Designed by Sir Thomas Slade, Surveyor of the Navy, the keel for H.M.S. Victory was laid July 23, 1759. She was one of only 10 First Rate Ships of the Line built by England in the 18th century. Heavy and cumbersome, large and very expensive, First Rate's were awkward in battle and usually relegated to be the Admiral's flagship. Nonetheless if the seas were calm and the first deck of cannons (which was close to the waterline) could be utilized, the firepower they could unleash was truly awesome. It was customary to let a ship of the line season for several months after the frame was built. H.M.S. Victory was left to season for nearly three years because of the Seven Years War and this greatly contributed to her longevity. Approximately 6,000 trees were used in her construction, most of them oak. She was launched in 1765, but not commissioned until 1778. Victory's total cost was £63,176 and 3 shillings (present day £50 million). For the next 13 years, H.M.S. Victory was placed in ordinary, roofed over, demasted and moored in the River Medway for 13 years until France joined the American War of Independence. Victory would now see active service and participation in major battles over more than three decades. Her first major engagement was under the flag of Admiral the Honorable Augustus Keppel. On July 23 1778 with a fleet of 30 ships of the line, Keppel sighted a French fleet of twenty-nine ships 100 miles (160 km) west of Ushant. The French Admiral had orders to avoid battle, but that could not be done on a day of nasty wind and rain squalls. Keppel botched the strategy, his ships placed to the rear suffered serious losses and he was later court martialed. On December 2, 1781, Victory, now commanded by Captain Henry Cromwell and bearing the flag of Rear Admiral Richard Kempenfelt began the Second Battle of Ushant. With 11 major fighting ships plus smaller vessels, Cromwell went after a French convoy unaware it was protected by 21 ships of the line. Bad weather and good luck favored the English and Cromwell captured 15 ships of the convoy. In 1796 Captain Robert Calder (First Captain) and Captain George Grey (Second Captain) took command of Victory under the flag of Admiral Sir John Jervis. Sir John Jervis sailed from the Tagus on January 18, 1797 with fifteen ship of the line and six frigates. Important intelligence allowed Jervis to intercept a Spanish fleet and The Battle of St. Vincent began. Principe de Asturias led the Spanish leeward division and tried to break through the British line ahead or astern of Victory. Victory poured such tremendous cannon fire into her, followed by several raking broadsides, that the Spanish fleet sailed away in retreat. Horatio Nelson, who was later to lead H.M.S. Victory in the monumental Battle of Trafalgar, was present and played an important role. A brief stint as a hospital ship was followed by an Admiralty decision to recondition H.M.S. Victory for active battle duty once again. The repairs were extensive and the final cost was £70,933. Extra gun ports were added bringing the total to 104 and "and her magazine was lined with copper. [In March, 1780, Victory was sheathed below the waterline to protect against shipworm ] Her figurehead 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 were repainted black, creating a pattern that was later called the "Nelson chequer". The Nelson chequer was subsequently adopted by all Royal Navy ships after the Battle of Trafalgar. The work was completed on 11 April 1803 and the ship left for Portsmouth on 14 May under her new captain, Samuel Sutton." Battle of Trafalgar Victory's most famous role was that of Admiral Nelson's flagship in the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805. "Lord Nelson hoisted his flag in Victory on 16 May 1803 with Samuel Sutton as his flag captain and sailed to assume command in the Mediterranean on May 20. Nelson transferred to the faster frigate Amphion on 23 May. On May 28 Captain Sutton captured the French Embuscade of 32 guns, bound for Rochefort from San Domingo. Victory rejoined Lord Nelson off Toulon on July 30 when Captain Sutton exchanged commands with the captain of the Amphion, Thomas Masterman Hardy. Victory was passing the island of Toro on April 4, 1805, when HMS Phoebe brought 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 Cadiz to link up with the Spanish fleet." On 7 May Nelson reached Gibraltar, completed the acquisition of provisions in Lagos Bay, Portugal, on May 10. Two days later he sailed westward with ten ships and three frigates to pursue 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 chase was on! "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. The Spanish had to land wounded and abandon three damaged ships. Calder on 14 August and Nelson on 15 August joined Admiral Cornwallis's Channel Fleet off Ushant. Nelson continued to England in Victory leaving his Mediterranean fleet with Cornwallis who detached twenty of his thirty-three ships of the line and sent them under Calder to find the combined Franco-Spanish fleet at Ferrol which was soon learned to have arrived in Cadiz instead. On the evening of Saturday, 28 September, Lord Nelson joined Lord Collingwood's