Experts uncover 38 shades of grey as they restore Royal Navy’s last Jutland survivor

Experts working on the restoration of cruiser HMS Caroline have sliced through her history to reveal the exact paint scheme she ‘wore’ at the Battle of Jutland 99 years ago. Their research sheds fresh light on how the ships of the Grand Fleet looked – particularly as there’s no colour photography from the era to fall back on.

This is how the Royal Navy’s sole survivor of the greatest clash of dreadnoughts looked in that tremendous battle.

Experts working on the restoration of cruiser HMS Caroline have sliced through her history to reveal the exact paint scheme she ‘wore’ when she sailed for the Battle of Jutland at the end of May 1916.

Caroline spent 85 years of her Royal Navy career as the headquarters for Naval reservists in Belfast.

Before that, however, she was one of the greyhounds of the Fleet, scouting ahead of the capital ships on the hunt for the enemy.

She was one of more than 150 British warships which locked horns with the Kaiser’s High Seas Fleet in the North Sea at Jutland, when she charged at the German lines on at least one occasion to unleash torpedoes.