Portsmouth, England

 Portsmouth, United Kingdom, x
Nov 102023
 

November 10, 2o23

HMS Warrior (launched in 1860) has been restored to its original Victorian condition.

Portsmouth’s history dates to the Roman times. It is said that Portsmouth was founded c. 1180 by Anglo-Norman merchant Jean de Gisors.

The city is home to the first drydock ever built. It was constructed by Henry VII in 1496. Portsmouth has served as a significant Royal Navy dockyard and base for centuries.

The Dockyard, which is still a major source of employment, dates from 1496 when the town was already a naval base. It was greatly expanded after 1698 and now covers more than 300 acres. In the 1860s, four masonry forts were built along the Spithead to defend the port and naval base.

Portsmouth is the birthplace of notable people such as author Charles Dickens, engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel, former Prime Minister James Callaghan, and actor Peter Sellers.

 

Spinnaker Tower

The Spinnaker Tower is a 560-foot-tall observation tower built to be the centerpiece of the redevelopment of Portsmouth harbor.  The tower’s design was chosen by Portsmouth residents from a selection of three different designs in a 1998 public poll.

The tower was designed by local firm HGP Architects and engineering consultants Scott Wilson and built by Mowlem.

The Portsmouth Naval Memorial

The Portsmouth Naval Memorial commemorates approximately 25,000 British and Commonwealth sailors who were lost in the World Wars, around 10,000 sailors in the First World War, and 15,000 in the Second World War. The memorial features a central obelisk, with names of the dead on bronze plaques arranged around the memorial according to the year of death.

The Royal Garrison Church

The Royal Garrison Church is thought to have been built in 1212 by the Bishop of Winchester as part of a hospital and hostel for pilgrims. After the Reformation, it was used as an ammunition store before becoming part of the governor of Portsmouth’s house during Elizabeth I’s reign.

King Charles II married there in 1662. The church was destroyed by fire bombs on January 10, 1941, but the chancel survived.

The Cathedral Church of St Thomas of Canterbury, more commonly known as Portsmouth Cathedral, is an Anglican cathedral church. It is the cathedral of the Diocese of Portsmouth and the seat of the bishop of Portsmouth.

 

A sweet little planter with a little girl reading a book underneath. This sits in the reflective garden of Portsmouth Cathedral.

Portsmouth Cathedral

Found on the lawn in front of Portsmouth Cathedral

Portsmouth suffered severe aerial bomb damage during World War II, and substantial clearance and rebuilding took place in the postwar decade.

Ancient grave markers in the front of the Portsmouth Cathedral

Vernon Gate of Gunwharf Quay

Gunwharf Quay is now a shopping center.  It was constructed in the early 21st century on the site of what had once been HM Gunwharf, Portsmouth. Gunwharf was one of several such facilities that were established around Britain and the Empire by the Board of Ordnance, where cannons, ammunition, and other armaments were stored, repaired, and serviced, ready for use on land or at sea. Later known as HMS Vernon, the military site closed in 1995 and opened to the public as Gunwharf Quays in February 2001.

Boundry Walls of Gunwharf Quay

Point Battery (which is also known by its earlier name, Eighteen Gun Battery) is a former gun emplacement.

The gun battery was created as part of Bernard de Gomme’s rebuilding of the fortifications around Portsmouth in the late seventeenth century.

Vice-Admiral John Benbow (March 10, 1653 – November 4, 1702)

A figurehead that caught my fancy in the museum

This is just a very small sampling of Portsmouth, as I only really had one day, but it is truly a delightful town with the most amazing and informative museums.

The HMS Victory

 Portsmouth, United Kingdom, x
Nov 102023
 

Portsmouth, England

November 9, 2023

The HMS Victory is undergoing a massive overhaul, so I was not able to see her as a whole ship from the outside.  The inside, however, is an amazing walk through history.  It is difficult to convey through pictures or even words, but the 2-3 hours I spent on The Victory were some of the most enlightening and fascinating hours I have ever spent learning history.

A quick look at the exterior of the ship and its restoration.

