• HMS Hood bell unveiled on 75th anniversary of sinking
• HRH The Princess Royal strikes eight bells at midday
• Official opening of Battle of Jutland exhibition gives first sight of conserved bell from “The Mighty Hood”
Nine months after its retrieval from the murky depths of the Denmark Straits, the bell from HMS Hood was unveiled today by HRH The Princess Royal during a commemorative service to mark the 75th anniversary of the sinking of the ship. Hood was the largest Royal Navy vessel to have been sunk, causing the biggest loss of life suffered by any single British warship.
Princess Anne struck eight bells at midday at a ceremony at The National Museum of the Royal Navy, Portsmouth Historic Dockyard as descendants of some of the 1,415 sailors who lost their lives when the ship was hit by Bismarck on 24 May, 1941 looked on. Only three of Hood’s crew survived and it was the expressed wish of one of them, Ted Briggs, to recover the ship’s bell as a memorial to his shipmates.
Following the unveiling, the bell was carried by a Royal Navy guard to Boathouse 5 for the official opening by Princess Anne of the exhibition 36 Hours: Jutland 1916, The Battle That Won The War which marks the centenary of the Battle of Jutland. Lady Hood launched Hood in 1918 in memory of her late husband Rear Admiral Sir Horace Hood KCB DSO MVO who was killed in his ship, HMS Invincible, at the Battle of Jutland, fought one hundred years ago on 31 May. An inscription on the side of the bell reads: “In accordance with the wishes of Lady Hood it was presented in memory of her husband to HMS “Hood” battlecruiser which ship she launched on 22nd August 1918”
The bell’s retrieval from one and a half miles below the surface was led by a team assembled by US philanthropist and entrepreneur, Microsoft co-founder Paul G. Allen and included Blue Water Recoveries. The expedition was launched from Allen’s his yacht M/Y Octopus, equipped with a state-of-the-art Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) that was adapted to safely retrieve the bell.
At the time of the recovery, the President of The Hood Association, Rear Admiral Philip Wilcocks, whose uncle died on board said:
“There is no headstone among the flowers for those who perish at sea. For the 1,415 officers and men who lost their lives in HMS Hood on 24 May 1941, the recovery of her bell and its subsequent place of honour in The National Museum of the Royal Navy in Portsmouth will mean that future generations will be able to gaze upon her bell and remember with gratitude and thanks the heroism, courage and personal sacrifice of Hood’s ship’s company who died in the service of their country.”
Professor Dominic Tweddle, Director General of The National Museum of the Royal Navy received the bell formally from Navy Secretary, Rear Admiral Simon Williams and said:
“HMS Hood’s bell provides an extraordinary and moving link between the sacrifice of the Royal Navy in 1916 at Jutland and those made by a new generation of sailors in the Second World War. The bell was presented to the Royal Navy’s newest battlecruiser when she was launched in 1918, by the widow of Rear Admiral Sir Horace Hood, great-great grandson of Sir Samuel Hood after whom the ship was named. Sir Horace died at the Battle of Jutland on 31 May 1916, one of 1,026 officers and men who died in seconds when HMS Invincible blew up and sank, and the bell is inscribed to that effect. HMS Hood was, of course, subsequently destroyed in very similar circumstances by the German battleship Bismarck at the Battle of the Denmark Strait on 24 May 1941, with the loss of 1,415 men. The bell is a memorial to two battles, separated by 25 years but joined by centuries of tradition and sacrifice.”
36 Hours: Jutland 1916, The Battle That Won The War is open for three years. Details on visiting are available on www.jutland.org.uk
