Curator Dr Alan Scarth and Ellie Moffat
THE bell of the vessel known as “Liverpool’s own battleship” went back on display at the Maritime Museum yesterday, just in time to mark the anniversary of its sinking.
The HMS Prince of Wales was sunk by the Japanese on December 10, 1941, just weeks after its official adoption by the city of Liverpool.
The bell – on a rare 10-year loan from the Royal Navy, which regards it as the soul of a ship – has been on a two-year goodwill trip around the Far East.
The Prince of Wales was built at Cammell Laird and paid for by the people of Liverpool, who raised the full building cost of £10m – £280m today.
Dr Alan Scarth, of the Maritime Museum, said getting such an item on loan from the Navy was very rare.
He said: “A lot of surviving crew members were very keen on the bell coming to Merseyside because it was built here and a lot of crew members were from here.
“It was of such importance as a ship, and this bell is a very emotive item in the history of the Royal Navy.”
