HMS Belfast

HMS Belfast (C35) is an Edinburgh-class light cruiser of the Royal Navy. She served in World War II and is now berthed on the River Thames near Tower Bridge in London serving as a museum ship. The ship is administered by the Imperial War Museum.

Launched in March 1938, Belfast was the largest light cruiser ever built for the Royal Navy, with a displacement of 13,175 tons.

She also served in the Korean War, in which her guns were used for naval bombardment in support of the United Nations forces. In July 1952 she was hit by a Communist battery, killing one and wounding four others.

Between 1959-62 the ship operated in the Far East on exercises and “showing the flag”. In December 1961 she provided the British guard of honour at Dar-es-Salaam during the Tanganyika independence ceremony.

The ship left Singapore on 26 March 1962 for the UK where she made a final visit to Belfast and after an exercise in Mediterranean was paid off on 24 August 1963. Following a campaign led by Rear Admiral Sir Morgan Morgan-Giles DSO OBE CM, a former captain of the ship, she was brought to London to become a museum ship and was first opened to the public on Trafalgar Day, 21 October 1971.