A ship of the line was a type of naval warship constructed during the Age of Sail from the 17th century to the mid-19th century. The ship of the line was designed for the naval tactic known as the line of battle , which involved the two columns of opposing warships manoeuvering to volley fire with the cannons along their broadsides . In conflicts where opposing ships were both able to fire from their broadsides, the faction with more cannons firing – and therefore more firepower – typically had an advantage.
138-639: HMS Victory is a 104-gun first-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy . She was ordered in 1758, laid down in 1759, and launched in 1765. With 246 years of service as of 2024, she is the world's oldest naval vessel still in commission . Victory is best known for her role as Horatio Nelson 's flagship at the Battle of Trafalgar on 21 October 1805. She had previously served as Keppel 's flagship at Ushant , Howe 's flagship at Cape Spartel and Jervis 's flagship at Cape St Vincent . After 1824, she
276-636: A dry dock for the construction. The master shipwright in charge of construction was initially John Lock who died in 1762 and was replaced by Edward Allin , son of Sir Joseph Allin , former Surveyor of the Navy. The keel was laid on 23 July 1759 in the Old Single Dock (since renamed No. 2 Dock and now Victory Dock), and the name Victory was chosen in October 1760. In 1759, the Seven Years' War
414-424: A hoe for agriculture and horticulture . Two basic forms of an adze are the hand adze (short hoe)—a short-handled tool swung with one hand—and the foot adze (hoe)—a long-handled tool capable of powerful swings using both hands, the cutting edge usually striking at foot or shin level. A similar tool is called a mattock , which differs by having two blades, one perpendicular to the handle and one parallel. The adze
552-427: A pin pole . There are a number of specialist, short-handled adzes used by coopers , wainwrights , and chair makers, and in bowl and trough making. Many of these have shorter handles for control and more curve in the head to allow better clearance for shorter cuts. During the communist period of Bulgaria, a new multi-use woodworking adze, called Теслà ( Teslà ), emerged. It has a sharpened edge perpendicular to
690-408: A troopship between December 1810 and April 1811. In 1812, she was relocated to the mouth of Portsmouth Harbour off Gosport , for service as a floating depot and, from 1813 to 1817, as a prison ship . Major repairs were undertaken in 1814, including the fitting of 3 ft 10 in (1.2 m) metal braces along the inside of her hull, to strengthen the timbers. This was the first use of iron in
828-723: A 500 lb. bomb dropped by the Luftwaffe broke her keel, as can be seen in Plate 1 in The Anatomy of Nelson's Ships by C. Nepean Longridge (1955), destroyed one of the steel cradles and part of the foremast. On one occasion, German radio propaganda claimed that the ship had been destroyed by a bomb, and the Admiralt had to issue a denial. After the Second World War, the frames of HMS Victory had rotted in situ, and in
966-504: A battle involving chasing or manoeuvring. The 74 remained the favoured ship until 1811, when Seppings's method of construction enabled bigger ships to be built with more stability. In a few ships the design was altered long after the ship was launched and in service. In the Royal Navy, smaller two-deck 74- or 64-gun ships of the line that could not be used safely in fleet actions had their upper decks removed (or razeed ), resulting in
1104-810: A diplomatic solution was found. When the French Revolutionary War broke out in 1793, Victory joined the Mediterranean Fleet as the flagship of Vice-admiral Samuel Hood and took part in the occupation of Toulon in August, an action agreed with the Bourbon loyalists who held the town. When the British were forced to withdraw in December, they destroyed as much of the dockyard and as many enemy ships as they could and sailed to
1242-448: A few notable exceptions, they were of little use in naval battles. King Erik XIV of Sweden initiated construction of the ship Mars in 1563; this might have been the first attempt of this battle tactic, roughly 50 years ahead of widespread adoption of the line of battle strategy. Mars was likely the largest ship in the world at the time of her build, equipped with 107 guns at a full-length of 96 metres (315 ft). Mars became
1380-714: A floating plinth atop which she could be preserved as a monument, either in Portsmouth or adjacent to the Royal Naval College, Greenwich . Others proposed a berth beside Cleopatra's Needle on the Thames, or a land-based structure in Trafalgar Square . Despite popular support, these options were not seriously entertained by the Admiralty. The naval architects who had surveyed the ship reported that she
1518-424: A force of around twenty-nine ships of the line and, on 23 July, sighted a French fleet of roughly equal force 100 miles (160 km) west of Ushant . The French admiral, Louis Guillouet, comte d'Orvilliers , who had orders to avoid battle, was cut off from Brest , but retained the weather gage . Manoeuvring was made difficult by changing winds and driving rain, but eventually a battle became inevitable, with
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#17327872106131656-463: A leak and sank. All on board were rescued and the ship was subsequently raised. In 1887, she sprang a catastrophic leak, and it was only with some difficulty that she was prevented from sinking at her mooring. The Admiralty thereafter provided a small annual subsidy for maintenance, and in 1889 Victory became the home of a signal school in addition to being a tender. The impact of so much human traffic also left her increasingly decrepit, particularly in
1794-811: A plethora of other cash and subsistence crops . Prehistoric Māori adzes from New Zealand were for wood carving , typically made from pounamu sourced from the South Island. During the Māori Archaic period found on the North Island were commonly made from greywacke from Motutapu Island or basalt from Ōpito Bay in the Coromandel , similar to adzes constructed on other Pacific Islands. Early period notched adzes found in Northland were primarily made of argillite quarried from locations around
1932-492: A reduced [sailing] rig rather than none at all, to make them sea-going ships.… The blockships were to be a cost-effective experiment of great value." They subsequently gave good service in the Crimean War . The French Navy , however, developed the first purpose-built steam battleship with the 90-gun Napoléon in 1850. She is also considered the first true steam battleship, and the first screw battleship ever. Napoléon
2070-429: A school, Victory continued to deteriorate at her mooring. In 1903 she was accidentally rammed by HMS Neptune , a successor to the vessel that had towed her to Gibraltar. Emergency repairs prevented her from sinking, but the Admiralty again proposed that she be scrapped, and it was only the personal intervention of Edward VII that prevented this from occurring. Interest in the ship revived in 1905 when, as part of
2208-535: A team of riggers and cranes; this allowed weight to reduce the pressure on the ship's hull to reduce the stress the upper masts placed upon the hull. This had not been the first time the masts had been worked on with each mast de-rigged throughout the 20th Century, but this was the first time they had been fully dismantled since the Second World War. In December 2011, Defence Equipment and Support awarded an initial five-year project management contract to BAE Systems , with an option to extend to ten years. The restoration
