From Flagship to Flower Ship
Lagan Legacy’s barge, MV Confiance will be hosting three exhibitions during the Belfast Maritime Festival.
CELEBRATE THE ANNUAL
BELFAST MARITIME FESTIVAL
with THREE EXHIBITIONS
ON THE MV CONFIANCE.
Sat 28th and Sun 29th June 2008.
While wandering through Connswater Shopping Centre off Belfast’s Newtownards Road wondering if I’d need a mortgage to buy a loaf of bread my heart was unexpectedly warmed. In the centre’s wonderfully named “Mr.Pickwick’s” restaurant I saw a large mural, and on it a painting of HMS Bryony.
HMS Bryony. Photo courtesy Flower Class Corvette and WWII Royal Navy Forums
In a city virtually bereft of monuments to its maritime heritage, excepting Titanic, this was a breath of fresh air; very timely too, because this weekend is the city’s annual Maritime Festival, and Bryony is part of it.
She was one of 34 Lagan built WWII corvettes, a small part of the Belfast’s unmatched but generally ignored nautical history.All paths will lead to the river today 28th June and tomorrow Sunday 29th for the Festival, with its spectacular fleet of about 10 tall ships moored on the Lagan, boat tours, bus tours and all sorts of stalls and exhibitions. There’s a BBC circus, a continental market, seafood festival and much more. For further information contact the Belfast Welcome Centre on 028 9024 6609 or go to www.belfastcity.gov.uk/events.
Part of the Flowerclass Exhibition on MV Confiance.
The story of HMS Bryony and her 33 sister corvettes is the subject of an exhibition on Lagan Legacy’s big barge MV Confiance moored beside the Waterfront Hall. The plucky little warships, each named after a flower, were ordered from Harland and Wolff by Winston Churchill himself and were a prominent part of the Allied navy’s fleet of Flower Class Corvettes. The first eight vessels were laid down from April 1940 in batches of four and the rest in pairs. On average, one Belfast Corvette was completed every fortnight!
During the war ten enemy submarines were sunk, destroyed, or captured with the participation of Belfast built Flowers; tens of thousands of lives were saved as they defended the Allied convoys against attack and destruction.
Bryony K192 on the River Dart in 1947 with HMS Saxifrage
Photo courtesy Flower Class Corvette and WWII Royal Navy Forums
Bryony herself was launched on the 15th March 1941, at the time the German Luftwaffe were bombing Great Britain and Northern Ireland. The Belfast shipyard was hit and Bryony was sunk, then refloated, repaired and updated. Part of Titanic’s 'tragic magic' was her sinking during her maiden voyage. But two other Belfast vessels went down on their maiden voyages, SS Brecknockshire sank off Rio in 1917 and the Magdalena, grounded on rocks and sank, also off Rio in April 1949. Bryony outdid them all, as she sank before her maiden voyage. Her Latin motto was “Quid Habeo Idem Teneo” meaning “What I have, the same I hold.”
MV Confiance will be hosting three exhibitions during the Maritime Festival – the Flower Class Corvettes, “The Yard”, photographs of old Harland and Wolff, and a third by Sailortown’s Shared History Interpretive Project with old images of the Belfast docks and dockers. Open free to the public from 11am to 5pm today, Saturday 28th of June and Sunday 29th.