HMS Hood bell to appear in exhibition after restoration
- Published
The HMS Hood bell will spend a year being restored before it goes on display
The bell from a sunken World War Two battle-cruiser salvaged from the seabed will go on display after months of restoration work.
HMS Hood was sunk by the Bismarck on 24 May 1941 with the loss of 1,415 lives and only three survivors.
The ship's bell will go on display in May at the National Museum of the Royal Navy in Portsmouth.
It forms part of an exhibition commemorating the biggest naval battle in World War One.
'Extraordinary'
The bell was recovered from the bottom of the Denmark Strait, between Greenland and Iceland, in August.
It bears an inscription in memory of Rear-Admiral Sir Horace Hood, who died in the Battle of Jutland.
Nick Hewitt, head of heritage at the museum, said it provided an "extraordinary and moving link" between the two wars.
"The bell is a memorial to two battles, separated by 25 years but joined by centuries of tradition and sacrifice," he said.
HMS Hood was sunk by the battleship Bismark in the North Atlantic
The bell was presented to the Hood in 1918 by the widow of Rear-Admiral Hood, who was the great-great grandson of Sir Samuel Hood after whom the ship was named
Sir Horace died at the Battle of Jutland in May 1916 when the battlecruiser HMS Invincible blew up and sank
The sinking of HMS Hood sparked a huge Royal Navy pursuit of the Bismarck, which ended with her destruction three days later
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