2346-437: A very stout, single-gun-deck warship called a razee . The resulting razeed ship could be classed as a frigate and was still much stronger. The most successful razeed ship in the Royal Navy was HMS Indefatigable , commanded by Sir Edward Pellew . The Spanish ship Nuestra Señora de la Santísima Trinidad , was a Spanish first-rate ship of the line with 112 guns. This was increased in 1795–96 to 130 guns by closing in
2484-426: Is basically an adze iron with a directly attached handle. The D-handle, therefore, provides no mechanical leverage. Northwest coast adzes are often classified by size and iron shape vs. role. As with European adzes, iron shapes include straight, gutter and lipped. Where larger Northwest adzes are similar in size to their European counterparts, the smaller sizes are typically much lighter such that they can be used for
2622-526: Is depicted in ancient Egyptian art from the Old Kingdom onward. Originally the adze blades were made of stone, but already in the Predynastic Period copper adzes had all but replaced those made of flint. Stone blades were fastened to the handle by tying and early bronze blades continued this simple construction. It was not until the later Bronze Age that the handle passes through an eye at
2760-695: Is presently on display at the Vasa Museum in Stockholm, Sweden . At the time she was the largest Swedish warship ever built. Today the Vasa Museum is the most visited museum in Sweden. The last ship-of-the-line afloat was the French ship Duguay-Trouin , renamed HMS Implacable after being captured by the British, which survived until 1949. The last ship-of-the-line to be sunk by enemy action
2898-459: Is similar in form to a European adze with the haft constructed from a natural crooked branch which approximately forms a 60% angle. The thin end is used as the handle and the thick end is flattened and notched such that an adze iron can be lashed to it. Modern hafts are sometimes constructed from a sawed blank with a dowel added for strength at the crook. The second form is the D-handle adze which
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#17327872106133036-543: Is worth £16 million over the life of the contract and will include work to the masts and rigging, replacement side planking, and the addition of fire control measures. It is expected to be the most extensive refit since the ship returned from Trafalgar. Listed as part of the National Historic Fleet , Victory has been the flagship of the First Sea Lord since October 2012. Prior to this, she
3174-495: The Dublin and Bellona classes. Their successors gradually improved handling and size through the 1780s. Other navies ended up building 74s also as they had the right balance between offensive power, cost, and manoeuvrability. Eventually around half of Britain's ships of the line were 74s. Larger vessels were still built, as command ships, but they were more useful only if they could definitely get close to an enemy, rather than in
3312-878: The Atlantic Ocean , was the precursor of the ship of the line . Other maritime European states quickly adopted it in the late 15th and early 16th centuries. These vessels were developed by fusing aspects of the cog of the North Sea and galley of the Mediterranean Sea . The cogs, which traded in the North Sea , in the Baltic Sea and along the Atlantic coasts, had an advantage over galleys in battle because they had raised platforms called "castles" at bow and stern that archers could occupy to fire down on enemy ships or even to drop heavy weights from. At
3450-652: The Colonial Williamsburg cultural center in Virginia , United States. However, the traditional adze has largely been replaced by the sawmill and the powered plane , at least in industrialised cultures. It remains in use for some specialist crafts, for example by coopers . Adzes are also in current use by artists such as Northwest Coast American and Canadian Indigenous sculptors doing totem pole carving, as well as masks and bowls. "Adzes are used for removing heavy waste, leveling, shaping, or trimming
3588-540: The East India Company 's merchant vessels became lightly armed and quite competent in combat during this period, operating a convoy system under an armed merchantman, instead of depending on small numbers of more heavily armed ships which while effective, slowed the flow of commerce. The only original ship of the line remaining today is HMS Victory , preserved as a museum in Portsmouth to appear as she
3726-559: The English Channel as a "steam bridge", rather than a barrier to French invasion. It was partly because of the fear of war with France that the Royal Navy converted several old 74-gun ships of the line into 60-gun steam-powered blockships (following the model of Fulton 's Demologos ), starting in 1845. The blockships were "originally conceived as steam batteries solely for harbour defence, but in September 1845 they were given
3864-478: The Hyeres Islands from where Hood plotted a blockade of Corsica . Resentment at French rule there had sparked a revolt led by Pasquale Paoli whose guerrillas had driven the invaders into three fortified towns in the north of the island; Calvi , San Fiorenzo and Bastia . Hood despatched a proportion of his fleet to prevent the French from shipping in supplies. On 24 January, Hood received word that
4002-700: The Imperial Naval Arsenal on the Golden Horn in Istanbul , was for many years the largest warship in the world. The 76.15 m × 21.22 m (249.8 ft × 69.6 ft) ship of the line was armed with 128 cannons on three decks and was manned by 1,280 sailors. She participated in the Siege of Sevastopol (1854–1855) during the Crimean War (1854–1856) . She was decommissioned in 1874. The second largest sailing three-decker ship of
4140-529: The Marlborough and Nelson regions. At the same time on Henderson Island , a small coral island in eastern Polynesia lacking any rock other than limestone , native populations may have fashioned giant clamshells into adzes. American Northwest coast native peoples traditionally used adzes for both functional construction (from bowls to canoes) and art (from masks to totem poles). Northwest coast adzes take two forms: hafted and D-handle. The hafted form
4278-667: The Ministry of Defence to a dedicated HMS Victory Preservation Trust, established as part of the National Museum of the Royal Navy . According to the Royal Navy website, the move was "heralded by the announcement of a £25 million capital grant to support the new Trust by the Gosling Foundation – a donation which has been matched by a further £25 million from the MOD". Victory underwent a major restoration in 2017, it
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4416-570: The Royal Naval Museum . In November 2007, Victory ' s then-commanding officer, Lieutenant Commander John Scivier, paid a visit to USS Constitution of the US Navy , which is the world's oldest commissioned naval vessel still afloat. He met Constitution ' s commanding officer, Commander William A. Bullard III. In August 2011 the upper masts and rigging of HMS Victory were dismantled entirely across all three masts by
4554-557: The Scottish ship Michael , launched in 1511. She was originally built at Woolwich Dockyard from 1512 to 1514 and was one of the first vessels to feature gunports and had twenty of the new heavy bronze cannon , allowing for a broadside . In all, she mounted 43 heavy guns and 141 light guns. She was the first English two-decker , and when launched she was the largest and most powerful warship in Europe, but she saw little action. She
4692-554: The spar deck between the quarterdeck and forecastle , and around 1802 to 140 guns, thus creating what was in effect a continuous fourth gundeck although the extra guns added were actually relatively small. She was the heaviest-armed ship in the world when rebuilt, and bore the most guns of any ship of the line outfitted in the Age of Sail . Mahmudiye (1829), ordered by the Ottoman Sultan Mahmud II and built by
