HMS BELFAST: THE SLEEPING 'KRAKEN' OF THE LONDON CITADEL

Occasion: A day visit to Central London from Coventry somewhere before Autumn 2016. We noticed a massive battleship moored by the Thames River near the Bank side.

It was one fine afternoon when me and my wife decided to take a day break and go for this one up, close and personal tour in Central London after residing in the United Kingdom for almost four years but never really visit one of the most iconic landmarks in the world today which is the London Bridge.

After arriving in London Euston Station from Coventry on the London Midlands service for nearly two hours, we took the London Underground Tube straight to London Bridge Underground station. Once we took the never-ending stairs and escalators up to the ground and finally see the sunlight, we saw it. Yes, ‘it’ is that bridge that always got their scene in any of 'end of the world' Hollywood film where the bridge would be torn in half or just completely destructed, but it was not that bridge that got my eyes hooked.

As I panned my view from the London Bridge all along the bank side walkaway by the beautiful and wide Thames River all the way to the Tower Bridge and saw this one massive armoured battleship clad in dark grey and light grey kind of like camouflage, completes with long calibre guns at least ten of them on the front deck pointing up to the sky with the Royal Navy Crest nicely painted on the left side of the ship's portside. After minutes of trying to locate the ship’s name print, I happened to find out that the ship is the British legendary naval light cruiser called the HMS Belfast.

The nearest spot I could get to shoot this photo to capture the whole front view of the enormous HMS Belfast by the Thames River. Photo is from my personal collection. All copyrights reserved.

To be honest, all my life including the era of Internet where they say everything is at the tip of your finger, I've never been told or heard about the existence of this ship as one of London's popular tourist attraction in Central London. I mean, you really can't miss the sight of this ship once you set your eyes on this river due to its size. The thing that questioned me is that why Central London? Among all these docks located throughout Britain, the ship this size is moored by the Thames River and just a couple of hundred metres from the London’s Tower Bridge which was clearly unnoticeable every time I saw the same bridge on a postcard in any souvenir shop in London and not even in the last Bond film, Spectre during this one night time action scene near the Tower Bridge.

Was it placed here as the final stand of London against any outside naval or aerial attack from other parts of the world because of what the Germans did during the Second World War when London City was bombed with a surprise attack by squadrons of incredible German propelled fighter and bomber planes which eventually lead to the great Winston Churchill to gain the trust of the Allied nations and launched a never-ending battle to end the war on the Germans?

A much better view. Photo is from my personal collection. All copyrights reserved.

As far as I could remember, the closest I could get to view our very own Royal Malaysian Navy battleship was near Lumut in the state of Perak, the west coast of the Malaysian peninsula where a battleship normally docks which is by the seaside. But this is well expected as the Royal Malaysian Navy Fleet Headquarters itself is in Lumut and not like HMS Belfast as the British Royal Navy HQ is not located by the Thames River near Central London. Well, not in my knowledge.

The left flank view of HMS Belfast during sunset with the iconic London Tower Bridge at the rear. Photo is from my personal collection. All copyrights reserved.

Well that was my thought until I came to know that HMS Belfast was no longer in service and permanently moored onto the River of Thames since it’s officially launched by the Royal Navy for its first mission during the Second World War to support the Normandy landings around 1944 and the Korean War circa 1950's which shows what it capable of doing. It was badly damaged during the wars and repaired time and again, but it never sank. And that is kind of impressive for a ship’s resume. For me I would rather call the ship ‘The Sleeping Kraken’ as if Kraken the giant mythical octopus that is capable swallowing a pirate ship in the middle of the sea due to its greyish mysterious paint , the multiple long calibre guns that look like it's tentacles and the length of at least ten London Double Decker Bus lined up altogether in front of the King’s Cross Bus Station. Maybe one day this Kraken will wake up and make its way to the ocean again to find another battleship to sank, until that day arrive, I’m going to end this with a poem titled, ‘The Kraken’* by a well-loved Victorian poet, Alfred Lord Tennyson;

Below the thunders of the upper deep,
Far, far beneath in the abysmal sea,
His ancient, dreamless, uninvaded sleep
The Kraken sleepeth: faintest sunlights flee
About his shadowy sides; above him swell
Huge sponges of millennial growth and height;
And far away into the sickly light,
From many a wondrous grot and secret cell
Unnumbered and enormous polypi
Winnow with giant arms the slumbering green.
There hath he lain for ages, and will lie
Battening upon huge sea worms in his sleep,
Until the latter fire shall heat the deep;
Then once by man and angels to be seen,
In roaring he shall rise and on the surface die.

*The Kraken poem, is copied from https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/kraken