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HMS
VICTORY
HMS
Victory is a
104-gun first-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy.
She is best known for her role as Lord Nelson's flagship
at the Battle of Trafalgar which
was essential to Britain's continued
superiority on the high seas during the Napoleonic Wars.
HMS
Victory
was the world's first ship that had
three gun decks.
Her
hull thickness at waterline was astonishing 2 feet. Her
construction took over
6,000 oak trees and
cost 63,176 British pounds—an equivalent to the
cost today of an aircraft carrier. She required 850 sailors!
Until the Battle of Trafalgar, it had been the custom
for fleets to do battle by sailing past or alongside
each other in two parallel lines. Nelson broke this
tradition by attacking the enemy at right angle,
breaking through the French and Spanish lines and
cutting off their retreat. This aggressive strategy
would forever change the course of naval warfare.
Under Nelsons' strategy, the English fleet, under two
columns, sailed toward the enemy. At about noon, a
French ship started to fire at the HMS Royal Sovereign (lead ship of one of the
columns.) For
the twenty agonizing minutes it took to reach the enemy
lines, Royal Sovereign and HMS Victory endured continuous fire
in silence.
On one column,
HMS
Victory led on, suffering
unrelenting rain of cannon shot. She was searching for the
French admiral’s ship. When seeing the huge Spanish
four-decker Santissima Trinidad, Nelson correctly
assumed that the French admiral’s ship was nearby and
bore down on the Santissima Trinidad. As he was
doing so, the
French flagship
Bucentaure and seven other enemy ships fired on
HMS Victory. By the time she had come close enough to fire
on
the Santissima Trinidad, 50 of her men were dead and 30 wounded.
On the other column, the HMS Royal Sovereign drew astern of the Spanish
three-decker Santa Anna. She raked her decks with a
murderous double-shot volley that put
400 Spanish sailors out of action.
Then Victory collided with the
French Redoubtable. Locked together, the two ships
drifted slowly through the battle. The Redoubtable’s marksmen shot
down 40 British sailors. Seeing the upper deck
populated only by the dead and wounded, the French tried
to board the
Victory.
HMS
Victory’s botswain’s whistle piped
the tune signifying “boarders; repel boarders,” and the
order immediately summoned swarms of
blue-jackets to the deck, where they killed every enemy
who had managed to board. During this defense that
a sniper on the mizzen-top of the Redoubtable
aimed his musket at Nelson.
Below decks, Nelsonīs life was ebbing away fast. But he
lived to see Captain Hardy return from the fighting
above to hear the news that fourteen enemy vessels had
been captured. “That’s well,” Nelson said, “but I had
bargained for twenty.”
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About the construction of
the
HMS Victory
model:
-
Construction reference:
The Anatomy
of Nelson's Ships by Charles Longridge, First Rate: The
Greatest Warships of the Age of Sail by Rif Winfield,
Copies of the original ships plans obtained from the
National Maritime Museum, The 100-Gun Ship Victory
(Anatomy of the Ship) by John McKay
- Built from scratch,
Plank-on-frame
construction
-
Copper-plated bottom:
individual copper pieces (no copper color paint on wood, no fake
lines)
-
Under the main deck, all
guns are "real" guns which have proper barrels and
wooden carriages which sit on 2 real decks under the
main deck.
- Natural looking sails which are not stiff like
plastic.
- Authentic extensive rigging system comprised of many
different sizes of rope and features numerous blocks and
deadeyes.
- Full length masts and bowsprit per blueprints.
- Correct boats. These small boats are not easy to make,
and we make them beautifully. Wooden, not resin casted.
- Beautiful and accurate three-dimensional stern gallery
which is comprised of numerous pieces, not a flat piece
of prefabricated metal glued on the hull.
ModelShipMaster
produces accurate HMS
Victory models. We never cuts the bowsprit and masts
short in order to save shipping cost like numerous
models out there.
Making tall ships is an art that not any company can
achieve. Besides accuracy, the ships must look tough, not shiny like a
plastic toy. Click
here to learn more: what
to look for in a tall ship
model.
28" long x 21" tall x 10" wide
$4,570 Shipping
and insurance in the contiguous US included. Other
places: $400 flat rate.
36" long x 26" tall x 12" wide
$6,490 Shipping
and insurance in the contiguous US included. Other
places: $600 flat rate.
Model is built per commission only. We require only
a small deposit
(not full amount, not even half) to start the
process.Click here to view
lead time.
Add light feature to delight your guests in a dimly lit
room: $300. Powered by a
standard 9v battery under the base, with on/off switch.
This
HMS
Victory
model is built per commission only.
We require only a deposit of 1/3 of the amount to
start the process. The remaining balance won't be
due until the model is completed. Click here for
lead time.
Learn more about the HMS
Victory here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Victory
To learn more about the
accuracy of a Victory model:
https://www.hms-victory.com/
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