4830-469: The 16th century, the medieval forecastle was no longer needed, and later ships such as the galleon had only a low, one-deck-high forecastle. By the time of the 1637 launching of England's Sovereign of the Seas , the forecastle had disappeared altogether. During the 16th century the galleon evolved from the carrack. It was a narrower ship, with a much reduced forecastle, and was much more manoeuvrable than
4968-411: The 17th century fleets could consist of almost a hundred ships of various sizes, but by the middle of the 18th century, ship-of-the-line design had settled on a few standard types: older two-deckers (i.e., with two complete decks of guns firing through side ports) of 50 guns (which were too weak for the battle line but could be used to escort convoys ), two-deckers of between 64 and 90 guns that formed
5106-412: The 17th century every major European naval power was building ships like these. With the growing importance of colonies and exploration and the need to maintain trade routes across stormy oceans, galleys and galleasses (a larger, higher type of galley with side-mounted guns, but lower than a galleon) were used less and less, and only in ever more restricted purposes and areas, so that by about 1750, with
5244-487: The 1820s a number of navies experimented with paddle steamer warships. Their use spread in the 1830s, with paddle-steamer warships participating in conflicts like the First Opium War alongside ships of the line and frigates. Paddle steamers, however, had major disadvantages. The paddle wheel above the waterline was exposed to enemy fire, while itself preventing the ship from firing broadsides effectively. During
5382-479: The 1840s, the screw propeller emerged as the most likely method of steam propulsion, with both Britain and the US launching screw-propelled warships in 1843. Through the 1840s, the British and French navies launched ever larger and more powerful screw ships, alongside sail-powered ships of the line. In 1845, Viscount Palmerston gave an indication of the role of the new steamships in tense Anglo-French relations, describing
5520-461: The 18th century, Victory was one of ten first-rate ships to be constructed. The outline plans were based on HMS Royal George , which had been launched at Woolwich Dockyard in 1756, and the naval architect chosen to design the ship was Sir Thomas Slade , the Surveyor of the Navy . She was designed to carry at least 100 guns. The commissioner of Chatham Dockyard was instructed to prepare
5658-517: The 1950s, a number of preventive measures were instigated, including the removal of bulkheads to increase airflow and the fumigating of the ship against the deathwatch beetle which when emerging cause hundreds of bore holes weakening the oak frames and timbers. The following decade saw the replacement of much of the decayed oak with oily hardwoods such as teak and iroko , which were believed to be more resistant to fungus and pests. The decision to restore Victory to her Battle of Trafalgar configuration
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5796-749: The 42-pounders were reinstated in April 1779; however, there were insufficient 42-pounders available and these were replaced with 32-pounder cannon once again. Victory was commissioned (put on active duty) in March 1778 under Captain Sir John Lindsay . He held that position until May 1778, when Admiral Augustus Keppel made her his flagship , and appointed Rear Admiral John Campbell (1st Captain) and Captain Jonathan Faulknor (2nd Captain). Keppel put to sea from Spithead on 9 July 1778 with
5934-488: The 98-gun HMS Temeraire , whose broadside devastated the French ship. Nelson's last order was for the fleet to anchor, but this was countermanded by Vice Admiral Cuthbert Collingwood. Victory suffered 57 killed and 102 wounded. Victory had been badly damaged in the battle and was not able to move under her own sail, so HMS Neptune towed her to Gibraltar for repairs. Victory then carried Nelson's body to England, where, after lying in state at Greenwich , he
6072-487: The Admiralty issued orders for Victory to be broken up and her timbers reused in other vessels. A public outcry against the destruction of so famous a ship led to the order being held in abeyance and Victory was left, largely forgotten, at a Portsmouth mooring. The Admiralty officially designated the ageing vessel as a tender for the port admiral ' s flagship, HMS Wellington , and permitted civilian visitors to come aboard for tours. The ship briefly returned to
6210-692: The Amphion and hoisted his flag and made sail – Log." On 28 May, Captain Sutton captured the French Ambuscade of 32 guns, bound for Rochefort . Victory rejoined Lord Nelson off Toulon, where on 31 July, Captain Sutton exchanged commands with the captain of Amphion , Thomas Masterman Hardy and Nelson raised his flag in Victory once more. Victory was passing the island of Toro, near Majorca , on 4 April 1805, when HMS Phoebe brought
6348-445: The British van which fired back, forcing the French ship Alcide to surrender. Culloden and Cumberland did not stop to take possession of the stricken French ship but Victory had been much damaged in the action: all the running rigging along with much of her standing rigging, the main topgallant mast, the topsail yardarms on the foremast and the spritsail yardarms had all been shot away, and considerable damage had been done to
6486-416: The British more or less in column and the French in some confusion. However, the French managed to pass along the British line with their most advanced ships. At about a quarter to twelve, Victory opened fire on Bretagne of 110 guns, which was being followed by Ville de Paris of 90 guns. The British van escaped with little loss, but Sir Hugh Palliser 's rear division suffered considerably. Keppel made
6624-519: The Corsicans wished for the governance and protection of Britain and set off with his remaining ships. They were caught in a storm however and had to spend several nights sheltering off the island of Elba before heading into Portoferraio on the 29 January for repairs. The fleet eventually arrived on 7 February at San Fiorenzo, where an attack was carried out on the Torra di Mortella at the west end of
6762-458: The French threat. This included arming her with a full complement of smoothbore , cast iron cannon . Her weaponry was intended to be thirty 42-pounders (19 kg) on her lower deck, twenty-eight 24-pounder long guns (11 kg) on her middle deck, and thirty 12-pounders (5 kg) on her upper deck, together with twelve 6-pounders on her quarterdeck and forecastle . In May 1778, the 42-pounders were replaced by 32-pounders (15 kg), but
6900-620: The Mouth ceremony , intended to convey power over their senses to statues and mummies. It was apparently the foreleg of a freshly sacrificed bull or cow with which the mouth was touched. As Iron Age technology moved south into Africa with migrating ancient Egyptians, they carried their technology with them, including adzes. To this day, iron adzes are used all over rural Africa for various purposes—from digging pit latrines, and chopping firewood, to tilling crop fields—whether they are of maize (corn), coffee, tea, pyrethrum, beans, millet, yams, or
7038-528: The Napoleonic Wars in 1815 with the largest and most professional navy in the world, composed of hundreds of wooden, sail-powered ships of all sizes and classes. Overwhelming firepower was of no use if it could not be brought to bear which was not always possible against the smaller leaner ships used by Napoleon's privateers, operating from French New World territories. The Royal Navy compensated by deploying numerous Bermuda sloops . Similarly, many of
