Nelson & His World

I received this Google alert re: the decay of HMS Victory.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/enviro ... eight.html

Anna,

This is alarming news if true, but this is a Telegraph report and we all know that journalists like to hype things up. This should certainly not of course be ignored, but it would be good to find a more authoratative source (eg, the MOD or the Victory's own Technical Committee) to consult, besides a newspaper.

From the article is sounds as though these problems have been developing over some years, but one wonders why they haven't surfaced before. If the Victory were to fall to pieces it would be sacriledge indeed, but if the present government are not going to suppy the funding (and they seem hell bent on cuts everywhere at all costs) ways must be found to preserve this icon of Britain's once greatness before it is too late.

Just read it, disturbing after all the restoration before 2005, how could the hull have been missed.? Bad news already at the start of a New Year!

I have long intended to make an alarming, provocative and tongue-in-cheek post here about the Victory collapsing under its own weight, but I have delayed so long that the Telegraph has finally beat me to it. The problems are of course serious, but have been carefully monitored for the last 35 years. Wooden sailing ships were not built to remain in dry dock for a hundred years at a time, hence the structural problems, and the maintenance of the hull is a process of continual repair and replacement to counter the expected deterioration. As Kester suggests, while the report contains some facts, it simply hypes up information, much of which was published in official reports several months ago, and makes a mockery of the careful monitoring, detailed investigation and painstaking maintenance work that is ongoing.

Monitoring of the movement of the ships's hull started in 1974, and a year or two ago a sophiscated set of equipment was installed comprising electro-level sensors and draw wires. Measurements from around 90 instruments are automatically recorded once per hour. The downward movement that has been recorded is indeed regarded as unsustainable, but the distances mentioned in the Telegraph's report are the total movement over a 35 year period, and the Victory is not in imminent danger of collapse. The new data being recorded is being used to design changes to the cradle supporting the ship.

Water ingress (i.e. leaks) has caused previously replaced planking to rot, and it is thought that supposed good quality iroko (with similar properties to teak) was in fact very poor quality, or maybe not even iroko at all.

It is true there have been delays to some work, and I think this may be be due to delays in getting a new contract for maintenance in place. The intention was to appoint a single prime-contractor who would sub-contract for individual work as required. Last July the timescale was to issue an invitation to tender to potential contractors by the end of August, with a contract start date of April 2011.

Obviously the ship's deterioration is worrying, and presents a huge technical challenge. The Telegraph's report is probably based on more recent reports, and we shouldn't be complacent, but I suspect the reporting is not as balanced as it might be.

(The above is my interpretation of the last couple of annual reports to the SNR in the Mariner's Mirror, by the commanding officer and Peter Goodwin.)

On this day 89 years ago, 12 January 1922, HMS Victory ended her time afloat and came into No 2 Dry Dock in Portsmouth: http://www.historicdockyard.co.uk/news/news319.php