Celebrated British warship in £45 million battle against deathwatch beetle

The Manila Times

Celebrated British warship in £45 million battle against deathwatch beetle  HMS Victory, Admiral Lord Nelson's flagship at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805, is undergoing a 12-year refit which managers say is the second-largest heritage restoration project in Europe after Notre Dame Cathedral. The 45 million pound (53 million euro) works have already seen many of the ribs of the ship — known as futtocks — removed, due to water entering and causing rotting over the years and attracting deathwatch beetles. Visitors can still look round the ship at its dry dock in Portsmouth, UK, with project manager Simon Williams saying the chance to see Victory in its stripped-back state is "a once in a lifetime opportunity."  AFP VIDEO  Subscribe to The Manila Times Channel - https://tmt.ph/YTSubscribe  Visit our website at https://www.manilatimes.net    Follow us:  Facebook - https://tmt.ph/facebook  Instagram - https://tmt.ph/instagram  Twitter - https://tmt.ph/twitter  DailyMotion - https://tmt.ph/dailymotion    Subscribe to our Digital Edition - https://tmt.ph/digital    Check out our Podcasts:  Spotify - https://tmt.ph/spotify  Apple Podcasts - https://tmt.ph/applepodcasts  Amazon Music - https://tmt.ph/amazonmusic  Deezer: https://tmt.ph/deezer  Tune In: https://tmt.ph/tunein   #TheManilaTimes  #worldnews  #europe  #history

Transcript

00:00HMS Victory was made famous by her role as Admiral Lord Nelson's flagship at the Battle

00:07of Trafalgar in 1805. She survived that battle, it was obviously an overwhelming victory for

00:12the British fleet, but Lord Nelson did perish on board. She has been preserved ever since

00:19through luck, sometimes not so much judgement, and therefore she's with us today. It was

00:25discovered through shipwright surveys that the ship was degrading, water was getting

00:29into the structure, it was allowing rot to grow and develop, and then as the timber degraded

00:35it became food for death watch beetle, and then over time that has just been eroding

00:40the structure of the ship. And so we've embarked on this project to essentially remove the

00:46external rotten timber, dry out the structure, and then we will replank and ensure that we

00:53stop water ingressing in future. We're at the stage of the project now where we've removed

00:57a lot of the planking from the outside of the ship which was rotten and allowing water

01:02in, and we've uncovered a lot of damaged frames. So the next stage of the project is to work

01:10away fore-to-aft, removing the damaged frames, carrying out repairs where possible, and we'll

01:15be using oak planking and traditional methods to reinstate the ship to how she was during

01:21the Battle of Trafalgar. When we were removing the planking we were coming across tools,

01:30notes, history. It's quite fun from the previous work done across the last 100, 150 years really.

01:37The size of the timber we're working with is, it's fun, it's interesting, it adds another

01:43level of complexity to it. It's definitely a great honour to work here. We are currently

01:51looking at a 12-year programme. This much structure has not been removed from the ship

01:55and replaced since 1814. This conservation project is the largest conservation project

02:02in Europe after Notre Dame. I think what we're doing here massively adds to the visitor experience

02:08because I think it's such a unique visual experience that they will not see this in

02:14their lifetime again. Seeing the underlying structure of victory and seeing this scale

02:18of work is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. We think there's probably about 7-14% of the

02:25ship dates to the time of Nelson. What I think is really important to stress is that the ship

02:32is made of timber. Throughout her active service life she would have been repaired, refitted,

02:40elements changed, but the more we conserve the more our visitors can be reassured that

02:46they're walking in the footsteps of those 19th century sailors.

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