The veteran World War Two cruiser, 'HMS Belfast', is to have her rusting masts replaced courtesy of a former ally she fought to support – Russia.
Now owned by the Imperial War Museum, Belfast has been on permanent display on the River Thames in central London since 1971, however for several years her profile has been marred by unsightly scaffolding surrounding her mainmast. The cause is corrosion, which has affected both the cruiser's steel-lattice masts, and the museum have been involved in trying to raise sufficient funds for repairs
As part of Russia's marking the event the President of the Russian Federation, Dmitry Medvedev, ordered the 'State Jubilee Medal for the 65th Anniversary of Victory in the Great Patriotic War 1941–1945' be awarded to 'Belfast's' surviving crew members. But more significantly for 'Belfast', the Russian shipping company, Sovcomflot, has mobilised several Russian shipyards to work on new steel-lattice masts for the ship. In support of the project, Sovcomflot also invited the classification society, Lloyd's Register, to help in assessing and designing the restoration work.
To aid construction and enable quality control checks to ensure the accurate replication of the new masts, the Lloyd's Register team redrew the original blue prints, which were over 50 years old and in imperial units, and converted the dimensions into metric.
As well as service on the Arctic convoys, 'Belfast' also took part in the sinking of the German battlecruiser, 'Scharnhorst' off the North Cape of Norway in December 1943, and was part of the bombardment force covering the D-Day landings. She also saw service during the Korean War in 1950-53
