Around 40 Historic Ryde Society members and other interested members of the public came along to hear the fascinating story of ‘The ship that hunted itself’, given by medals’ enthusiast, David Slade.
Historic Ryde Vice Chair Ron Watts hosted the evening and informed the assembled company about the up-coming events. These included the rearranged ‘Ryde Airport and Spithead Express’ talk by Bob Wealthy, which will take place on October 22, in Yelf’s Hotel, which had to be postponed due to very stormy weather in February.
Ron then introduced guest speaker David, who went on to enthrall with this remarkable tale. The two armed vessels, HMS Carmania and SMS Cap Trafalgar, each disguised as the other, engaged in battle on September 14, 1914. David has done a huge amount of research on the subject, and also brought along some medals from his collection, which belonged to crew members.
