Launched in 1765 and now in dry dock at Portsmouth, the magnificent H.M.S. Victory mounted 104 guns and carried a complement of 850 men.
As the card says, it's a picture of the H.M.S. Victory, and Sandra wrote this interesting message on the restoration of the ship:
This world famous ship is currently undergoing a major refit. She recently had her main masts and all the rigging removed. The work will take about 10 years to complete as it is very specialist work. A lot of her will be completely rebuilt. Only about a fifth of the ship is still the original 18th century vessel.
I didn't know it takes that long to restore ships! Then again, I didn't know much about this ship or ships in general (hardly anything at all really), so I read up on it.
She was mainly known for being the flagship of Lord Nelson at the battle of Trafalgar in 1805. She was also used by others, such as Keppel at Ushant, Howe at Cape Spartel and Jervi at Cape St. Vincent, all of which were before the battle of Trafalgar.
She's been a harbor ship since 1824, and preserved as a museum ship in dry dock at Portsmouth since 1922. The H.M.S. Victory is the oldest naval ship still in commission, although the USS Constitution is the oldest one that is still afloat.
She was built by Chatham Dockyard, which is located on the River Medway and has been a visitor attraction since it closed in 1984; and was based on the H.M.S. Royal George.
She spent the first 13 years (!) dismasted and roofed over because they Navy didn't have any use for her. It wasn't until 1778 that Admiral Augustus Keppel decided to use her as his flagship. From then on she saw lots of action until 1824, when she was moored.
The original sails from when she was in the battle of Trafalgar have been perserved and are also on display.
Two little bits of trivia in closing:
* It is said that originally the ship was set to be broken up, and that when Thomas Hardy got home and told his wife that he had signed an order to do just that, she burst into tears and sent him back to rescind it. Whether or not this story is true, the 1831 duty log that has the orders has that day's page torn out.
* Now that the ship is on display, only one of the guns on board is an original from the Battle of Trafalgar. The other ones are fiberglass replicas, because the weight of the armaments on board would damage the structure of the dry dock without the support of sea water to help keep her afloat.
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