If you want post Trafalgar authenticity, then now is the time to take a look at HMS Victory.
With the removal of the last of her topmasts, and now minus much of her rigging, Victory now looks much as she would have done following the Battle of Trafalgar.
Victory took a fearful pounding at the battle, losing topmasts and rigging, and struggled to the relative safety of Gibraltar under tow as a fierce storm took a toll of the surviving ships and prizes.
She later returned to the UK jury-rigged.
The three masts, bowsprit and rigging have all been dismantled over the course of the summer, the first time since 1944 that the ship has been seen in this guise.
Most of the operation has been carried out by master shipwrights and other specialist staff employed by BAE Systems who can apparently handle old wooden ships of the line just as easily as high-tec warships.
In removing the topmasts, bowsprit, booms, yards and spars, some 26 miles of rigging came down as well as 768 wooden blocks – some of them 100 years old.
When it is all reassembled, having been carefully catalogued for historical and research purposes, decisions will be made on which blocks can be refurbished and returned to their places and which will have to be replaced.
Tomick attached the following image(s):
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