Shiver me timbers: behold a sight of Victory as never was

HMS VICTORY is to disappear behind scaffolding for a decade or more, but visitors will be allowed access to the gantries for a close-up view of shipwrights at work.

Scaffolds will rise around 40 per cent of Nelson’s flagship from today and remain in place for about four years, before shifting to other parts of the vessel as the restoration work continues.

The first-rate ship of the line, launched in 1765, will have rotten planking replaced with new oak and its framework repaired.

The operation will give visitors a chance to see the structure of the 257-year-old ship as shipwrights will need to let the remaining timbers dry out before proceeding.

It will be the first time visitors to Portsmouth’s Historic Royal Dockyards have been able to enter the drydock and walk beneath the Victory.

Andrew Baines, the project’s director, said it would “temporarily transform her and open up an incredibly exciting opportunity to see her in a new light and interpret her story in a way never done before”.

The vessel, which has been in drydock since 1922, will remain open to visitors while the scaffolding is installed.

The work is part of an ongoing programme to preserve the historic vessel, aboard which Nelson led his fleet into battle at Trafalgar in 1805 against the combined French and Spanish fleets.

While afloat, the pressure of the sea would help hold the hull together, but in drydock, it risks sagging under its own weight and breaking up.

The National Museum of the Royal Navy, which cares for the Victory, hopes that the restoration work will keep the ship protected for another 50 years.