Once upon a time, on a dark and stormy night in the North Sea – so long ago there were no wind farms or oil rigs – a funny looking boat bobbed around.
It was an old Danish passenger ferry, the Fredericia, that had been converted to a radio ship at Greenore in Ireland. It first started broadcasting in March 1964 by which time it had been renamed MV Caroline. So Radio Caroline began as a pirate radio station filled with DJs, records and duty free booze – sometimes this mixture meant they couldn’t tell their A side from their B side. Somewhat surprisingly it is still on air today. The station was called after President Kennedy’s daughter, Caroline.
It could have been called after HMS Caroline which saw active service in those same North Sea waters in the First World War. The Battle of Jutland was the largest and the last naval battle in that war. The outcome was that the German Navy’s High Seas Fleet was bottled-up in the Baltic for the remainder of the war but this British victory came at a high cost.
| Casualties and losses | |
|---|---|
| Britain
6,094 killed |
Germany
2,551 killed |
HMS Caroline is a light cruiser sent into the battle on its second day, 1st June 1916. It survived the action and remained in service until 2011. On 1st June it re-opens as a floating museum in Belfast; part of the redevelopment of the shipyards as a tourist destination, the Titanic Quarter. I found this out from a post by veteran Ulster blogologist, Lord Belmont in Northern Ireland.
This Neil Diamond number is dedicated to two more Carolines: a cousin and a niece.
Jutland was certainly the largest naval battle of the war but not the last. The last big ship action took place on 17th November 1917 at Heligoland Bight where British battle cruiser and light cruiser squadrons engaged with German minesweepers and destroyers. Unfortunately the action was not a great success from the British point of view as the German ships beat a hasty retreat and the pursuit had to be called off.
I’m looking forward to visiting HMS Caroline very soon. I’ll take a camera and write an article about it.