Flagship Portsmouth

A trip to see three of the greatest British warships ever built is a must, even for those who are not into wrecks in a big way. Flagship Portsmouth is home to the Mary Rose, HMS Victory and HMS Warrior. It also contains a number of fascinating exhibitions and museums. Across the water is the Gosport Submarine Museum which adds extra enjoyment to the day. Several trips have been run to Flagship Portsmouth and everyone returns feeling that it was a really worthwhile and interesting visit. Here is just an outline of our latest visit.

Our first port of call was the HMS Victory Museum. It gives you a taste of life on board ship and the famous battle of Trafalgar in 1805 through some cleverly depicted images and technical wizardry - watch out for the boom of the canon fire, it makes your heart miss a beat! If battles are not your scene, then upstairs are some beautifully carved figureheads, which have probably seen a great many oceans. We then boarded the ship itself, which feels like a trip back through time.

A guide gives you an excellent tour of this most impressive three masted ship. The low galleys, rows of canons and crammed conditions were where 500 men slept, ate and worked. Live farm animals were also kept on board, so the place was probably humming, as well as crawling with bugs. Life wasn't all bad, a sailor's weekly beer ration in 1734 was 56 pints per week! As well as gruesome tales of limbs being sawn off without anesthetic we were given a vivid depiction of how when the sailors died they were sewn into their hammocks and the needle was pushed through their noses just to make sure there was no life. Then their bodies were cast over the side. For Nelson it was a different story. His hair was cut off and his body was preserved in a barrel of brandy. His mistress Lady Hamilton was given most of the hair and he was buried in St Paul's Cathedral. Eventually she died in poverty, with Nelson's hair, in France - how sad!

The next stop was the Tudor ship the Mary Rose which was excavated by divers and raised on 11^th October, 1982. It had capsized in the Solent on 19^th July, 1545 and this was probably due to the failure to shut the gun ports (well done that man!). The ship is viewed through a long glass walkway, since it is being continually sprayed with a water-soluble wax, polyethylene glycol to preserve it. The treatment will take about another 15 years and is fascinating to watch in itself. The dedicated hard work that has gone into the salvage and preservation of this wreck is simply inspirational.

HMS Warrior is a completely different type of vessel in that it is one of the world's first iron clad warships, with armour plating and a steam engine. It was built in 1861 and although it was steam propelled, it also used masts and sails, since at full speed it burnt 11 tonnes of coal an hour and hence had only a range of 2000 miles. When using the sails, the propeller was raised above the water and the funnels telescoped down. Life on board for the sailors was still fairly crammed, but they had better food rations and the first laundry to be installed on a Royal Naval ship. Twice a week they could have a wash (which is about average for most guys!). There were about 600 sailors living on the gun deck, which was probably still extremely cosy. This masterpiece of marine engineering eventually ended up as a floating jetty for an oil fuel depot at Milford Haven in 1929 before being rescued and taken to Hartlepool in 1979 for restoration by the Warrior Preservation Trust.

Whilst on board the Warrior we noticed that a few people were looking a bit overdressed for a day of sight seeing and it turned out that they had come for a wedding. For £500 you can get married on the warship, but this price excludes the registrar and the reception. Who knows maybe they will be offering honeymoons on HMS Victory, separate hammocks and sharing with 249 other couples!

There is plenty to see at Flagship Portsmouth and the additional visit to the submarine in Gosport is well worth it. The museums with artefacts from the Mary Rose and Nelson's life add to the enjoyment of the warships, as does a stop at the pub on the way home! Even if you don't know your bows from your bilges, Flagship Portsmouth is a trip definitely not be missed!

Sarah Dashfield Feb 2000