The Type 21 frigate and veteran of the Falklands War, PNS Tariq (ex-HMS Ambuscade) is expected to return to her birthplace on the Clyde sometime next year, to become a ship museum. HMS Ambuscade was built by Yarrow Shipbuilders on the Clyde 1n 1973 and served with...
A new display of ‘Jolly Roger’ flags flown by Royal Navy submarines is launched today (27/03/2024) at The Royal Navy Submarine Museum, Gosport. It will expand the museum’s previous collection of Jolly Rogers by including the earliest known surviving example and the museum’s newest acquisition, a Jolly...
A piece of wreckage, thought to be from HMS Campbeltown was discovered in 2020 on the seabed and is now awaiting a new home. Other Saint-Nazaire Posts Operation Chariot Battlefield Trail in Saint-Nazaire Saint-Nazaire Mystery Wreckage Submarine Espadon – Museum Ship EOL Centre éolien – Learning Centre...
On 28 March 1942, the Royal Navy and British Commandos attacked the docks at Saint-Nazaire in what became known as ‘The Greatest Raid of All’. The targets of the amphibious assault, Operation Chariot, and the key locations of the onshore skirmishes are still there, and Saint-Nazaire Tourisme...
The answer is NO, but what’s interesting is that if she had made her ill-fated breakout into the Atlantic a year later, she might have been. By then, if the same ships had intercepted her they would have been carrying red (HMS Rodney) and yellow (HMS King...
“Do many English people know where Nelson lost his arm?” asked my guide, Darío. My kneejerk response was almost ‘Of course! Everyone knows it was here on Tenerife!’ But then it occurred to me… actually, hardly anyone knows it was at the battle of Santa Cruz de...
The Wildcat is an amazing aircraft that filled a much needed gap in the U.S. and Allied navies’ arsenal at the start of WWII. Descriptions of it, by pilots and historians often use words like “pugnacious”, “heroic” and “rugged”, which it certainly was, but they all recognise...
The HMS Victory conservation project has reached a major milestone with the completion of her new support system. As I wrote 18 months ago (Review: HMS Victory. Take a look, there’s a good explanatory video), the National Museum of the Royal Navy (NMRN) and BAE Systems have...
Long overdue, the National Museum of the Royal Navy (NMRN) and Mary Rose are collaborating on ticketing. It was always ludicrous that a visit to the Historic Dockyard in Portsmouth meant dealing with two separate ticketing systems. Ludicrous but understandable. The two organisations that share the Historic...
I came across this little ‘factoid’ in the National Museum of the Royal Navy’s in-house magazine, Scuttlebutt, which was a fascinating publication until they stopped publishing it! It’s one of those ‘unknown unknowns’ as Donald Rumsfeld would say. I didn’t know that I didn’t know it… until...
I’ve saved the best for last, in the Portsmouth/Gosport museum reviews. The Explosion! Museum of Naval Firepower may be the least well-known of the National Museum of the Royal Navy sites, but I think it’s the most interesting. Or, put another way, it’s the one I would...
The Royal Navy Submarine Museum is one of the two satellite sites of the National Museum of the Royal Navy (NMRN) on the other side of Portsmouth harbour. For that reason, it maybe doesn’t get as much attention as the ships and other museum attractions in the...
The operational history of HMS Warrior 1860¹, the world’s first iron-hulled, armoured warship was both dull and brief, and that’s what makes her so interesting, because when launched she was, without question, the most powerful warship afloat. So how come she never distinguished herself in action? Well,...
HMS M33 is the smallest of the National Museum of the Royal Navy (NMRN)’s museum ships and you’ll find her in her dry dock next to HMS Victory. She is significant because she is the last remaining ship from the Gallipoli campaign in WW1. History HMS M33...
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