I'm back home after a cruise around the British Isles conducting "Lighthouse Research". In Invergordon, I managed to see the inside of the Museum It was my sixth attempt to see the exhibits there, equalling the number of visits made to Visby before successfully landing last year. I had hoped to settle once and for all where HMS Natal was moored when she exploded and sank but the consensus of locals seems to be that she was nearer to the Admiralty Pier than to the Black Isle. I guess that the reason that she was partially salvaged in the early 1920s would indicate that the wreck might have restricted access to the pier for large warships but if anyone knows exactly where she sank, please get in touch with me.
I have taken a number of photographs of the shoreline to make a panoramic background for the fleet anchorage or the oil rigs.
Then we went to Belfast and I caught a glimpse of HMS Caroline through the gaps in the new flats and could see that she is being restored to her 1916 condition. It is ironic to think that the reason she survived to be preserved was that she had the most unreliable steam turbines of ships in her class and was laid up not long after the end of WW1. A Coastlines master model for HMS Caroline is with with Dave B. for moulding...
After Belfast we went to Killibegs, Galway and into Bantry Bay for a visit to Whiddy Island, which was the Naval Base for the US Navy in WW1. Previously, it had been a Royal Navy base and a number of RN Destroyers plus airships and seaplanes were based there before the US Navy arrived. The RN Destroyers remained, supplemented by a dozen "Four Stackers" (including some with only 3 funnels eg. USS Craven which Navis called one of their 4 funnel models but later this model was re-named USS Schley!!!). The US Navy designed a new seaplane to replace the RNAS aircraft in July 1918. The US Navy also sent 3 battleships here to protect Ireland against invasion. (Who they feared might invade in 1917/18, I wouldn't like to say). Perhaps, the crews on USS Utah and USS Oaklahoma forgot to wish the little folk the time of Day? Perhaps Nevada's crew knew better but the ship herself must have offended to be painted orange as the aiming point for Test Baker? Anyone know if the Bomb Aimer on the plane was of Irish decent? None of these battleships survived to be scrapped.
Last stop was at Cobh. I bought a new, full hull model of Titanic in 1/1200 scale. This one had an all metal hull with raised portholes but plastic weather-deck and supersructure. Maybe its a 1/200 scale model of a ship for Little Folk?