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#17327872106137176-700: The Royal Navy's dominance at sea proved a colossal failure. During the Napoleonic Wars , Britain defeated French and allied fleets decisively all over the world including in the Caribbean at the Battle of Cape St. Vincent , the Bay of Aboukir off the Egyptian coast at the Battle of the Nile in 1798, near Spain at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805, and in the second Battle of Copenhagen (1807) . The UK emerged from
7314-662: The Russian Black Sea Fleet destroyed seven Ottoman frigates and three corvettes with explosive shells at the Battle of Sinop in 1853. In the 1860s unarmoured steam line-of-battle ships were replaced by ironclad warships . In the American Civil War , on March 8, 1862, during the first day of the Battle of Hampton Roads , two unarmoured Union wooden frigates were sunk and destroyed by the Confederate ironclad CSS Virginia . However,
7452-631: The Spanish ships became visible to him, Calder reported the numbers to Jervis, but when he reached 27, Jervis replied, "Enough, Sir. No more of that. The die is cast and if there are 50 sail, I will go through them". The Spanish were caught by surprise, sailing in two divisions, with a gap that Jervis aimed to exploit. The ship's log records how Victory halted the Spanish division, raking ships both ahead and astern, while Jervis' private memoirs recall how Victory ' s broadside so terrified Principe de Asturias that she "squared her yards, ran clear out of
7590-491: The United Kingdom built 18 and converted 41. In the end, France and Britain were the only two countries to develop fleets of wooden steam screw battleships, although several other navies made some use of a mixture of screw battleships and paddle-steamer frigates. These included Russia, Turkey , Sweden , Naples , Prussia , Denmark , and Austria . In the Crimean War , six line-of-battle ships and two frigates of
7728-523: The absence of Admiralty funding for repairs. Sir Edward Seymour visited the vessel in 1886 as flag captain to the Commander-in-Chief, Portsmouth and recalled in 1911 "a more rotten ship than she had become probably never flew the pennant. I could literally run my walking stick through her sides in many places." The school remained in Victory until 1904, when training was transferred temporarily to HMS Hercules . Despite her reuse as
7866-693: The ancestor of the 20th-century battleship , whose very designation is itself a contraction of the phrase "ship of the line of battle" or, more colloquially, "battleship of the line". The term "ship of the line" fell into disuse except in historical contexts, after warships and naval tactics evolved and changed from the mid-19th century. Some other languages did keep the name however; the Imperial German Navy called its battleships Linienschiffe until World War I . The heavily armed carrack , first developed in Portugal for either trade or war in
8004-463: The battle and did not return". Jervis, realising that the main bulk of the enemy fleet could now cross astern and reunite, ordered his ships to change course, but Sir Charles Thompson , leading the rear division, failed to comply. The following ships were now in a quandary over whether to obey the Admiral's signal or follow their divisional commander. Nelson, who had transferred to HMS Captain ,
8142-448: The battle. When he noted the French superiority, he contented himself with capturing fifteen sail of the convoy. The French were dispersed in a gale and forced to return home. Victory ' s armament was slightly upgraded in 1782 with the replacement of all of her 6-pounders with 12-pounder cannon. Later, she also carried two carronade guns , firing 68-lb (31 kg) round shot. In October 1782, Victory under Admiral Richard Howe
8280-437: The bay. Victory did not play much of an active role in the attack and on 11 February was blown off station by a strong wind. After sheltering off Cap Corse , she returned on 17 February in time to see the tower captured and, soon after, the town capitulate. Hood next sailed his ships to Bastia joining with a squadron under Horatio Nelson which had been blockading the town since 7 February. Despite this additional show of force,
8418-418: The bow, for instance, the castle was called the forecastle (usually contracted as fo'c'sle or fo'c's'le, and pronounced FOHK-səl). Over time these castles became higher and larger, and eventually were built into the structure of the ship, increasing overall strength. This aspect of the cog remained in the newer-style carrack designs and proved its worth in battles like that at Diu in 1509 . The Mary Rose
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#17327872106138556-504: The carrack. It was particularly favored from an early date by the Spanish for their trans-Atlantic trade . The main ships of the English and Spanish fleets in the Battle of Gravelines of 1588 were galleons; all of the English and most of the Spanish galleons survived the battle and the great storm on the voyage home, even though the Spanish galleons had suffered the heaviest attacks from the English while regrouping their scattered fleet. By
8694-414: The castles fore and aft was reduced, now that hand-to-hand combat was less essential. The need to manoeuvre in battle made the top weight of the castles more of a disadvantage. So they shrank, making the ship of the line lighter and more manoeuvrable than its forebears for the same combat power. As an added consequence, the hull itself grew larger, allowing the size and number of guns to increase as well. In
8832-542: The centenary celebrations of the Battle of Trafalgar, she was decorated with electric lights powered by a submarine moored alongside. In 1910, the Society for Nautical Research was created to try to preserve her for future generations, but the Admiralty was unable to help, having become embroiled in an escalating arms race; thus by the time Frank H. Mason published The Book of British Ships in 1911, Victory ' s condition
8970-664: The combined Franco-Spanish fleet of 17 ships. They arrived in the West Indies to find that the enemy was sailing back to Europe, where Napoleon Bonaparte was waiting for them with his invasion forces at Boulogne . The Franco-Spanish fleet was involved in the indecisive Battle of Cape Finisterre in fog off Ferrol with Admiral Sir Robert Calder's squadron on 22 July, before taking refuge in Vigo and Ferrol. Calder on 14 August and Nelson on 15 August joined Admiral Cornwallis 's Channel Fleet off Ushant. Nelson continued on to England in Victory , leaving his Mediterranean fleet with Cornwallis who detached twenty of his thirty-three ships of
9108-412: The cutting edge 3 to 4 + 1 / 2 inches (75–115 mm) wide. On the modern, steel adze the cutting edge may be flat for smoothing work to very rounded for hollowing work such as bowls, gutters and canoes. The shoulders or sides of an adze may be curved called a lipped adze , used for notching. The end away from the cutting edge is called the pole and be of different shapes, generally flat or
9246-709: The desired shape was obtained. It was then fixed to a natural grown angled wood with resin and plant fibers. A variety of minerals were used. Imported steel axes or machetes have now entirely replaced these tools for decades in even the remotest parts of New Guinea. Indeed, even before the first foreign missionaries or colonial officials arrived in the New Guinea Highlands, inhabitants had already obtained steel tools through trade with their neighbors. Stone tools are sometimes manufactured to be sold as curios to tourists. Modern adzes are made from steel with wooden handles , and enjoy limited use: occasionally in semi-industrial areas, but particularly by "revivalists" such as those at
