Admiralty Disruptive Camouflage Type 25.

Moored in the pool of London, the HMS Belfast lies resplendent in her 'dazzle' camouflage. Now a museum ship, this gallant former Royal Navy light cruiser saw much action in the Second World War and after.

A veteran of Arctic convoy duty and the Battle of the North Cape, where the German battleship Scharnhorst was sunk in 1943; four months later the ship also participated in Operation Tungsten, an Allied mission against the battle cruiser Tirpitz. The Belfast also provided support for the Normandy landings on D-Day before setting sail to the Far East to join the struggle against the Empire of Japan.

The ship became part of Task Force 77 in 1950, the United Nations fleet operating at the outset of the Korean War, and damaged in action two years later. After refitting in 1959, she spent three years on exercise in the Pacific, before being payed off into reserve in 1963. She subsequently became part of the Imperial War Museum in March 1978, after a decade of uncertainty and restoration.

This is the first time in three decades I have been on a boat up the Thames, and seeing this historic vessel from the water is quite a thrill.