HMS Caroline (1914)
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HMS Caroline is a C-class light cruiser of the British Royal Navy (RN). She is the second-oldest ship in RN service – the oldest being HMS Victory – and acts as a static headquarters and training ship for the Royal Naval Reserve (RNR), based in Alexandra Dock, Belfast, Northern Ireland.
Caroline was built by Cammell Laird of Birkenhead, launched in 1914 and commissioned on 4 December.
She served in the North Sea throughout the First World War. Caroline spent much of the war serving with the 4th Light Cruiser Squadron. As part of the squadron, Caroline fought in the Battle of Jutland in 1916 under the command of Captain H. R. Crooke.
She later served on the East Indies Station before being placed in Reserve and converted to a headquarters and training ship for the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve's (RNVR) Ulster Division in 1924.
Caroline — the last afloat training establishment in the RNR — is expected to be decommissioned by 2011. The Royal Navy intends to replace her by an onshore training establishment (commonly known as a stone frigate). When she is decommissioned, Caroline could possibly be moved to Portsmouth as a museum ship.
The ship is the last remaining British WWI light cruiser in service and the last survivor of the Battle of Jutland still afloat.
HMS Caroline is also the third oldest commissioned warship in the world — the oldest again being HMS Victory — and the second oldest commissioned warship afloat, as Victory has been in drydock since 1922. She set the record which she still holds of having the fastest build time of any significant warship - nine months from her keel being laid till her launch. Her Parsons steam turbines are the last surviving examples of the kind introduced after the notable event of Parson's Turbinia cutting up the fleet at the Spithead review in 1897. Harland & Wolff of Belfast removed her weaponry and boilers on arrival in Belfast circa 1924.
Although sadly no longer capable of making way under her own steam she is still afloat and in excellent condition. A number of years ago, buffeted by a manouevering hydrofoil ferry she tore out her moorings and left her quay before some auxiliary moorings arrested her bid for freedom. She does still try to escape during particularly high winds; in 2005, during a storm, she rippped several huge bollards out of the jetty concrete but failed to break free entirely.
Entrance can be gained every year during Titanic celebrations on application to the Belfast City Council tourist office.
[edit] References
- Royal Navy - HMS Caroline
- Jane's Fighting Ships for 1919 - Caroline-class (webarchive)
- Warships1.com - Caroline-class (webarchive)
| C-class cruisers |
| Caroline group | Caroline | Carysfort | Cleopatra | Comus | Conquest | Cordelia |
| Calliope group | Calliope | Champion |
| Cambrian group | Cambrian | Canterbury | Castor | Constance |
| Centaur group | Centaur | Concord |
| Caledon group | Caledon | Calypso | Cassandra | Caradoc |
| Ceres group | Cardiff | Ceres | Coventry | Curacoa | Curlew |
| Carlisle group | Cairo | Calcutta | Capetown | Carlisle | Colombo |
List of cruisers of the Royal Navy |