9384-418: The detailed smoothing, shaping and surface texturing required for figure carving. Final surfacing is sometimes performed with a crooked knife . Ground stone adzes used to be produced by a variety of people in Western New Guinea (Indonesia), Papua New Guinea and some of the smaller Islands of Melanesia and Micronesia . The hardstone would have been ground on a riverine rock with the help of water until
9522-513: The end of 1796, the British position in the Mediterranean had become untenable. Jervis had stationed his fleet off Cape St Vincent to prevent the Spanish from sailing north, whilst Nelson was to oversee the evacuation of Elba. Once the evacuation had been accomplished, Nelson, in HMS Minerve , sailed for Gibraltar. On learning that the Spanish fleet had passed by some days previous, Nelson left to rendezvous with Jervis on 11 February. The Spanish fleet, which had been blown off course by easterly gales,
9660-472: The enemy line some two or three ships ahead of their commander-in-chief in the centre and achieve victory before the van could come to their aid. At 0600 hours, Nelson ordered his fleet into two columns. Fitful winds made it a slow business, and for more than six hours, the two columns of British ships slowly approached the French line before Royal Sovereign , leading the lee column, was able to open fire on Fougueux . Around 30 minutes later, Victory broke
9798-490: The existing planking installed between the 1980s and 2000s. It also includes a visitor walkway on multiple levels to allow visitors to see the work being undertaken by the National Museum of the Royal Navy's shipwrights. The scaffold was erected by PHD Access who had worked on other historic landmarks such as Big Ben . Over the two centuries since Victory ' s launch, numerous admirals have hoisted their flag in her: and on 1 February 1905, to Firequeen Ship of
9936-501: The first ship to be sunk by gunfire from other ships in a naval battle. In the early to mid-17th century, several navies, particularly those of the Netherlands and England, began to use new fighting techniques. Previously battles had usually been fought by great fleets of ships closing with each other and fighting in whatever arrangement they found themselves in, often boarding enemy vessels as opportunities presented themselves. As
10074-422: The flag of Rear Admiral Richard Kempenfelt , sailed with eleven other ships of the line, a 50-gun fourth-rate , and five frigates , to intercept a French convoy that had sailed from Brest on 10 December. Not knowing that the convoy was protected by twenty-one ships of the line under the command of Luc Urbain de Bouexic, comte de Guichen , Kempenfelt ordered a chase when they were sighted on 12 December and began
10212-716: The fleets of the Royal Navy , the Netherlands , France , Spain and Portugal fought numerous battles. In the Baltic , the Scandinavian kingdoms and Russia did likewise, while in the Mediterranean Sea , the Ottoman Empire , Spain, France, Britain and the various Barbary pirates battled. By the eighteenth century, the UK had established itself as the world's preeminent naval power. Attempts by Napoleon to challenge
10350-526: The following month under her new captain, Samuel Sutton . Vice-Admiral Nelson hoisted his flag in Victory on 18 May 1803, with Samuel Sutton as his flag captain . The Dispatches and Letters of Vice Admiral Lord Nelson (Volume 5, page 68) record that "Friday 20 May a.m. ... Nelson ... came on board. Saturday 21st (i.e.the afternoon of the 20th) Unmoored ship and weighed. Made sail out of Spithead ... when H.M. Ship Amphion joined, and proceeded to sea in company with us" – Victory's Log. Victory
10488-432: The garrison would not surrender. Troops were landed and the town was invested, leading to a protracted siege which only ended when a reinforcement of troops from Gibraltar forced the French to seek honourable terms. By June, the French had repaired much of the damage caused by the retreating British, and sailed from Toulon with seven ships-of-the-line. On hearing this, Hood left Corsica with thirteen ships of his own with
10626-479: The gundeck, while the new French 74s were around 52 metres (171 ft). In 1747 the British captured a few of these French ships during the War of Austrian Succession . In the next decade Thomas Slade (Surveyor of the Navy from 1755, along with co-Surveyor William Bately) broke away from the past and designed several new classes of 51-to-52-metre (167 to 171 ft) 74s to compete with these French designs, starting with
10764-404: The handle, resembling an adze, but it is also used like a carpenter's hammer. On the back of the head is a textured poll for driving nails, and on the front is a V-shaped hole used for prying, to extract the bent nails. Some urban legends say that Bulgarian migrant workers always carry their adzes with them so they can do construction work more efficiently due to the lack of Western equivalent of
10902-553: The hope of bringing them to action. When the French sighted Hood's fleet on 10 June, they took refuge in Golfe Juan near Antibes and anchored in a tight crescent formation. Hood was disinclined to attack, considering the position too well defended, and returned to Corsica. Hood took his ships back to Toulon where he strengthened the blockade of the port. In November, after two years at sea, Hood returned home in Victory . Arriving off Portsmouth on 5 December, Hood struck his flag and
11040-423: The launch. Larkin asked for the assistance of every available shipwright, and they hewed away enough wood from the gates with their adzes for the ship to pass safely through. However, the launch itself revealed significant problems in the ship's design, including a distinct list to starboard and a tendency to sit heavily in the water such that her lower deck gunports were only 4 ft 6 in (1.4 m) above
11178-420: The line From the end of the 1840s, the introduction of steam power brought less dependence on the wind in battle and led to the construction of screw-driven wooden-hulled ships of the line; a number of purely sail -powered ships were converted to this propulsion mechanism. However, the rise of the ironclad frigate , starting in 1859, made steam-assisted ships of the line obsolete. The ironclad warship became
11316-487: The line and sent them under Calder to find the combined fleet at Ferrol. On 19 August came the worrying news that the enemy had sailed from there, followed by relief when they arrived in Cádiz two days later. On the evening of Saturday, 28 September, Lord Nelson joined Lord Collingwood 's fleet off Cádiz, quietly, so that his presence would not be known. After learning he was to be removed from command, Villeneuve put to sea on
11454-585: The line between the 80-gun French flagship Bucentaure and 74 gun Redoutable and fired her guns at such close range that the flames of the guns were singeing the windows of the French flagship before the shockwave and cannonballs arrived. Victory ' s port guns unleashed a devastating broadside, raking Bucentaure and blowing a hole in the ship described as "large enough to drive a coach and four horses through." The maelstrom of cannonballs and grapeshot dismounted Bucentaure' s guns and shredded her crew, killing and wounding somewhere between 300 and 450 men of
11592-510: The line ever built in the West and the biggest French ship of the line was the Valmy , launched in 1847. She had vertical sides, which increased significantly the space available for upper batteries, but reduced the stability of the ship; wooden stabilisers were added under the waterline to address the issue. Valmy was thought to be the largest sort of sailing ship possible, as larger dimensions made
11730-471: The line was the "74" (named for its 74 guns), originally developed by France in the 1730s, and later adopted by all battleship navies. Until this time the British had 6 sizes of ship of the line, and they found that their smaller 50- and 60-gun ships were becoming too small for the battle line, while their 80s and over were three-deckers and therefore unwieldy and unstable in heavy seas. Their best were 70-gun three-deckers of about 46 metres (151 ft) long on
