Last Floating Survivor of Jutland

[Hinchinbrooke]

Current State of the HMS Caroline (http://www.bobhenneman.info/caroline.htm)

Seems in pretty good nick too, despite missing some bits and pieces. Remarkable how some of these old girls survive.

[bill44]

Nice, though why remove her armament, visually much more appealing for a warship.

[HMSWarspite]

Nice, though why remove her armament, visually much more appealing for a warship.

Almost always done for these depot and 'barracks' ships (more space etc). It will make any future resortation much harder. We ought to watch this over th years, for what was the greatest Navy on earth for over 200 years, we have a remarkably small amount of it left (Mary Rose, Victory, Tincomalee, Warrior, Belfast, and a some others at Birkenhead and Chatham). Probably less than a dozen major vessels? The merchant navy is even worse (especially with Cutty Sark's damage recently)

[Blackcloud6]

She serves at the headquarters, depot, and training ship for the Ulster Division Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve (RNVR) unit, with 130 reservists meeting each week on board.

I think it is cool that she still is in service.

[mbv]

Never realised that one survived, quite amazing preservation on the hull and upper works.

Another lucky WWI survivor, although not of Jutland vintage, is HMS Saxifrage (now HMS President) an Anchusa Class Sloop built in 1918 originally for use as a Q-ship on convoy escort duty. She is now used as a floating conference and function venue on the Thames in London. Unfortunately a sister ship, HMS Chrysanthemum, which was also moored on the Thames was broken up as recently as 1995

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v94/markwalters/Misc%20Warships/HMSSaxifrage.jpg

[Zakalwe]

In the 70ies Turkey offered us to give "Goeben" back. Unfortunatly the offer was refused and the ship scrapped.

Z.

[Rhetor]

In the 70ies Turkey offered us to give "Goeben" back. Unfortunatly the offer was refused and the ship scrapped.

Z.

Too bad. That would have been a major tourist attraction. Can anyone visit a battleship in Europe? In the US there are plenty of them.
I guess that in 1970s Germany was in no mood to preserve a piece from "militaristic" past. Even today in all German universities there is only one chair for military history, and even this one if I remember correctly has been "inherited" from the "DDR".

We have had a discussion about her even before the release of Distant Guns. IIRC, the "Goeben" has been scrapped in West Germany. Are there any photographs of the ship being towed to her fate?

[Bullethead]

USS Texas is still afloat in San Jacinto, Texas (just east of Houston). She wasn't at Jutland but was afloat at the time and later patrolled the North Sea as part of 6BS, the US squadron attached to the GF. Although preserved in a WW2 condition, there's no mistaking her "super dreadnought" design. AFAIK, she's the only capital ship of this era still above water.

Most of the German Konig-class BBs still exist, but they're all belly-up on the bottom of Scapa Flow. According to The Naval Wrecks of Scapa Flow, you can still see one of their midships turrets, which make those the only visible big guns that fired at Jutland (some smaller guns are in museums).

Royal Oak, another Jutland veteran, still lies not far away, but you can't dive on that wreck because she's a War Grave. Same goes with other Jutland vets Vanguard, also inside Scapa Flow, and Hampshire, off the NW coast of Mainland, Orkney. The ships actually sunk at Jutland still lie where they fell, of course.

I haven't dived in Scapa Flow, but I did go out on an ROV-equipped boat and take a look at some of the wrecks. There are a couple of German CLs that are on their sides and not badly broken up by salvers, which were cool to look at :).

[Ozgur Budak]

Here is a sad story about a minesweeper. Nusrat was the Turkish ship that laid mines that sank Bouvet and Ocean during the Dardanelles Naval Battle in 1915. After the war the ship undergone heavy modifications and became a cargo ship. It is really hard to believe this ship today is the old Nusrat that destroyed two battleships that day. Ironic thing is while the original Nusrat is rusting there is a shiny model in the Dardanelles Museum.

Original Nusrat
http://www.nusratcalismagrubu.org/yasiyor/nusret.jpg

Nusrat as cargo ship
http://www.nusratcalismagrubu.org/yasiyor/nusret2.jpg

Nusrat rusting in Mersin Harbor :(
http://www.milliyet.com.tr/2007/04/09/yasam/resim/ayas.jpg

[Bullethead]

Here is a sad story about a minesweeper. Nusrat was the Turkish ship that laid mines that sank Bouvet and Ocean during the Dardanelles Naval Battle in 1915. After the war the ship undergone heavy modifications and became a cargo ship. It is really hard to believe this ship today is the old Nusrat that destroyed two battleships that day. Ironic thing is while the original Nusrat is rusting there is a shiny model in the Dardanelles Museum.

I thought she got 3 BBs that day. IIRC, the 3rd victim was Irresistible. But 2 or 3, still quite an achievement for what was basically just a tugboat before the war. Salute! :salute:

I agree, it's hard to believe today's rusting hulk is the same ship. The original and current configurations look so different. But OTOH, it's quite possible. In Galveston, Texas, there's the 1890s-vintage, 3-masted, iron-hulled, sailing barque Elissa. Today, she looks as she did when built and moves under sail at various "Tall Ships" events and other special occasions. However, this is the result of major restoration efforts. For most of the 20th Century she was owned by Greeks and was modified into a diesel tramp merchant. In that guise, she looked almost exactly like today's version of Nusrat. This general look seems to have been a rather standard design in the Med at that time, into which many old ships of various types were modified.

[Ozgur Budak]

I thought she got 3 BBs that day. IIRC, the 3rd victim was Irresistible. But 2 or 3, still quite an achievement for what was basically just a tugboat before the war. Salute!

All three battleships were maneuvering into the Erenkoy Bay to shift places with the 2nd fleet when they hit the mines Nusrat secrectly laid longitudinally. The real reason that caused the loss of the Irresistable is still in dispute since she had heavy damage from shore batteries too. But in any case Nusrat's mines were the last nails into her coffin.

[Bullethead]

All three battleships were maneuvering into the Erenkoy Bay to shift places with the 2nd fleet when they hit the mines Nusrat secrectly laid longitudinally. The real reason that caused the loss of the Irresistable is still in dispute since she had heavy damage from shore batteries too. But in any case Nusrat's mines were the last nails into her coffin.

Anyway, it was still a very good day's work for Nusrat. I can't think of any other ship in the age of steam that wiped out 3 enemy BBs. Not to mention all the other victims her mines caused on other occasions. And the BBs and minesweepers lost to her mines demoralized the Brit naval command, making them cease the attack and try to take the forts with a land campaign that proved to be both costly and unsuccessful.

Therefore, IMHO Nusrat has got to be the best investment any navy has ever made, in terms of ship cost vs. amount of damage inflicted (direct and indirect). I'm glad to hear she's still afloat. I hope she gets the respect she's due and eventually is restored to her original form and preserved as a museum.

[Ozgur Budak]

Nusrat's contribution was even more than sinking 3 BBs that day. The mines she laid also heavily damaged Inflexible, Gaulois and Suffren forcing them to retire from the battlefield. Naval command's decision of laying mines longitudinally cross the Allied fleet's turning radius was very clever too. They cleaned the mine belts that laid laterally but completely surprised with Nusrat's mines.
A nice picture of the tiny giant:
http://www.gallipolidigger.com/2004.site/002j.gel.sav.nusret/nus.009.jpg