Nelson & His World

Most of us enjoy on occasions telling people that HMS Victory is "still in commission." The oldest warship in the world in commission etc. etc.

But I have a newspaper article here from 6th March 1869 which starts:



So when did she come back into commission??!!

MB

Mark, from the HMS Victory website, the answer appears to be 1 September 1891.

I guess that as tender to the Duke of Wellington, technically she was still in service, but without her own officers and crew?

I see she was also in Ordinary 1812-1823.

Was Victory also at Corunna in 1809 to assist in the evacuation of Sir John Moore's army?

P-C

'Victory sailed as a private ship under Captain J C Searle for the Peninsula to assist in the evacuation of the British Army from Corunna'.

( 'HMS Victory: her construction, career and restoration' by Alan McGowan Chatham Publishing 1999)

Thank you, i knew i came across that information before.

Tony

Thanks. I never thought to look there.

I think that you might be right that as a tender it would still technically be "in commission". If I can lay my hands on a Navy List for that period I will see if/how it is classified there.

Bit of an odd reason why I was looking at this.

A guy I know is involved in the recording of all the gravestones in one of the Birmingham Cemeteries. He told me that they had come across one for a man who served as Master at Arms on the Victory. That is actually on the gravestone. He died in 1874 aged 47 so well outside our era - but I thought I would look into it. He was definitely one of those who left the ship in 1869.

If I can get a picture of the gravestone I will see if the NMM want to add it to their Naval Monuments and Memorials database

MB

Mark,

I think the phrase 'still in commission' has to be explained somewhat and does not, of course, mean in 'continuous' commission – although I have sometimes seen that in print - as if she was never out of commission from the date she was first launched! That is patently ridiculous since all ships, including the Victory, were not in a seagoing state (ie. in commission) all the time, due to being laid up 'in ordinary', having refits etc. Just prior to these I believe there was normally a decommissioning ceremony, during which the ship's commissioning pennant and flags were hauled down, and it was probably at about the same time the crew left the ship. There were then very likely a few watchkeepers left aboard from the dockyard.

Even during the time that Victory was in Portsmouth Harbour after 1812, she appears to have been in and out of commission several times. According to Peter Goodwin's 'Nelson's ships', Victory was decommissioned on return from her last seagoing voyage (to the Baltic under Saumarez) in December 1812 and was laid up 'in ordinary'. There then followed a rebuild from March 1814 until January 1816. As has been said she re-commissioned again in 1823, as the flagship of the Port Admiral at Portsmouth, and remained as such until 24th April, 1830, when she again decommissioned, or 'paid off'. For the next year she acted as the 'residence' for the captain of the ordinary, until October 1831, and it was following that that the First Sea Lord, Admiral Hardy, was pursuaded by his wife not to sign the papers for her disposal. She was recommissioned again, seemingly in the same month, as the flagship of the Port Admiral and she remained so until August 1836, when she again paid off and was placed in ordinary. Recommissioned again in 1837, Victory became the flagship of the Admiral Superintendant. She would appear to have been in commission since then, apart presumably for refits, which would include the period as tender to the Duke of Wellington. She was refitted again in 1888, when interestingly she was re-coppered for the fifteenth time. The following year she became flagship for the C-in-C Naval Home Command.

I make that at least three times she was in commission within Portsmouth Harbour, four including the date of 1891! Perhaps it is from the later date that, that the Victory has been taken to be in 'continuous commission'?