HMS Victory’s team of conservators, shipwrights and riggers have started taking down her remaining masts as part of The Big Repair – the ten-year, £42m project to conserve Nelson’s flagship for future generations.

As Stuart Sheldon, Lead Rigger at the National Museum of the Royal Navy, puts it: “HMS Victory matters to people in a way few objects do” and the truth is, Victory has been emasculated* for some while now, with only the ugly stumps of her masts showing. It’s not a good look, and not what we all want, but – fingers crossed – one day, in 2033, she’ll be fully restored to her former glory.

The problems have been well known for decades. HMS Victory entered her dry-dock in 1922 and since then, as her timbers got older and without the uniform cradling of water, her hull began to sag –  in recent years at a rate of half a centimetre every year. As her upper deck sank towards her keel, that bulging hull became more emphasised. Her masts and rigging weren’t helping. They added an extra 25 tons. So in 2011, all but the lower sections were removed, leaving those ugly stumps.

The first step to repairing her was to replace her 1922 cradle with 139 hydraulic props that support her hull in the way that water would… or nearly the way water would. This video from Aug 2017 explains the process…

More recently, in 2021 her main mast (the middle one) was removed to give better access for conservators.

Now, starting last night, the remaining Mizzen mast, Fore mast and Bowsprit are being removed using a giant 750t crane, and being set aside on the dock for conservation work. So, by the end of the week she’ll be just a hull. 

The good news is, you can still visit her. HMS Victory and the wider Portsmouth Historic Dockyard site will remain open to visitors as usual throughout the works.

* Mixed sexual metaphors there, I know! She can’t be an emasculated ‘she’, but you know what I mean!