland affair reflecting the loss of life experienced in every corner of the island 100 years ago.
Some 350 Irish sailors drowned during the Battle of Jutland, two-thirds of them from the South with 132 coming from Co Cork alone.
The Minister of State at the Department of Defence Paul Kehoe will represent the Government and the Irish Naval Service will be present.
Members of Irish Lights, maritime emergency services and families of those who served will gather together to mark a historic day. Naval historian Karen O'Rawe, one of the organisers of the event, said the Jutland commemorations were "a timely reminder that 1916 is not all about the Easter Rising and the Battles of the Somme. The sacrifice of so many men from these shores who fought at sea, the maritime war and the impact of it on our island tends to be overlooked."
