Russian shipbuilders begin repairs on UK's museum cruiser Belfast.

LONDON, September 11 (Itar-Tass) -- St. Petersburg's shipbuilders on
Friday began repairs on the veteran participant in Arctic convoys, HMS
Belfast, anchored permanently on the Thames in central London. A group of
eleven Russian specialists will install the mainmast and foremast on this
museum cruiser instead of the original ones, badly damaged by corrosion.
As Itar-Tass has been told at London's Imperial War Museum, which
manages the Belfast, the two new masts, made at St. Petersburg's shipyard
Severnaya Verf were brought to the British capital the day before. To give
passage for the barge with the cargo for the museum cruiser Tower Bridge
had to be drawn.
All installation work is to be completed by October 18, after which
The Belfast will acquire its original look it had in 1939, when it joined
the British Royal Navy.
According to the Imperial War Museum's conservation and facilities
manager, Andy Curran, the amount of work to be done on The Belfast is so
great that if the cruiser were still in service, it would have to be put
in a repair dock.
Strong corrosion of the mainmast and foremast, he said, was spotted
four years ago, but then the restoration project was stalled because of
the high costs (375 thousand dollars). It is anyone's guess how long the
museum would be looking for a sponsor, had it not been for an offer of
assistance from the Russian shipping company Sovcomflot, which, in
cooperation with the Joint Industrial Corporation and Severstal
volunteered to manufacture new masts in a gesture of respect for the
contribution that ship made to the victory over Nazi Germany in WW II.
The Belfast for two years participated in the Arctic convoys
(1941-1945) that delivered military assistance to the USSR in defiance of
continued Nazi air raids and attacks by U-boats. Over the five war years
more than 1,400 merchant ships with military supplies, provided under
Lend-Lease by the United States and the United Kingdom, reached the ports
of Arkhangelsk and Murmansk. For 85 British merchant ships and 16 warships
that route was the last.
For the courage and heroism displayed by the crew of The Belfast in
protecting the convoys, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev as the supreme
commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces last March signed a decree to award
a special presidential diploma to the cruiser. The chief of the
presidential office for state awards, Vladimir Osipov, handed over the
diploma to the ship's director Brad King on board the cruiser.
The Belfast's military service ended in 1964, and in 1970, as the only
surviving participant of Arctic convoys still afloat, it was converted
into a naval museum.