HMS Victory
About HMS Victory
HMS Victory is a 104-gun first-rate wooden sailing ship of the line. With 248 years of service as of 2026, she is the world's oldest naval vessel still in commission. She was ordered for the Royal Navy in 1758, during the Seven Years' War, and laid down in 1759. That year saw British victories at Quebec, Minden, Lagos and Quiberon Bay and these may have influenced the choice of name when it was selected in October the following year. In particular, the action in Quiberon Bay had a profound effect on the course of the war; severely weakening the French Navy and shifting its focus away from the sea. There was therefore no urgency to complete the ship and the signing of the Treaty of Paris in February 1763 meant that when Victory was finally floated out in 1765, she was placed in ordinary. Her construction had taken 6,000 trees, 90% of them oak.
On the show — 6 mentions total
Nelson's ship, HMS Victory, nearly didn't get out of the dock it was built in because it was too big. It was a classic mistake. They thought we're going to build this fantastic big ship. They built it. The night before the launch, the dockyard foreman looked at it and he thought, I wonder if it's too big.
from 162: No Such Thing As Catastrophic Shoelaces, 2017-04-28 at 00:26:12 · read transcript
Other times HMS Victory came up
Lots of the rest of it had been kind of ruined by charcoal burners. Nelson said, Parliament should plant lots of new forest, right? A few years after he died in Trafalgar, they did plant a load of new forest. Two of the oaks planted during that ship building tree planting drive, provided raw material to restore HMS Victory. 200 years later. Oh, that's so nice. How cool is that?
162: No Such Thing As Catastrophic Shoelaces, 2017-04-28 · listen
This is what Nelson was just walking up and down in unconcernedly and eventually, you know, he was hit. Poor old Whipple. Because he would be nervous having probably witnessed what just happened to your predecessor. In 2005, that was a big anniversary of Trafalgar. It included a fireworks display which used the same amount of gunpowder that HMS Victory used in the battle of Trafalgar. Wow. How cool is that? So how much was that?
162: No Such Thing As Catastrophic Shoelaces, 2017-04-28 · listen
It could see satellites from out of space, it could see any ballistic missiles that might be coming towards it. It was supposed to be an amazing intelligence-gathering ship that travelled around the world. Yeah, they just built it too big. HMS Victory, this is quite cool. It was the same age as Nelson, basically. As in when they had the battle, I think he was 48 and the ship was 47.
No Such Thing As Catastrophic Shoelaces, 2017-04-28 · listen
More places from this episode
162: No Such Thing As Catastrophic Shoelaces put 3 places on the map.
Coordinates: 50.8019, -1.1097