Historic warship HMS Belfast receives award

HMS Belfast, the world’s last surviving armoured warship, has been honoured with the 60th Engineering Heritage Award by the Institute of Mechanical Engineers. The award is only granted to artefacts, sites and landmarks that are one of a kind or of engineering importance. The vessel dates from 1939 and is the world’s only surviving armoured warship. It was saved from being scrapped by Rear Admiral, Sir Morgan Giles in 1971, when he managed to persuaded the Government to preserve the warship as a museum rather than selling it off as scrap iron. Today, millions of people worldwide continue to admire the iconic ship docked near to Tooley Street, London.

“HMS Belfast has enjoyed an eventful engineering and historical life,” said the Institue’s Deputy President Isobel Pollock. “These awards showcase not just the engineering, but how the engineers themselves and the people they worked with all played a huge part.”