Victory

We've been down to the Portsmouth historic dockyard museum again this time to visit the Mary Rose. When Erica and I last visited it was being sprayed with preservative to stabilise the timbers after nearly 500 years under water. Today the ship's remains are housed in a purpose built and environmentally controlled museum which is really worth a visit.

While we were at the dockyard we couldn't resist a trip around HMS Victory, which admittedly was looking slightly sad with most of her spars removed for repair and re-rigging.

By contrast the hull is looking very tidy, having been recently painted and undergone a fairly major overhaul to the way she is supported in dry dock to prevent the hull from collapsing.

A figurehead of the great man Admiral Horatio Nelson

From the deck of the oldest to the latest ship in the Royal Navy, HMS Victory is still in commission as a serving navy ship, while in the background the latest aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth.