H.M.S. VICTORY.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXVI, Issue 17553, 24 April 1919, Page 6

H.M.S. VICTORY.

THE NAVY'S MOST REMARKABLE

SHIP

During the great war not much has been heard of what is, perhaps, the most remarkable ship in the Royal Navy. It is, nevertheless, a fact that the ship which flew Nelson's flag at Trafalgar has done her bit for King and country in the grim struggle with Germany. H-.M.S. Victory is. in a sense, still on the active list. To-day she flies, as she has flown for many years, the nag. of the Commander-in-Chief at Portsmouth. To-day she lies, an she has lain for long, in the "stream." abreast of that famous city, within sight of historic Spithead, a striking memorial of Britain's seapower in the distant past, a cherished link between the dead days of oak and hemp and the present days of steel, | sisam and electricity. Just the other day I looked upon the Victory once again. I passed, in a steam pinnace, close by her. She was*:' the same old Victory which I first saw when I joined the service as a sub—Uie same o'd ship, hugging her buoys in the same old way, and swinging gently | with the ebb and flow of the tides. Outwardly her appearance is not greatly altered since she made glorious history at Trafalgar. Then her hull was all black, escept fora yellow streak along each tier of ports. It is still black, I>ut white has been substituted for the yel'ow. From her shapely sides no guns leer now. Her decks are sober and quiet, stripped, as they are, of the paraphernalia of war, and bereft long, long ago of the stir and bustle of a full ship's company. Within, she is not what she was when Horatio stood for the last time upon her quarter-deck. She has been altered, from time to time, to suit the offices which she has carried out since she came home from the sea never to sail again. But the spat where Nelson fell and the place where he died have been preserved, and may be seen by any one privi!iged to go on board the o'd "three-decker. 1 have wandered in her in the gloaming of a winter's day . The fading light, striking1 the oaken beams of her, reflected deep shadows here and there — shadows in which the spirits of dead heroes seemed to hover. And the wind, stealing from the sea, came whispering through the portholes as if genit'ly calling the old ship to the deeps again; and she, her ancient timbers creaking, strained at her moorings, like a dog on, the leash ,as if she were eager to set sail once more across the rolling main. ~

The Victory's duties as flagship of the Commander-in-Chief at Portsmouth are nominal, mor© or less. The general work of the flagship is carried out in the R.N. Barracks, but certain important business has been performed on board during 'the war, and is being stijl performed there. To the utmost extent of her capacity, the Victory has been used during the intensely critical period through which the nation has passed—a period quite as critical s>s that through which Nelson took us successfully when he fought and fell at Trafalgar. > ' The Navy takes a proper pride in the Victory. To the great world outside she may be only a memory,flashed now and' then upon the mind by the sight of her name on the caip ribbon of a saiforman in the street. But to the .service she is a real, live, lovely old fMng. See the mammoth super-Dread--1 l ~ '■-'■.i J-- '•:- as they steam into Portsmouth Harbour, or the swift, . ......-*i> «.,.i.i their respects to her as they race, like harts, for the open sea! What a toy she is compared with the battleships of to-day! One shall from a big gun of the Queen Elizabeth would blow hes in pieces. All her 100 Trafalgar guns fired simultaneously Against Sir David Beatty's flagship would have about as much effect ss would 100 boys armed with pea-shoot-ers. The most remarkable fact concerning the Victory, is that she is 153 years old,' and is sti]f carrying on. She was built in 1765, and cost £67,600, the price of just a few of the fittings of our latest three - million - pound - sterling-super. Dreadnought. j Nelson, the Victory, and Trafalgar! These names are engraven on the national niind. But there are other memories, less familiar, attached to our famous heart of oak. The Victory fought other splendid fights before she fought her last and greatest on that ever memorable day in 1805; and her predecessors of that name also rendered heroic service to the From the Armada time down to: the time of Nelson, a Victory carried o;ir is'and flag "to triumph after triumph. One, with the matchless Drake, helped to smash tlv Spaniards; another flew the penant of the bold and brilliant Blake; a third served with exceptional merit at La Hogue; on the quarterdeck of a fourth as gallant a seaman as ouj Navy ever had, Sir Christopher Mynes fell in the hour of triumph just as Nelson fell at Trafalgar. This brines us down to the year 1737, when the fifth Victory was !aunche3, r*nd with the memory of her is associated the story of one of the saddest catsistroohes in cur naval history. Tn 1744, ivith Admiral Sir John BalcTien on board, she wns lost on the Oskets with al 1. hands. Then came in 1765 our present Victory, on the quarter-deck of which, long before Nel&on hoisted his [lag, Keppcland Kempenfelt, Howe and Hood, and Jam's distinguished themselves, and added lustre to Britain's aaval prowess. And now, her fighting days over more than a century ago, she, in her long twilight, swings usefuMy at hsr meliorate, and receives that care and attention which may preserve her to bo nation for many years to come ns he last of a line of famous ships, and ;he one that has earned renown which vill never die.—T. 8,. Paulin.