Читать книгу The Sea: Its Stirring Story of Adventure, Peril, & Heroism (Vol. 1-4). The History of Sea Voyages, Discovery, Piracy and Maritime Warfare онлайн

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THE “VICTORY” AT PORTSMOUTH.

The Victory was one of the largest ships of war of her day and generation. She was rated for 100 guns, but really carried 102, and was classed first-rate with such ships as the Royal Sovereign and Britannia, both of 100, carrying only two in excess of the “brave old Téméraire”—made still more famous by Turner’s great picture—and the Dreadnought, which but a few years back was such a familiar feature of the reach of the Thames in front of Greenwich. She was of 2,164 tons burden, and, having been launched in 1765, is now a good 112 years of age. Her complement was 841 men. From the first she deserved her name, and seemed destined to be associated with little else than success and triumph. Nelson frequently complains in his journals of the unseaworthiness of many of his vessels; but this, his last flag-ship, was a veritable “heart of oak,” and endured all the tests that the warfare of the elements or of man could bring against her.

The good ship of which we have spoken more particularly is now enjoying a well-earned repose, after passing nearly unscathed through the very thick of battles inscribed on the most brilliant page of our national history. Her part was in reality a very prominent one; and a glance at a few of the engagements at which she was present may serve to show us what she and other ships like her were made of, and what they were able to effect in naval warfare. The Victory had been built nearly thirty years when, in 1793, she first came prominently to the front, at the occupation and subsequent siege of Toulon, as the flag-ship of Lord Hood, then in command of a large fleet destined for the Mediterranean.