11868-409: The main part of the fleet, and larger three - or even four-deckers with 98 to 140 guns that served as admirals' command ships. Fleets consisting of perhaps 10 to 25 of these ships, with their attendant supply ships and scouting and messenger frigates , kept control of the sea lanes for major European naval powers whilst restricting the sea-borne trade of enemies. The most common size of sail ship of
12006-530: The manoeuvre of riggings impractical with mere manpower. She participated in the Crimean War, and after her return to France later housed the French Naval Academy under the name Borda from 1864 to 1890. The first major change to the ship-of-the-line concept was the introduction of steam power as an auxiliary propulsion system. The first military uses of steamships came in the 1810s, and in
12144-693: The masts that remained. When two French frigates arrived to tow away the crippled Alcide , Victory saw them off, sinking one of their boats in the process. Hotham ordered a withdrawal of his fleet when the French took refuge in Frejus Bay; by then it was dark and a lee shore wind meant the British would be trapped if they continued their pursuit. In 1796, Captain Robert Calder (First Captain) and Captain George Grey (Second Captain), commanded Victory under Admiral Sir John Jervis 's flag. By
12282-554: The morning of 19 October and when the last ship had left port, around noon the following day, he set sail for the Mediterranean. The British frigates, which had been sent to keep track of the enemy fleet throughout the night, were spotted at around 1900 hours and the order was given to form line of battle. On the morning of 21 October, the main British fleet, which was out of sight and sailing parallel some 10 miles away, turned to intercept. Nelson had already made his plans: to break
12420-541: The news that the French fleet under Pierre-Charles Villeneuve had escaped from Toulon. While Nelson made for Sicily to see if the French were heading for Egypt , Villeneuve was entering Cádiz to link up with the Spanish fleet. On 9 May, Nelson received news from HMS Orpheus that Villeneuve had left Cadiz a month earlier. The British fleet completed their stores in Lagos Bay, Portugal and, on 11 May, sailed westward with ten ships and three frigates in pursuit of
12558-439: The night of 12 July the British were caught in a storm and several ships, including Victory were damaged. The French were seen at dawn, as Victory was having new sails fitted but was ready by 08:00 when Hotham ordered a general chase. Victory made good progress and along with Culloden and Cumberland was catching up on the French rear. A sudden shift in the wind allowed the trailing three French ships to turn and open up on
12696-409: The officers on Victory ' s quarterdeck how, "A victory to England is very essential at the moment". Jervis was not aware of the size of the fleet he was facing, but at around 0630 hours, received word that five Spanish warships were to the south-east. By 0900 hours, the first enemy ships were visible from Victory ' s masthead, and at 1100 hours, Jervis gave the order to form line of battle. As
12834-406: The oldest dry dock in the world still in use. A naval survey revealed that between a third and a half of her internal fittings required replacement. Her steering equipment had also been removed or destroyed, along with most of her furnishings. The relocation to No. 2 dock sparked public discussion about Victory ' s future location. Suggestions in contemporary newspapers included the creation of
12972-530: The order for battle, there was established the distinction between the ships 'of the line', alone destined for a place therein, and the lighter ships meant for other uses. The lighter ships were used for various functions, including acting as scouts, and relaying signals between the flagship and the rest of the fleet. This was necessary because from the flagship, only a small part of the line would be in clear sight. The adoption of line-of-battle tactics had consequences for ship design. The height advantage given by
13110-481: The power implied by the ship of the line would find its way into the ironclad, which would develop during the next few decades into the concept of the battleship . Several navies still use terms equivalent to the "ship of the line" for battleships, including the German ( Linienschiff ) and Russian ( lineyniy korabl` (лине́йный кора́бль) or linkor (линкор) in short) navies. In the North Sea and Atlantic Ocean ,
13248-483: The pride of the English fleet, she accidentally sank during the Battle of the Solent , 19 July 1545. Henri Grâce à Dieu (English: "Henry Grace of God"), nicknamed " Great Harry ", was another early English carrack. Contemporary with Mary Rose , Henri Grâce à Dieu was 50 metres (160 ft) long, measuring 1,000–1,500 tons burthen and having a complement of 700–1,000. She was ordered by Henry VIII in response to
13386-616: The public gaze on 18 July 1833 when the queen in waiting, Princess Victoria , and her mother, the Duchess of Kent , made a visit to her quarterdeck to meet veterans of the Trafalgar campaign. This generated a surge of interest in the vessel, and an increase in civilian visitor numbers to between 10,000 and 12,000 a year. Victoria returned for a second visit on 21 October 1844, creating a further burst of interest that lifted annual visitors to more than 22,000. In late April 1854, Victory sprang
13524-424: The same inspiration that we have drawn ourselves, and our fathers before us." During the initial restoration period from 1922 to 1929, a considerable amount of structural repair work was carried out above the waterline and mainly above the middle deck. On 8 April 1925, Victory was temporarily refloated within Portsmouth's No. 2 dock, to adjust the supporting cradle and so that Victory ' s waterline would be at
13662-551: The same level with the top of the dry dock. This last refloating of Victory was recorded by Pathé news cameras. In 1928, King George V was able to unveil a tablet celebrating the completion of the work, although restoration and maintenance still continued under the supervision of the Society for Nautical Research. Restoration was suspended during the Second World War , and in 1941, Victory sustained further damage when
13800-538: The ship was taken in for much needed repairs. By July the following year, Victory had rejoined the Mediterranean Fleet, now commanded by Admiral William Hotham in the 100-gun Britannia . Shortly after her arrival, Victory received Rear-Admiral Robert Mann , who moved his flag from Cumberland , and on the 8 July the fleet set off in pursuit of a French force near the Hyeres Islands. On
13938-409: The ship's 750- to 800-man complement in a matter of seconds, putting the French flagship out of action. At a quarter past one, Nelson was shot, the fatal musket ball entering his left shoulder and lodging in his spine. He died at half past four. Such killing had taken place on Victory ' s quarterdeck that Redoutable attempted to board her, but they were thwarted by the arrival of Eliab Harvey in
14076-406: The ships remaining in line for mutual protection. In order that this order of battle, this long thin line of guns, may not be injured or broken at some point weaker than the rest, there is at the same time felt the necessity of putting in it only ships which, if not of equal force, have at least equally strong sides. Logically it follows, at the same moment in which the line ahead became definitively