I am an American. And yet I know who Admiral Nelson was and The Battle of Trafalgar, but when you walk this ship, you really do feel like you are in the battle from beginning to end.  It is a very special experience.

The Battle of Trafalgar was to witness both the defeat of Napoleon Bonaparte’s plans to invade Britain and the death of Admiral Lord Nelson.

The prow of the Victory

HMS Victory is a 104-gun first-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy. She was ordered in 1758, laid down in 1759, and launched in 1765. In the rating system of the British Royal Navy used to categorize sailing warships, a first-rate was the designation for the largest ships of the line. Building the HMS Victory took around 6,000 trees 90% were oak, and the remainder were elm, pine, and fir.

She is still a commissioned ship, so she has 245 years of service as of 2023, the world’s oldest naval vessel still in commission.

Victory is best known for her role as Lord Nelson’s flagship at the Battle of Trafalgar on October 21st, 1805.

Touring the Victory is a several-hour process and worth every moment.  You begin at the top and work your way down to the hold.  All along, there are history stops and volunteers that ensure you are the most well-informed person regarding the HMS Victory and the Battle of Trafalgar when you leave.

What one does not really comprehend is how someone such as Horatio Nelson was as revered and admired as any rock star of today.  His movements followed, his battles studied, and his death a major state period of mourning.

What never comes across in movies or books is how even the Captain’s rooms are broken down and turned into cannon sites.  The lovely blue paneling and doors could be taken down and stored or simply thrown overboard should the ship find itself in a surprise attack. Thus turning the entire area into a battery of cannons.

This is Nelson’s bed. The man only had one arm, so getting in and out of a ship’s bed such as this was something he could do on his own.  He was a very proud man and would not accept the help of others when doing simple everyday tasks.

This is what one thinks of when one thinks of sleeping on a ship.

The Carpenters Walk

One of the larger cannons on the HMS Victory. The lead sheathing on the top was to protect the firing pin area from the elements until it was needed.

A battery of 32-pounder cannons. The 32-pounder guns were sets of heavy-caliber pieces of artillery mounted on warships in the last century of the Age of Sail. It was usually the most powerful armament on a warship. The British version fired a 32-pound projectile at about .3 miles per second. They were most famous for being mounted on HMS Victory.

Firing mechanisms changed over the years to become safer. If that is actually possible, this was a newer flintlock system.

Tools used in cannon operation and firing.

This marks the spot where Admiral Horatio Nelson was hit by a musket ball fired from an enemy ship at a range of 50 feet. The ball entered his left shoulder, passed through a lung, then his spine at the sixth and seventh vertebrae, and lodged two inches below his right shoulder blade in the muscles of his back.

Nelson was carried below decks and died on this spot at half-past four in the afternoon, three hours after he had been shot.  The man asked not to be thrown into the sea.  Instead, his body was placed in a cask of brandy mixed with camphor and myrrh, which was then lashed to the Victory’s mainmast and placed under guard. The HMS Victory had to be towed to Gibraltar after the battle, and on arrival, Nelson’s body was transferred to a lead-lined coffin filled with spirits of wine.

After laying in state, on January 9th, a funeral procession consisting of 32 admirals, over a hundred captains, and an escort of 10,000 soldiers took the coffin from the Admiralty to St Paul’s Cathedral, where he is buried.

It is well known that rats were an issue on ships.  However, what I learned was that rats love gunpowder and would gnaw through entire barrels to get to it.  This was obviously an issue regarding the gunpowder itself, but also the fact that the rats would be covered in it and scurry around the ship where open flamed lanterns sat about.

For this reason, gunpowder barrels were always lined in copper or lead.

Rats were also a source of food for the hungry sailors, despite the sailors 5000 per day calorie diet.

About 1,500 British seamen were killed or wounded in the Battle of Trafalgar. In the Spanish and French fleet, 14,000 men were lost.

As I have said, this was an amazing experience, and should you find yourself in the neighborhood of Portsmouth, England, set aside a minimum of one to two days to learn about the history of the Age of Sail.