What was good for Belfast can be good for so many more
She was saved from the scrapheap and now pulls in half-a-million visitors a year.
HMS Belfast has become a huge success since she was rescued from Portsmouth Harbour and berthed on the banks of the River Thames.
Now campaigners trying to save our forgotten ships say if Belfast can succeed then others can also.
Retired Petty Officer Ernie Smith served in Belfast in 1961 and 1962 and was one of the campaigners who saved her in 1968.
The 78-year-old from Priddy's Hard, Gosport, has just left the HMS Belfast Association and has thrown his backing behind the Save our Ships campaign.
The author of Men of the Sea, a story about HMS Belfast, said: 'The campaign is a great idea and would have really helped the HMS Belfast conservation.
'Belfast needed about 100,000 from benefactor Sir John Smith to get her up to scratch, and it was on the strict condition laid down by the Ministry of Defence that she was in top condition when she arrived in London.
'They were insistent that she looked the part, and with the leadership of my old captain Rear Admiral Sir Morgan Giles we were able to do that.
'The News is doing an important thing because without huge donations it makes it really tough for campaigners to put together a programme to save our historic ships.
'With tougher heritage laws it would be much easier to boost the overall state of ships around Portsmouth.'
Falklands veterans who tried in vain to save HMS Intrepid are also backing the campaign.
Neil Wilkinson, a former Able Seaman (Gunner), who served in HMS Intrepid from 1980 to 1983, said: 'The Royal Navy has always had a very proud background in the way of history.
'Something should have been done to save her and make her into a museum piece for generations to come.
'Belfast is a great ship and Intrepid would have really benefited from legal protection.'
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Weather for Portsmouth
Sunday 12 February 2012
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Temperature: 3 C to 7 C
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