HMS Victory

HMS Victory 


HMS Victory, launched at Chatham in 1765, was a 100-gun ship of the line with a length of 227.5 ft overall (69.34 m), a displacement of 3500 tons, and a crew of more than 800 men.
On Oct. 21, 1805, at the Battle of Trafalgar, twenty-seven British ships of the line led by Admiral Lord Nelson aboard HMS Victory defeated thirty-three French and Spanish ships of the line under French Admiral Villeneuve. The battle took place in the Atlantic Ocean off the southwest coast of Spain, just west of Cape Trafalgar. The Franco-Spanish fleet lost twenty-two ships and the British lost none.
In the 1920s, HMS Victory was put in a dry dock and restored to her condition under Nelson. She was unveiled to the public in all her glory by King George V on 17 July 1928 at Portsmouth. She retains her status as a fully commissioned ship in the Royal Navy and serves as the flagship of the Naval Home Command, but to her visitors, she remains a precious museum and testament to Britain’s naval past.