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EH30 9TB

At 5.55pm on the 30th May 1916, the Admiralty signalled that the German High Seas Fleet was due to sail. In the Firth of Forth the Battle Cruiser Fleet commanded by Sir David Beatty (with the 5th Battleship Squadron) had to rapidly recall their men and prepare for action. At the Hawes Pier in South Queensferry, you could have seen it all, officers racing down to the steam pinnaces, dreadnoughts getting up steam and then finally, just after ten in evening the great ships slipping out under the Forth Rail Bridge on their way to the battle of Jutland. Some would never come back. Others would come back badly damaged to the new royal naval dockyard of Rosyth, bringing casualties to the naval hospitals in South Queensferry and nearby. Naval historian Andrew Kerr brings the scene to life for us with Cathy Macdonald.