Trafalgar Day: HMS Victory
Last September I visited the Historic Dockyard at Portsmouth which is home to not only HMS Victory but also HMS Warrior, the Monitor HMS M33 and the preserved Mary Rose as well as historic Royal Navy Dockyard buildings containing museums and exhibitions. With today (21st October, 2019) being Trafalgar Day and the 214th anniversary of the momentous Napoleonic Naval Battle I thought I’d post some of the photographs I took during my visit to Victory - Admiral Nelson’s flagship and the last surviving ship of the line to take part in the battle.
Victory is currently painted as she would have been during the Battle of Trafalgar following research into just how she would have looked. Rather than her original red, the much later black and white or the famous bright yellow and black (with the black gun ports of the so-called Nelson-chequer) she is painted in a paler yellow/orange with a dark grey.
Some of Victory’s long 12 pounder guns on her maindeck with a carpenter’s chest open on display.
A view down one of Victory’s three gun decks which contain 32, 24, and 12 pounder guns. If memory serves these are some of the 32 pounders one the lower gun deck.
It is interesting to contrast the next few photos showing how officers and then ordinary seamen slept aboard Victory.
The hammocks slung here represent a small portion of how packed the deck would have been.
Some information about the ship and a beautifully painted Royal Coat of Arms above it.
Another shot of Victory’s main gun deck.
The stern window in HMS Victory’s Great Cabin on the upper gun deck. These would have been Nelson’s quarters.
The Victory had a crew of over 800 and were fed by a large galley. Each man received one hot meal per day. This is Victory’s large Brodie stove.
When Nelson was shot and mortally wounded on the quarterdeck of Victory at around 1pm, by a French marksman aboard Redoutable. Nelson was quietly carried below dying three hours later. The wreath and lantern mark where he spent his last hours in the ship’s cockpit on the orlop deck, below the waterline.
One of Victory’s 68 pounder carronades on her forecastle aiming out over some of the historic dockyard buildings. Carronades were short, relatively lightweight guns for their calibre. They were invented in the late 1770s and packed a huge short-range punch.
Finally here’s a look at the hydraulic jacks which support Victory in dry dock.
I’ve written more about the historic 1805 battle previously, find that here.
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