Nelson’s flagship endures
February 2nd, 2010 | Historical Royal Navy Ships | Posted by Phil Ewing
The Royal Navy, under the command of Adm. Horatio Nelson, engaged the French and Spanish fleets in the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805 // UK National Maritime Museum
Normally, the Olympics would be of absolutely zero interest to Scoop Deck, but a story today out of Great Britain — site of the 2012 summer games — includes a neat item: Organizers want to use the games, and a bureaucratic reshuffling in the Ministry of Defence, to attract Olympics visitors in London down to Portsmouth to see Nelson’s grand flagship, HMS Victory.
According to this story in The News of Portsmouth, the fate of the Victory was in doubt as recently as last year, when MoD conducted a review about how to maintain the ship over the long term. (It’s not clear if the Ministry’s reviews go “from soup to nuts,” as is the cliche in our Pentagon.) Decision-makers decided to give HMS Victory to the new National Museum of the Royal Navy, whose director told the newspaper the ship could be the centerpiece of many attractions that would bring international visitors down from the games in London.
A day touring HMS Victory, which can fire a 52-gun broadside, does sound much, much more fun than watching some guy throw the shot put.
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February 5th, 2010 at 6:02 am[...] Nelson’s flagship endures. (Scoop Deck) [...]