HMS Victory

A wet Monday morning in November, in school term-time, may not sound the ideal conditions for a visit to Portsmouth Historic Dockyard but better than the crowds in summer.

A guided tour of HMS Victory is compulsory and for once was interesting. Our guide dwelt more on the living arrangements on a first-rate wooden man-of- war with about eight hundred on board than naval history.

The lower stern windows are the Wardroom where commissioned officers messed.  Other officers messed below in the Gunroom; a cabin with only gun ports acting as windows. Midshipmen had their own cramped mess amidships. Above the Wardroom are the admiral’s quarters and at the top the captain’s quarters – both comparatively light and spacious.

The sleeping and eating facilities for the rest of the crew was cramped and lacked privacy. Seeing all this brought Patrick O’Brian’s books to life and added some new details. I knew the crew ate and relaxed when permitted in messes of about eight and hot meals were served from the galley. I did not know that if there were fresh vegetables each mess prepared their own and took them to the galley.

The lavatory arrangements are always of interest. The officers had “seats of ease” in the quarter galleries adjoining their cabins, while the men had to queue to sit on about six adjacent holes exposed to the elements with a drop down into the sea. Instead of lavatory paper a tow rag was used and dropped in the sea to get clean for the next man to use.

Visitors see Victory cleared for action with some of the guns run out and all the bulkheads dismantled except in the stern cabins. Stephen Maturin used to get lost on anything larger than the Surprise, confounded by the companionways and maze of cabins. It all looked most uncomfortable, smelly, overcrowded and not always watertight. In fact a day spent on HMS Victory two hundred years ago would reconcile a modern schoolboy to the luxurious life at boarding school today.

Victory is undergoing a massive restoration, budgeted at £45 million and due to be completed in 2032. Inevitably this work will uncover further deterioration, only to be expected in such an old wooden vessel exposed to the elements, and it will need continuous maintenance.