A Childhood Dream come True September 12, 2006

We leave London today for the sunny south of England and Portsmouth. Portsmouth is the principal port for the Royal Navy. For the yacheties among you this is where the term “the hard” comes from. That is when you move a boat to dry land for maintenance or storage it is said to be “on the hard”. The road that runs by the old docks here is named “The Hard” and to have one’s ship in the dry dock for repairs is to have one’s ship on “The Hard”. One of hundreds of terms we still use today that came from the Royal Navy. Phrases like “three squares a day” come from the shape of the seaman’s dishes. ‘Not enough room to swing a cat” refers to floggings and swinging a “Cat-o-Nine Tails”. Sailing is rich with history and vocabulary and this is true no where more than the Royal Navy.

We made our way on the Tube and then the airport express train to the airport and then with the aid of a shuttle bus to the Europcar office to pick up our rental car. The plan is to do an abbreviated driving tour through England, Wales and Scotland over the next three weeks. The tour will include historic castles, walks in the Lake District, bicycling along Hadrian’s Wall and a week in a self catering cottage in the Scottish Highlands. If anyone has any suggestions for things to see or places to stop please email us.

The reason we are in Portsmouth is to see the HMS Victory which is something I have wanted to see since I built a model of the famous ship when I was ten years old. The Victory is the oldest commissioned warship in the world and was the Flagship of Lord Nelson at the Battle of Trafalgar. Trafalgar was a turning point in the Napoleonic Wars as Nelson and the British Fleet defeated the combined Franco Spanish forces. Nelson was killed in this action and elevated to the status of sainthood in the eyes of 19th century Britain. (As a side note; Nelson’s body was transported by to England as one of his last sentence’s to the ship’s surgeon was ”not over the side” referring to the common way of burial at sea. The surgeon placed the body in a cask and filled it with brandy. Six weeks later when they reached England they found the body perfectly preserved. Nelson was given a state funeral, the first man outside of royalty to receive this honor.)

The HMS Victory was launched in 1765 and remained in active service until 1922. The Victory has been “on the hard” here since then but remains a commissioned Royal Navy ship and today serves as the flagship for the Second Lord of the Navy. She has a captain and crew but is open for tours. The tours are guided and take you through several interesting parts of the ship from the main deck to the grand magazine which is the deck above the bilge. The highlight being the “Orlop” or surgery where Nelson actually died after being struck by a musket ball while directing the battle from the main deck. This spot is also marked with a brass plaque. I don’t believe I can give an unbiased opinion, but the tour was very well conducted with a good balance of information, humor and areas of the ship explored. Holly also professed to having enjoyed the tour of the Victory and this sounded genuine, not just an indulgence of my long time desires.

We stopped in the museum on the docks, although we did not have much time before closing, and saw the Top Foresail that was flown during the battle and it is itself the only sail to still survive from the battle and at approximately 3500’ SFT it is the largest textile artifact in the world. The reason it is still with us is that it was severely damaged in the battle with 90+ holes and was hauled down immediately after the battle and stored for years before being rediscovered in the Portsmouth Navy Gymnasium.

Having reveled in my childhood fantasies and fulfilled a dream we walked back to the hotel and called it a day. With only about five hours of sleep last night I expect to sleep well tonight while dreaming of ships, cannon fire and Victory.