HMS Victory's last battle.

Depends on the damage...

...And the budget...

...The American Constitution is less important than the Victory of the Royal Navy.

Everybody remembers the Victory for Trafalgar and Nelson. The US Navy is remembered for Pearl Harbor.

That, I am sorry to say, is a major difference.
 
While I'd like to think she'd be repaired, the RN had two other Ships of the Line during WWII, the Implacable and the Wellesley. The HMS Wellesley was hit by a German bomb and eventually sank due to her damage. And in 1949, the HMS Implacable was scuttled when the RN didn't want to spend the 200,000 pounds to fix her. This despite the vessel being a Trafalgar veteran herself (granted as a French ship, but she was there non the less). Having said all that, I'm forced to say that, while my heart says yes, the rest of me says no

Implacable was offered to the French who also didn't want to spend the money.
 

Deleted member 94680

The Constitution is still on the US Navy ships registry & a commissioned ship in the US Navy. What is the status of the Victory?

Same within the Royal Navy.

In 1922, she was moved to a dry dock at Portsmouth, England, and preserved as a museum ship. She has been the flagship of the First Sea Lord since October 2012 and is the world's oldest naval ship still in commission.”

Edit: beaten to it!
 
I remember a 1982 cartoon...

...The 'Rusty B' ('HMS Bulwark') was under review to be refitted to (I think) replace 'Atlantic Conveyor', the cartoon had the bows of 'HMS Victory' visible through a window being towed out by a tug!

I was wondering if a 32-pounder broadside from 'Victory' would destroy a modern frigate...

...Give the frigate one hell of a headache, if the old ship fired first!
 
It probably would. Steel and aluminium ships sink a lot easier than wooden ones if you punch large holes in the hull. They'd burn well too if the ship of the line risked using red hot round balls. Then again if the frigates crew were stupid or blind enough to let a hostile ship of the line that close they'd be boarded and captured by a crew dreaming of prize money. Nelson had bills to pay, Lady Hamilton was expensive and her virtue negotiable.
 
I remember a 1982 cartoon...

...The 'Rusty B' ('HMS Bulwark') was under review to be refitted to (I think) replace 'Atlantic Conveyor', the cartoon had the bows of 'HMS Victory' visible through a window being towed out by a tug!

I remember a news report saying they'd decided she was too far gone on of all things John Craven's Newsround (I was 12 at the time). They showed a short film of her flight deck and it had bits of grass growing on it.
 
Why am I not surprised, PLP?

There's life in 'HMS Victory', yet, methinks!

After all, my TLs have had London's heritage fleet at sea again... HQS Wellington, HMS Belfast, SS Robin, HMS President, the Steam Tug Portwey and others. But not yet the Cutty Sark!

Think I must consider a book rewrite of the Greater London opus...
 
Why am I not surprised, PLP?

There's life in 'HMS Victory', yet, methinks!

After all, my TLs have had London's heritage fleet at sea again... HQS Wellington, HMS Belfast, SS Robin, HMS President, the Steam Tug Portwey and others. But not yet the Cutty Sark!

Think I must consider a book rewrite of the Greater London opus...
I did have Commander Cartwright suggest sending Cutty Sark to Egypt for grain in After London. Didn't go down well, but his men had just "acquired" a saw mill HMQ had her eyes on.
 
HMS Victory was doomed when they raised her 'up' in her dock back in the 20s - she will never sail again

Rather than rest on a wooden platform she was raised up on what are effectively poles in order to allow the great unwashed public to behold her in her full glory.....and this sadly over the last nearly 100 years has placed too much stress on the hull and this has resulted in the hull deforming and holes appearing where the shouldn't be holes.

Being bombed did not help either.

Nor being 250+ years old
 
To be fair in the 20's she was in danger of sinking, and they did what they thought was best to preserve her. Given Britain's attitude to preserving warships, that in its self is something of a miracle.
 

SsgtC

Banned
To be fair in the 20's she was in danger of sinking, and they did what they thought was best to preserve her. Given Britain's attitude to preserving warships, that in its self is something of a miracle.
At that point in time, wasn't there a real danger of her stern literally falling off?
 
Something like that. To keep her afloat they'd have had to take her almost completely apart and rebuild her from the keel up with many of the timbers having to be completely replaced. Just finding enough oak of the right size would have been a challenge. Britain's woodlands were very depleted. During WWI the US and Canada shipped wood to Britain by building single use wooden ships that were broken up when they'd been unloaded of other cargo.
 
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SsgtC

Banned
Something like that. To keep her afloat they'd have had to take her almost completely apart and rebuild her from the keel up with many of the timbers having to be completely replaced. Just finding enough oak of the right size would have been a challenge. Britain's woodlands were very depleted. During WWI the US and Canada shipped wood to Britain by building single use wooded ships that were broken up when they'd been unloaded of other cargo.
The USN has that same problem with Constitution. Finding enough live and white oak to repair her. They've gotten lucky a couple of times. Twice when Hurricanes Andrew and Hugo knocked down a ton of Live Oak trees in the south. The USN got a ton of wood then. Another time they literally found a warehouse full of oak that had been stockpiled for a building program that never happened. And now they have a dedicated grove of trees that they use for the purpose. It gives them just barely enough to refit her every ten years. I think in total, the only part of Constitution that's original at this point is her keel. I can't imagine how much lumber would be needed to repair Victory to a similar standard as Old Ironsides.
 
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