There have been 15 ships of the
Royal Navy called HMS Tiger, the first being in 1546 in the
reign of King Henry 8th the year before he died. The ship in
the photograph was laid down in 1941 in the John Brown
shipyard, Clydebank in Scotland, and as part of the Minotaur
class of light cruisers and was originally called HMS
Bellerophon.
There were
three ships built at this time, namely HMS’s Tiger, Lion and
Blake, all 550ft in length with a beam of 64ft, and weighing
in at 12080 tons deep load. She had at that time 4 x QF 6 inch
Mk N5 guns and 6 x 3 inch guns.
On
completion in 1945, HMS Bellerophon was renamed HMS Tiger. She
was actually laid up in 1946 and in 1954 she was
recommissioned as a Tiger class guided missile cruiser. A
helicopter deck was added to the rear between 1968-1972.
HMS Tiger
took part in the Indonesian Troubles in the beginning of the
1960’s and also took part in talks between Harold Wilson and
Rhodesia’s Ian Smith. She was put on the disposal list in 1979
and was finally scrapped in Spain in 1986.
This print
is the first in a new series of recolours by Ceegie, who has
two books available on Blurb:
Escort of Convoy PQ17 and
British Ship of WW2 |
