Before you begin to read, I must warn you that I wrote this with much passion and excitement after a hard day's traveling, so I apologize for it's lengthiness. Today was our trip to Portsmouth in Southeast England near the shores of Dover. It is a city steeped in history, particularly that pertaining to HM Royal Navy. Today, from what I saw on the bus and walking around, Portsmouth is not exactly a charming place like the Cotswolds or Kent, but it serves as an embodiment of British naval past and future, as it is still the home of the modern Royal Navy. I spent my few hours there within the confines of the Portsmouth Historic Dockyard. To me, their historical collection was like being a kid in a candy store. Call me a nerd, but today's experience definitely reaffirmed my academic desire to studying British history, particularly that pertaining to nautical history.
Portsmouth was a functioning nautical capital as far back as King Henry VIII, but the dockyards were in their prime during the 18th and 19th centuries. On display at the dockyards are 3 primary ships as well as exhibitions on the Royal Navy sailing ships, Lord Horatio Nelson, the Battle of Trafalgar, the 19th century navy and much more. I'll go in reverse order of my visits to the 3 ships as the first one I visited was, without a doubt, my favorite and I am afraid I may ramble on in deep admiration...
The HMS Warrior was a Victorian iron-hulled armor warship dating to 1860. I found it interesting because from the outside it looked similar to any of the wooden sailing ships of the 18th century with rigging and everything, but once you step down below it is more obviously from the 19th century industrial expansion. Iron frames most of the doorways, windows and other parts of the ship, though the floorboards are still wood planks. The cannons are of greater technological build meant to shoot exploding shots rather than iron cannonballs. Most Victorian about it all though, is that there is a great steam engine in the hull of the ship. It may not be as big as those one might see today, but if you look at it from the perspective of the late 19th century, it is rather remarkable.
It is incredible to even consider that we are so fortunate to have something like the Mary Rose on exhibit at all today. It is the ONLY surviving warship on display dating back to the Tudor reign in the 1500's! She sank in Portsmouth Harbor for various, complicated reasons in 1545, and was only recently delivered from the ocean floor in 1982. She has not been completely restored, but we were so privileged as to walk through a gallery and see her in the process of being preserved for permanent display by 2011. In another gallery, thousands of personal and military objects have been recovered from the site through maritime archeology and it is amazing how well the silt has preserved these common-day objects! Some of them we were even allowed to touch...so I can say that I actually handled a Tudor-era arrow and nautical cable! ..something quite unheard of in most museum institutions. It was quite an experience.
My most life-fulfilling visit today was on the HMS Victory. The flagship of Lord Horatio Nelson in the Battle of Trafalgar, the Victory is the epitome of everything Romantic and novel-like about the sailing Royal Navy in the 18th century. I spent a good 2 hours there and could have spent more if time did not press me. The Victory has been refurbished after active-duty as she was during Nelson's time at Trafalgar, and it is amazing to walk through and see things exactly as they were during her active command in the Napoleonic Wars. The 24lb guns, 68lb carronades, mess tables, hammocks, and store rooms, all set up to authentic qualifications make the experience truly memorable and as close to 'living history' as I have ever seen in a nautical historical attraction. To top it off, there is a shrine on the Orlop deck at the exact location Lord Horatio Nelson died amidst his crew at the end of battle. I know it may seem rather absurd to make his death place a shrine, but Nelson was one of the most popular social and patriotic figures during his lifetime. So popular, that there were curios, collectibles and souvenir things made of him while he was still alive. When he died, the whole nation went into mourning and he was given a state burial to behold, whose procession train was 2 miles long. THAT is what I find so remarkable and captivating about not only Nelson, but also the social thinking of the time in which he lived. What intrigues me even more was that he was so popular despite the fact that English society, as a general whole, disapproved of his private life decisions which were unbefitting of a man who literally represented Great Britain at the time. I find such historical questions so fascinating to unravel, and that is why I am studying over here...so I can be in the midst of it all.