HMS VICTORY – THE NATION'S FLAGSHIP

On 7 May 1765 the HMS Victory was floated out of Chatham’s Royal Dockyard. She would become the most famous ships in the British Royal Navy and achieve everlasting fame as the flagship of Vice-Admiral Lord Nelson in Britain’s greatest ever naval victory, the defeat of the French and Spanish at the Battle of Trafalgar.

Life at sea in Napoleonic War was incredibly hard and the physical brutality of fighting at sea in sailing warships difficult to image. The key function of VIictory was to be efficient in battle.…all other considerations gave way to that. Andrew Baines, Head of Historic Ships at the National Museum of the Royal Navy in Portsmouth, takes us on a unique tour of the ship, outlining how Victory functioned at sea and in battle.