About HMS Victory
Ship Information
The fleet Flagship, Nelson on board.
Ship Commander - Capt Thomas Masterman Hardy
Number of guns - 100
Killed in the battle - 57
Injured in the battle - 102
About HMS Victory
The VICTORY was the fifth ship of the Royal Navy to bear this name. The first launched in 1559 was the flagship of Sir John Hawkins at the defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588. Her successors were launched in 1620, 1675 and 1737.
Nelson’s HMS VICTORY was conceived in December 1758, within just a few months of his birth, when King George II’s ministers decided to build twelve ships of the line, the largest to be a fine first rate of 100 guns. The Navy Board placed the order a year later at the height of the Seven Years’ War. The year 1759 was dubbed Annus Mirabilis or ‘wonderful year’ because Britain won a remarkable series of victories and this is probably why she was given her name.
Designed by Sir Thomas Slade, one of the best naval architects of the day, she was launched from Old Single Dock, at Chatham Dockyard on 7 May 1765, six years after her keel was laid. Her construction had used over 2000 oak trees, equivalent to 60 acres of forest. England was now at peace and so the VICTORY was laid up ‘in ordinary’, or reserve, and remained in the Medway until 1778, when she was fully fitted with masts, 27 miles of rigging and four acres of sail. She became the flagship of Admiral Augustus Keppel and fought her first but indecisive action off Ushant.
She soon acquired the reputation of being a fine and manoeuvrable sailer and was popular with admirals like Richard Kempenfelt and Lord Howe, who was in command at the relief of Gibraltar in 1782. However, on her return to Portsmouth she was paid off and did not go into action again until the start of the French Revolutionary Wars. In 1793 she was the flagship of Lord Hood and took part in the capture of Toulon, and in 1794 she was involved in operations against Bastia, Calvi and San Fiorenzo during the capture of Corsica. At Calvi men and guns from VICTORY were landed under the command of Captain Horatio Nelson, who lost the sight of his right eye from a wound during the action.
On 14 February 1797, VICTORY, now the flagship of Admiral Sir John Jervis, was at the Battle of Cape St Vincent where she played a significant role battering the Spanish ships at the start of the battle. She was badly damaged during the action and was sent home where she served as a hospital ship for prisoners of war. It looked as if her career was over.
However, in 1801 she was docked for a ‘great repair’ and modernisation, and was re-commissioned two years later and Vice Admiral Lord Nelson hoisted his flag in May 1803. For the next two years and more Nelson was at sea in the Mediterranean playing ‘cat and mouse with these fellows’, the French, and VICTORY was maintained by her own crew at sea or at anchor in the sheltered waters of the Maddelana Islands, Sardinia. She returned to England for a brief respite in August 1805 before Nelson took her to Cadiz to intercept the Combined Fleet of France and Spain, fighting the Battle of Trafalgar on 21 October 1805. Nelson was mortally wounded and died in the VICTORY’s cockpit at the height of the action, knowing that he had secured a stunning victory. Damaged by the battle and still shipping water, VICTORY brought Nelson’s body home preserved in a barrel of brandy and 48 members of her crew attended the coffin during the funeral at St Paul’s Cathedral.
VICTORY continued in service until November 1812, for the large part as flagship to Rear Admiral Sir James Saumerez in the Baltic, when she again went into ordinary. In 1823 she was re-commissioned as the flagship of the pot admiral at Portsmouth where she lay permanently at anchor for one hundred years. She became a shrine and a visitor attraction but deteriorated badly. Then in 1921 The Society for Nautical Research raised funds to provide a permanent berth for her at Portsmouth where she has since been carefully restored to her 1805 condition and retains her status as a fully commissioned ship in the Royal Navy, serving as the flagship of the Second Sea Lord.
VICTORY is 226 ft 6 ins from figure head to taffrail, has a keel length of 151 ft 3 ins and extreme breadth of 51 ft 10 ins. Her tonnage is 2,162 tons and as Nelson’s flagship carried 30 thirty-two pounders on the lower gun deck, 28 twenty-four pounders on the middle gun deck, 30 twelve pounders on the upper gun deck plus two 68 pound carronades on the forecastle. Her full complement was 850 officers and men, but at Trafalgar she carried 821.
Many thanks to Alan Aberg at the Society for Nautical Research for providing us with information on the ships and their commanders.