fleet off Cadiz, quietly, so that his presence would not be known. Nelson then flew his famous signal flag: "England expects that every man will do his duty. "Nelson was a man of genius-the greatest hero of the Napoleonic era. His greatest quality was his ability to inspire everybody, irrespective of rank; that they were part of a brotherhood, and for this, the men loved him and there was nothing they wouldn’t do for him." "When Admiral Villeneuve learned that he was to be removed from command he took his ships to sea on the morning of October 19, first sailing south towards the Mediterranean but then turning north towards the British fleet, beginning the Battle of Trafalgar. Nelson had already made his plans: to break 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. In [any] event, fitful winds made it a slow business. For five hours after Nelson's last maneuvering signal the two columns of British ships slowly approached the French line before the Royal Sovereign, leading the lee column, was able to open fire on Fougueux. Twenty five minutes later Victory broke the line between Bucentaure and Redoutable firing a double shotted broadside into the stern of the former from a range of a few yards. [Fire from the French ship of the line was equally murderous. Blood literally ran along the decks that were soon filled with the dead, and maimed, screaming men.] Such killing had taken place on Victory's quarter deck that Redoutable attempted to board her, but the marines and small arms men repelled them." "Suddenly at 1.10pm, the two men-of-war were alongside each other and their rigging locked them together. The gun crews, with their guns nearly touching the French ship, continued to fire into the hull and decks, whilst the French ship fired at their masts and rigging. On the main deck, the royal marine privates John Thompson, William Cook, John Jackson and William Smith were firing their muskets at the French crew and mentally preparing themselves for hand to hand combat." At 1.25pm, the privates witnessed a moment in history they will never forget. Nelson was walking on the quarterdeck in the full Admirals uniform he had decided to wear. Few men in history have had the magnetic charisma and leadership authority as did the battle scarred, one eyed, one-armed Lord Horatio Nelson, but on this day he had made a fateful decision. A sharp shooter on the French ship [easily] spotted Nelson and taking aim, fired. The ball struck Nelson in the shoulder, passed through his lung and shattered his spine. The crew watched horrified as Nelson collapsed to the deck. Thomas Hardy, Victory's captain, rushed to his side and as he knelt down to comfort him Nelson said 'they have done for me Hardy, my backbone is shot through.' Nelson's last order was for the fleet to anchor but this was rejected by Vice Admiral Collingwood. Lord Nelson died at half past four in the afternoon. The Redoutable struck her colors and surrendered in the late afternoon. Victory lost 57 killed and 102 wounded but the cost to the French Man of War was horrific: 487 officers and men died out of total crew of 643. The French Navy never recovered from their defeat at Trafalgar, and Britain was to dominate the world's seas for the next century. Preserved in a barrel of brandy, Victory took Nelson's body to England where, after lying in state at Greenwich, he was buried in St. Paul's Cathedral on January 6, 1806." He has been viewed as a national hero ever since. Victory bore many Admiral's flags after Trafalgar, and sailed on numerous expeditions, including two Baltic campaigns under Admiral Sir James Saumarez. Her active career ended on November 7, 1812, when she was moored in Portsmouth Harbour off Gosport and used as a depot ship. The campaign to save her began in 1921 and she was moved to the oldest dry dock in the world at Portsmouth in 1922. The British government soon recognized the value of preserving this supreme treasure of naval history. H.M.S. Victory was restored to the condition she was in for the Battle of Trafalgar in the years preceding the bicentenary celebration of that battle in October, 2005. Today she is the world's oldest commissioned warship, although the U.S.S. Constitution launched 30 years after Victory is the oldest warship still afloat. For a fine history of this great ship of the line and Lord Nelson see the Wikipedia article about H.M.S.Victory, the Broadside page about The Battle of Trafalgar and Essays on the 200th Anniversary of the Battle of Trafalgar. Also important to this historical summary was a document Muster List of H.M.S. Victory at the Battle of Trafalgar. For excellent photographs and information about Victory as a naval museum at Portsmouth see H.M.S.Victory at Portsmouth.

Resolution is 1245 (width) x 779 (height), 225 dpi for the digital file available for commercial license that was made from an early 20th century real photo postcard. As Victory is clearly afloat in this photograph, I am tempted to suggest a date prior to 1922. The presentation digital image on this page has been enhanced. We can provide both the original digital file and a copy that is enhanced for contrast.

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