Reply To: HMS Caroline – restoration to 1916 appearance?

[Rob L]

Personally i’m ecstatic at the thought of being able to go on board HMS Caroline in whatever condition, but I agree it would be a shame to not remove the drill hall, and hope at the very least the bridge will be restored to WW1 condition as well as armament placed on her – without armament, even replicas, I wouldn’t have thought she’d be much of a draw for the public. Whilst of course the drill hall is part of her history, it’s also worth remembering that what makes her special, and worthy of preservation, is that she is a First World War Cruiser and the role she played during the war, and not because she was a floating drill hall. Likewise with, say, my personal ‘favourite ship’ HMS Trincomalee, she was restored and presented as an 1817 frigate, not as a training vessel which she spent more time as and enabled her to be preserved in the first place