Our Year In London: 4 Vessels

For the last two weeks, Allie and I had her parents visiting with us. Although they did much touring around while I was at work, Robert and I took a day trip to the coastal town of Portsmouth to explore the British Navy.

First question. Why? Good question. Robert is passionate about the Royal Navy and a huge fan of Admiral Nelson.
Second question. Who is a fan of Admiral Nelson? Well, besides the British, Robert Maxwell. Nelson is extremely famous for defending the British against the French in the battle of Trafalgar, which is why he has been hoisted above a large tower in the middle of Trafalgar Square in the center of London.

Beyond that, Robert is an avid sailor and competes in local races. You mix your love for sailing with a man who was on the front line with his men and you get a Nelson fan.

So, how do you get to Portsmouth from London? You take a train for about 2 hours. Don't believe the "1 h 32 min" lie that Google is telling you below.

So, the title of the blog is kinda fun. We went there with anticipations of seeing the HMS Victory. This is THE ship that fought the battle of Trafalgar under Admiral Nelson until it was brought back to harbour. It was on that ship where Nelson was shot and eventually died.
What we got, however, was a whole lot more. Here are the ships we got to see:
1) HMS Illustrious
2) HMS Warrior
3) HMS Victory
4) HMS Mary Rose

As we were in line to purchase our tickets, the kind woman mentioned, "If you run to the end of the dock right about now you'll be able to see the HMS Illustrious taking off for Gibraltar."
Uhm, sure. What's the Illustrious?

As we're getting to the end of the dock, I begin to see this massive grey ship making its way through the harbour. It's one of England's only aircraft carriers. Amazing! The even cooler news is that the Illustrious is being retired soon due to British budget cuts. It was literally going on what could be it's last mission.

Check it out.

HMS Illustrious is the second of three Invincible-class light aircraft carriers built for the Royal Navy in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

Good bye!!

Right next to where we were standing, however, was the HMS Warrior. The HMS Warrior was considered to be a hybrid due to the fact that it was one of the first steam powered battle ships that still had sails. This ship was also historical because the hull is made out of iron, as opposed to wood. It's amazing how these types of ships don't look like they would be very large once you get on them. Oh how wrong I was. These ships are humungous and would often carry more than 800 men on them. Simply amazing.

Check out some shots of the HMS Warrior.

Robert coming across the HMS Warrior for the first time. I'd say we were both impressed.

Two sets of wheels that controlled another wheel. 4 wheels to turn this beast.

Robert amongst the rows and rows of cannons.


The coal room. More coal = more steam = faster you'd go. I know, I'm brilliant.

So, we've seen relatively new and now a ship from the 1800's.
Next, is the HMS Victory. This is where I fail. I don't have a picture of the ship from the outside!!! I was so taken back by the ship on the dry dock and staring at it's 104 cannons that I didn't take a picture of the outside. You'll have to ask Robert for a quality photo if you really care. Or, you can simply do a Google Image search. Well, that's a good idea actually. Here's the Victory from the outside.

Photo cred goes to somebody on Google.

However, I did snag some other pictures of her. Check them out.

So this is a significant moment in Robert's life and, of course, my settings on my camera were off and I was pressured to get a rad picture in the 2 seconds I had. This is one of 3 cannons that still exist on the Victory. The other 101 were removed for weight issues while the ship is dry docked. This cannon, however, was confirmed to be at the battle of Trafalgar. AND, Robert was given the opportunity to pull the trigger and pull the string.

This one speaks for itself. Nelson was shot on the quarter deck and was then brought down to the belly of the ship for surgery where he later died.

The Victory, in many aspects, was very similar to the Warrior. It's amazing to me that the style of fighting did not change throughout hundreds of years. Point some cannons out of small windows and hope for the best. Just crazy to me.

Lastly, we were pleasantly surprised to learn that they just finished a brand new museum at the harbour for the HMS Mary Rose. The Mary Rose was a battle ship commissioned by King George VIII in the 1500's and eventually sunk off the coast of the UK. It was discovered in 1982 and pulled out of the water for restoration.

I was baffled they were able to recover shoes, cannons and even whole skeletons of both a dog and a sailor.

Check it out.