14214-508: The signal to follow the French, but Palliser did not conform, and the action was not resumed. Keppel was court martialled and cleared, and Palliser criticised by an inquiry before the affair turned into a political argument. In March 1780, Victory ' s hull was sheathed with 3,923 sheets of copper below the waterline to protect it against shipworm . On 2 December 1781, the ship, now commanded by Captain Henry Cromwell and bearing
14352-514: The smaller fittings. Once the ship's frame had been built, it was normal to cover it up and leave it for several months to allow the wood to dry out or " season ". French naval power had been severely weakened by the events in Quiberon Bay and there was no immediate need for Victory which remained in this condition for nearly three years. This additional seasoning in the frame helped her subsequent longevity. Work restarted in autumn 1763 and she
14490-426: The surfaces of timber" and boards. Generally, the user stands astride a board or log and swings the adze downwards between his feet, chipping off pieces of wood, moving backwards as they go and leaving a relatively smooth surface behind. Foot adzes are most commonly known as shipbuilder's or carpenter's adzes. They range in size from 00 to 5 being 3 + 1 / 4 to 4 + 3 / 4 pounds (1.5–2.2 kg) with
14628-516: The top of the blade. Examples of Egyptian adzes can be found in museums and on the Petrie Museum website. A depiction of an adze was also used as a hieroglyph , representing the consonants stp , "chosen", and used as: ...Pharaoh XX, chosen of God/Goddess YY... The ahnetjer ( Manuel de Codage transliteration: aH-nTr ) depicted as an adze-like instrument, was used in the Opening of
14766-426: The use of broadsides (coordinated fire by the battery of cannon on one side of a warship ) became increasingly dominant in battle, tactics changed. The evolving line-of-battle tactic, first used in an ad hoc way, required ships to form single-file lines and close with the enemy fleet on the same tack, battering the enemy fleet until one side had had enough and retreated. Any manoeuvres would be carried out with
14904-543: The vessel structure, other than small bolts and nails. Active service was resumed from February 1817 when she was relisted as a first-rate carrying 104 guns. However, her condition remained poor, and in January 1822, she was towed into dry dock at Portsmouth for repairs to her hull. Refloated in January 1824, she was designated as the Port admiral 's flagship for Portsmouth Harbour, remaining in this role until April 1830. In 1831
15042-523: The waterline. The first of these problems was rectified after launch by increasing the ship's ballast to settle her upright on the keel. The second problem, regarding the siting of the lower gunports, could not be rectified. Instead it was noted in Victory ' s sailing instructions that these gunports would have to remain closed and unusable in rough weather. This had potential to limit Victory ' s firepower, though in practice none of her subsequent actions would be fought in rough seas. Because there
15180-526: Was HMS Wellesley , which was sunk by an air raid in 1940, during the Second World War ; she was briefly re-floated in 1948 before being broken up. Adze An adze ( / æ d z / ) or adz is an ancient and versatile cutting tool similar to an axe but with the cutting edge perpendicular to the handle rather than parallel. Adzes have been used since the Stone Age . They are used for smoothing or carving wood in hand woodworking , and as
15318-539: Was Victory's last action of the war; hostilities ended in September 1783 and she was placed in ordinary. In 1787, Victory was ordered to be readied for service following a revolt in the Netherlands but before she could put to sea, a Prussian invasion , leading to the signing of the Triple Alliance treaty removed the threat. Victory was seaworthy for the Nootka Crisis in 1790 however, when she
15456-451: Was floated on 7 May 1765, having cost £63,176 and 3 shillings , the equivalent of £10.9 million today. On the day of the launch, shipwright Hartly Larkin, designated "foreman afloat" for the event, suddenly realised that the ship might not fit through the dock gates. Measurements at first light confirmed his fears: the gates were at least 9½ inches too narrow. He told his superior, master shipwright John Allin, who considered abandoning
15594-425: Was a suitable name, since the previous Victory had been lost with all hands in 1744. A team of 150 workmen was assigned to construct Victory ' s frame. Around 6,000 trees were used in her construction, of which 90% were oak and the remainder elm , pine and fir , together with a small quantity of lignum vitae . The wood of the hull was held in place by six-foot copper bolts, supported by treenails for
15732-412: Was an early 16th-century English carrack or " great ship ". She was heavily armed with 78 guns and 91 after an upgrade in the 1530s. Built in Portsmouth in 1510–1512, she was one of the earliest purpose-built men-of-war in the English navy. She was over 500 tons burthen and had a keel of over 32 metres (105 ft) and a crew of over 200 sailors, composed of 185 soldiers and 30 gunners. Although
15870-596: Was armed as a conventional ship of the line, but her steam engines could give her a speed of 12 knots (22 km/h; 14 mph), regardless of the wind conditions – a potentially decisive advantage in a naval engagement. Eight sister ships to Napoléon were built in France over a period of ten years, but the United Kingdom soon took the lead in production, in number of both purpose-built and converted units. Altogether, France built 10 new wooden steam battleships and converted 28 from older battleship units, while
16008-498: Was better suited than the galley to wield gunpowder weapons. Because of their development for conditions in the Atlantic , these ships were more weatherly than galleys and better suited to open waters. The lack of oars meant that large crews were unnecessary, making long journeys more feasible. Their disadvantage was that they were entirely reliant on the wind for mobility. Galleys could still overwhelm great ships, especially when there
16146-452: Was buried in St. Paul's Cathedral on 9 January 1806. The Admiralty Board considered Victory too old, and in too great a disrepair, to be restored as a first-rate ship of the line. In November 1807, she was relegated to second-rate, with the removal of two 32-pounder cannon and replacement of her middle deck 24-pounders with 18-pounders obtained from other laid-up ships. She was recommissioned as
16284-407: Was declared unfit for active service and left anchored off Chatham Dockyard. In December 1798 she was ordered to be converted to a hospital ship to hold wounded French and Spanish prisoners of war . However, on 8 October 1799, HMS Impregnable was lost off Chichester , having run aground on her way back to Portsmouth after escorting a convoy to Lisbon . She could not be refloated and so
16422-523: Was described as "nothing short of an insult". A few glimpses of the ship in 1918 are to be seen towards the end of Maurice Elvey's biopic of Nelson created in that year. By 1921 the ship was in a very poor state, and a public Save the Victory campaign was started, with shipping magnate Sir James Caird as a major contributor. On 12 January 1922, her condition was so poor that she would no longer stay afloat, and had to be moved into No. 2 dock at Portsmouth,
16560-402: Was discovered that the hull had been moving at a rate of half a centimetre each year, for a total of around 20 cm since the 1970s. To combat this, a new prop system was installed over a period of three years from 2018 to 2021, which allows for precise readings of the stresses on the hull and a more even distribution of the stress, which will help preserve the ship. From this work a new walkway
