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Restoration

HMS Victory is most famous for her role as Nelson's flagship at the Battle of Trafalgar. Chatham Dockyard launched her in 1765. After 34 years of active service, in 1812, HMS Victory was retired from frontline duty and anchored in Portsmouth Harbour.

This section of the Sea Your History website will explain why the decision was taken to restore the Victory, look at some of the damage she suffered and investigate who worked on her and what they did.

Listen to this oral history extract from Dr Robert George Whitelock Prescott, recorded in 1998 to find out why HMS Victory is important.

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Transcript:

"The Victory is an immensely important ship by a number of standards, and if we're going to save any ships from the past, you know, she is one of the oldest surviving ships in Britain. She is that very rare thing a first class line of battleship and we don't have another alternative example we could choose. And she has the very strong historical association with famous individuals and famous events - the Nelson connection and Trafalgar and so on. And those are all important reasons for saying that the ship is historically significant. Age, scarcity, value, strong historical association and so on."