HMS Victory

The grandest exhibit in Porstmouth.

In New England we have the USS Constitution, Old Ironsides and in Mystic the whaler Charles Morgan.  Both are very impressive but Ironsides was a frigate.

HMS Victory, about half the length of HMS Warrior, it is a 104-gun first-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, ordered in 1758, laid down in 1759 and launched in 1765. She is best known as Lord Nelson’s flagship at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805.

When you are onboard the decks are so low you think that men must have been much smaller at that time but it turns out the average height was about one inch less than today.  And the ships carpenter was 6’7″!

First gundeck

The base of the main mast was nearly 4 feet thick

Flintlock firing mechanism

Gotta eat!

And as battle approached the surgeon laid out his tools

In the accompaning museum the words that Admiral Nelson signaled prior to the battle of Trafalgar.

 

So glad I was aboard this historic ship