Peace Time

Between 1959 and 1962 HMS Belfast completed her final two commissions. She sailed for the Far East and spent her time away from home performing the usual duties of Her Majesty’s Ships abroad in peacetime – carrying out exercises and visiting different countries along the way.

Her final commissions took the sailors to places far and wide, such as Singapore, Australia and San Francisco. In December 1961 HMS Belfast was in Dar-es-Salaam where her sailors had the honour of providing the guard for the final hauling down of the Union flag and the hoisting of the Tanzanian flag as Tanganyika was granted independence.

Events such as these were written about in the ship’s Commission Book. The Commission Books were an informal diary of the ship’s journey kept by the sailors and contained photos, cartoons, anecdotes and interesting bits of trivia about the ship’s travels.

This section includes:

• Extract from the commission books for 1959-1962
• Clip of film shot on board the ship during this time showing mail being delivered to the ship while at sea.
• Extracts from the Crossing the Line ceremony, traditionally carried out when sailors cross the Equator for the first time, as well as a sailor’s memories of this and a photo