Phil
That was indeed very helpful. I don't have access to the Brighton Gazette but it enabled me to pursue my searches in various other directions.
I realise now that this episode occurred in 1830 - not 1815 as I originally thought.
At the end of April 1830 Sir Thomas Foley replaced Sir Robert Stopford as Port Admiral at Portsmouth and it was decided that he would not take Victory as his Flag Ship.
Victory was paid off and moved into Ordinary.
It was then reported that Victory was to be cut down to a second rate (so Callender was not actually correct that she was due to be scrapped.)
Nevertheless this prompted John Poole to write the first of several letters to the Brighton Gazette. He protested in a later letter that "such a ship is a national heirloom, and ought to be preserved as a sacred relic . . . why do they not entreat that she may be preserved as she was at the day of Trafalgar?"
Poole seems to have become the public face of nationwide protests. His sentiments obviously reached the "powers that be" as the following was reported in The Standard newspaper at the end of July.
"In accordance with the feelings of the public, the Admiralty have abandoned the intention of cutting down the Victory (so endeared to us by many associations) to a 74. Since it was understood that this step was contemplated, the public have been loud in their lamentations that such a national object of interest should not be suffered to remain unaltered. Consulting, therefore, the general wish, the Admiralty have not only relinquished their first intention, but have decided that she shall be fitted to receive the pendant of the Captain of the Ordinary, thus rendering the Victory an object of double interest. For whilst we shall look upon her with a mixed feeling of pride and melancholy, as the ship which bore the flag of the immortal Nelson at the battle of Trafalgar, and in which he fell, we shall regard her as a nursery for our seamen, who shall be stimulated to emulation by the remembrance that the ship in which they were early instructed in their duties owed its celebrity to the bright renown of the departed hero."
I would still like to see the whole sequence of letters written by Poole. If time allows I will contact the archive for the Brighton area and see if they can help me in that respect. Unless anyone else can oblige . . . . . . !!
I certainly find this an interesting episode in Victory's illustrious history.
MB
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