16698-481: Was going well for Britain; land victories had been won at Quebec and Minden and naval battles had been won at Lagos and Quiberon Bay . It was the Annus Mirabilis , or Wonderful Year, and the ship's name may have been chosen to commemorate the victories or it may have been chosen simply because out of the seven names shortlisted, Victory was the only one not in use. There were some doubts whether this
16836-414: Was installed under the hull of HMS Victory to enable visitors to explore under the hull of the ship and stern itself. The lower mainmast of Victory was removed in 2021 for conservation which was the beginning of a major set of works to construct a large scaffold over the ship to allow for hull replanking over the next decade. The scaffold allows shipwrights access to the ship's hull to remove and replace
16974-406: Was little wind and they had a numerical advantage, but as great ships increased in size, galleys became less and less useful. Another detriment was the high forecastle , which interfered with the sailing qualities of the ship; the bow would be forced low into the water while sailing before the wind. But as guns were introduced and gunfire replaced boarding as the primary means of naval combat during
17112-530: Was no immediate use for her, she was placed in ordinary and moored in the River Medway . Internal fitting out continued over the next four years, and sea trials were completed in 1769, after which she was returned to her Medway berth. She remained there until France joined the American War of Independence in 1778. Victory was now placed in active service as part of a general mobilisation against
17250-476: Was one fatality aboard Victory ; a cannonball narrowly missed Jervis and decapitated a nearby sailor. "I have also observed that the ship is very weak abaft ; the transoms between the lower and middle decks work [bend] exceedingly." — Naval architect Sir Robert Seppings , describing defects aboard Victory , September 1796 On her return to England, Victory was examined for seaworthiness and found to have significant weaknesses in her stern timbers. She
17388-603: Was present at the Battle of the Solent against Francis I of France in 1545 (in which Mary Rose sank) but appears to have been more of a diplomatic vessel, sailing on occasion with sails of gold cloth. Indeed, the great ships were almost as well known for their ornamental design (some ships, like the Vasa , were gilded on their stern scrollwork ) as they were for the power they possessed. Carracks fitted for war carried large- calibre guns aboard. Because of their higher freeboard and greater load-bearing ability, this type of vessel
17526-458: Was relegated to the role of harbour ship. In 1922, she was moved to a dry dock at Portsmouth , England , and preserved as a museum ship . She has been the flagship of the First Sea Lord since October 2012. In December 1758, William Pitt the Elder , as head of the British government, placed an order for the building of 12 ships, including a first-rate ship that would become Victory . During
17664-409: Was replaced along with her masts and the paint scheme changed from red to the black and yellow seen today. Her gun ports were originally yellow to match the hull, but later repainted black, giving a pattern later called the "Nelson chequer" , which was adopted by most Royal Navy ships in the decade following the Battle of Trafalgar. The work was completed in April 1803, and the ship left for Portsmouth
17802-609: Was stationed in the Channel. The crisis was resolved peacefully and after taking part in several patrols, Victory returned to Spithead on 1 September 1790. Despite paying off, she remained anchored there into the new year when she was refitted in preparation for the Russian Armament . Pilots with a specific knowledge of the Baltic Sea were taken on board in case the fleet was sent there to thwart Russian ambition but in July,
17940-561: Was stripped and dismantled. Now short of a three-decked ship of the line, the Admiralty decided to recondition Victory . Work started in 1800, but as it proceeded, an increasing number of defects were found and the repairs developed into a very extensive reconstruction. The original estimate was £23,500, but the final cost was £70,933. Extra gun ports were added, taking her from 100 guns to 104, and her magazine lined with copper. The open galleries along her stern were removed; her figurehead
18078-491: Was taken in 1920, but the need to undertake these important repairs meant this was not achieved until 2005, in time for the Trafalgar 200 celebrations of which HMS Victory was centre stage for the event. Victory ' s fore topsail was severely damaged during the Battle of Trafalgar, perforated by upwards of 90 cannonballs and other projectiles. It was replaced after the battle, but was preserved and eventually displayed in
18216-467: Was that night working its way to Cadiz. The darkness and a dense fog meant Nelson was able to pass through the enemy fleet without being spotted and join Jervis on 13 February. Jervis, whose fleet had been reinforced on 5 February by five ships from Britain under Rear-Admiral William Parker , now had 15 ships of the line. The following morning, having drawn up his fleet into two columns, Jervis impressed upon
18354-464: Was the first to break off and attack the main fleet as Jervis had wanted, and other ships soon followed his example. The British fleet not only achieved its main objective, that of preventing the Spanish from joining their French and Dutch allies in the channel, but also captured four ships. The dead and wounded from these four ships alone amounted to 261 and 342, respectively; more than the total number of British casualties of 73 dead and 327 wounded. There
18492-532: Was the flagship of the Second Sea Lord . She is the oldest commissioned warship in the world and attracts around 350,000 visitors per year in her role as a museum ship. The current and 101st commanding officer is Lieutenant Commander Brian Smith, who assumed command in May 2015. Since this contract was placed, the most significant change has been on 5 March 2012, when ownership of the ship was transferred from
18630-454: Was the fleet flagship of a powerful escort flotilla for a convoy of transports which resupplied Gibraltar in the event of a blockade by the French and Spanish navies. No resistance was encountered on entering the straits and the supplies were successfully unloaded. There was a minor engagement at the time of departure, in which Victory did not fire a shot. The British ships were under orders to return home and did so without major incident. This
18768-578: Was too damaged to be moved; the Admiralty formally adopted their advice, and No. 2 dock thereafter became Victory ' s permanent home. On 21 October 1922 the Admiral of the Fleet Sir Doveton Sturdee issued a further public plea for "many thousands of pounds" of public donations in The Times . He wrote: "The value of the Victory is no transitory thing. She must be preserved in order that our children's children may draw from her
18906-410: Was under orders to meet up with Cornwallis off Brest, but after 24 hours of searching failed to find him. Nelson, anxious to reach the Mediterranean without delay, decided to transfer to Amphion off Ushant. The Dispatches and Letters (see above) record on page 71 "Tuesday 24 May (i.e. 23 May p.m.) Hove to at 7.40, Out Boats. The Admiral shifted his flag to the Amphion. At 7.50 Lord Nelson came on board
19044-407: Was while under Admiral Horatio Nelson at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805. Although Victory has been in dry dock since the 1920s, she is still a fully commissioned warship in the Royal Navy and is the oldest commissioned warship in any navy worldwide. Regalskeppet Vasa sank in lake Mälaren in 1628 and was lost until 1956. She was then raised intact, in remarkably good condition, in 1961 and
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