ix HMS Victory, inextricably linked as it is with Admiral Lord Nelson, the Battle of Trafalgar and today’s Royal Navy – the oldest commissioned warship in the world and flagship of the Second Sea Lord and Commanderin-Chief Naval Home Command. It is an amazing coincidence that this ship, which is forever associated with Nelson, was ordered in the year of his birth, and that her construction was begun before his first birthday. Victory’s keel was laid on 23 July 1759 in the Old Single Dock (Number 2) at Chatham Royal Dockyard, with construction continuing for six years. Designed by Sir Thomas Slade, the Senior Surveyor of the Navy (1755-71), she was the biggest warship ever built for the British fleet. Carrying 100 guns on three decks and with a length of 69.34 metres and a beam of 15.8 metres, she displaced 3,556 tonnes and drew 7.44 metres of water ‘at mean load’. Some 6,000 oak and elm trees from the depleted Wealden forests of Kent and Sussex and oak and fir from the Baltic were used in her construction. The reason she enjoyed such a long fighting career was that much of this timber was more than a century old. It had been deliberately stockpiled to create a new first rate at a future date. This also accounts, in part, for why she has survived to this day. In January 1922, thanks to the efforts of the Society for Nautical Research, Victory was permanently dry-docked in Number 2 Dock, HM Naval Base, Portsmouth, where she has been variously restored, repaired and lovingly preserved ever since. The 1805 Club is honoured to be among the organisations that are officially regarded by the Royal Navy as ‘stakeholders’. Under its developing Naval Heritage Strategy the Royal Navy is demonstrating its duty of care for this magnificent ship at a difficult time. Victory is part of an over-stretched defence budget and it is clearly a challenge to justify monies for the preservation of her ‘wood and tar’ when sailors and marines requiring adequate kit are at risk of their lives in operational theatres. Last winter up to 40 per cent of Britain’s forces in Afghanistan were from the Royal Navy and Royal Marines. Nevertheless, there is no doubt about the flagship’s enduring significance. Lord West of Spithead, when First Sea Lord, believed, ‘she should act as a reminder that the reasons for her being created in the first place still stand, that today and into the future, Britain needs to understand the worth of its Navy and its vital role in securing the nation’. The late and lamented Dr Colin White expressed this belief more succinctly when he simply described her as ‘the beating heart’ of the Royal Navy, its standards and traditions: an icon for all those who have served and continue
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