RESTORING THE VICTORY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18345, 10 March 1923, Page 1 (Supplement)

RESTORING THE VICTORY.

SALVAGING A MEMORY.

BT MATANOA.

A man may believe in the scrapping of warships, and yet, with all his heart, welcome the efforts being made to eave the old Victory from destruction. For she is not a lethal weapon. She has been slumbering at Portsmouth since 1825, and from her dreams of ease she cannot be reawakened. As flagship of the Admiral Comrnandirvg-in-chief at that naval station she has enjoyed a ceremonial dignity. From time to time she has been decked in her best to do honour to some great occasion, and has served day by day to stir great memories in those who passed her by or trod her decks for a little thoughtful sight-seeing. But, for herself, she has left action far behind.

A little while ago she aroused anxiety by reason of her decay. Iler bow drooped with the weight of her moorings. Her ribs below the water line were weakening, and keel and keelson showed the ravages of time. Her fate became a problem.

It was intolerable to a great host that she should go to the scrapheap. To break her up for relics seemd a sacrilege, for what makes her influence is her completeness. Dismemberment would as surely take her out of Britain's thought as would a burial in the ocean's depths. So the late Marquis of Milford Haven found an attentive hearing for his proposal that, though taken from tho water, she should be kept intact. A steel cradle, a restoration of the oaken timbers of her lower hull, a rebuilding of her bow, figure-head, and jtern as they were in her great days these things were seen to be possible 1 She might become again a thing of beauty and be almost a joy for ever. The Admiralty voted £24,000 for the steel cradle, and a Save the Victory Fund of £150.000 was started. News is just to hand of tho anonymous gift of a third of that amount by one donor, and the raising of the rest should be easy. Meanwhile she awaits, in dock at Portsmouth, the judgment as to whether her worth to the Empire merits her preservation. There can be but one decision. She is a priceless imperial heirloom. Admiral Sturdee's Plea. In a letter to the Times a few weeks ago, Admiral Sturdee, the chairman of the fund, made an appeal that will reach many pockets through their wearer's heart*: " The Board of Admiralty "he writes in the course of that letter," "have entrusted the Society lor Nautical Research with the task of collecting the necessary funds, and, as president of the society, I have written recently to all the schools in the United Kingdom asking for support in a cause which I am sure must appeal to all members of the community. Appeals, however, are so numerous that I feel it necessary draw the attention of your readers to the distinction between an appeal for a charitable object and the support for which I am now asking. The great story of the Victory, from which all may profitably learn, the fact that she is the solitary relic of <>ne of the greatest chapters in our history, and the need for preserving her for posterity as an Imperial memorial to the might of that sea power which made possible our Empire -of to-day, make it j clear 'that this appeal is a call |to an Imperial duty ~...) It may be that the collection of the neces- j sary funds for this work will take time, and I would . earnestly ask all those in authority over our schools and universities to give the subject due consideration, and at a convenient moment to endeavour to implant in the minds of the rising generations the impulse not of passing charity, but of dnty towards a work of Imperial importance and valuo. We can never forget that it was in his cabin on board the Victory that Nelson on his knees wrote his prayer action, one of the most Bdoving petitions ever uttered; 'May the Great God whom I worship grant to my country and for the benefit of Europe in general a great and glorious victory, and may ni misconduct jn anyone tarnish it, and may humanity after victory be the predominant feature in the British Fleet, 'or myself individually I commit my life to Him that made it, and may His blsssing alight on my endeavours for serving my country faithfully. To Him I resign myself and the just cause which Is entrusted to me to defend. Amen. Amen. Amen." It was in the cockpit of the Victory, racked with pain, that his mind reverted to his last signal. "God be praised,' he gasped, ' I have done my duty.' They were almost his last words, and no one," whatever his trade or calling, can tread the decks of this ship of all ships without gaining a fresh inspiration for the battle of life. The Victory must not go. She is an heirloom to be preserved for all succeeding generations." A Test Of Soul. A naval expert emphasised, a few weeks ago, the claim that the old warship has | on the veneration of Britishers everywhere. i " After an existence afloat of 160 years, ! it is probable that little, if rfny, part of j the old Victory remains," he wrote, " but | a shin no more loses her individuality j with thej-enewal of her timbers than does i a nan, every particle of whose body is ! said to be' renewed every seven years. She is Hood's, Jems' and Nelson's Victor}' still, and if we are prepared to let her disappear or to be reduced to a position of ignominy, for the sake of the money required to keep her in trim, badly strained a* our resources are, then the ration has lost its soul." There is great history written in this old vessel. Captain Mahan gave full proof | of the thesis that sea-power has influenced I the nations more than land fighting. At ! K'ilamis world-dominion passed from Peri sia to Athens. At Syracuse it went from the Greeks to the Carthaginians. Then j Rome got the trident of the Mediterranean, and the third Punic war opened with the significant fiat of Rome to Carthage: "It is the will and pleasure of 1 the Roman Senate that Carthage shall be j destroyed, and that the citizens shall remove to any other part of their territory, provided it be at a distance of 12 miles from the sea." Divorced from the sea, Carthage was helpless. What Rome's sea-power meant for our own national history, n few moment's qi.iet musing will declare. Had Home lacked that, there had not been for us the fateful invasion of Britain, with all the events that followed in its train. Since those early days, our history has been written upon the waves, and still its story has the salt spray in it. This record has ono of its most remarkable illustrations in

Nelson's flagship. About her clusters a mighty moral in spiration. There are the great admiral': famous signal and the words that brokt from him in his final pain; a message ol "duty" is wafted from them to circle flto world with wholesomeness. There is the

! deathless story of endurance and courage. I There is a fine' example of self-sacrifice for a great cause. The very sorrow that gathered about her in the days of Britain's mourning for her lost hero has sanctified her message. " I never saw so little public joy," said Lord Malmesbury of the days of the 'Victory's crowning achievement; "not one individual who felt joy at this victory, so well-timed and so complete, but first had an instinctive feeling of sorrow." There are tears in Britain's heart to-day over Trafalgar. We hold a vision of a warles.s sea. It shall yet be. But " the blue-water gospel " is a good one still, and the Victory can preach it better than other voices from the past.