Scale: 1:60. A full hull model of the ‘Victory’ (1765), a 100-gun, three-decker ship of the line. The model is decked. Judging by its style and finish, this model would appear to be an early 19th-century example of the ‘Victory’ as built in 1765. It was originally in the Admiralty collection at Somerset House.

Built at Chatham, the ‘Victory’ measured 186 feet in length (gun deck) by 52 feet in the beam, displacing 2162 tons burden. It was armed with thirty 32-pounders on the gun deck, twenty-eight 24-pounders on the middle deck, thirty 12-pounders on the upper deck, twelve 12-pounders on the quarterdeck, two 12-pounders on the forecastle and two 68-pounder carronades.

The ‘Victory’, the flagship of Vice-Admiral Nelson at Trafalgar, is probably the best known of all the Royal Navy’s warships. This was the fifth incarnation of the name, and was built at Chatham and launched in 1765. It was not commissioned until 1778 and first served as Admiral Keppel’s flagship in an indecisive battle with the French off Ushant in the same year. It saw much service both in the American Revolutionary War (1775–82) and in the Revolutionary War with France (1793–1801).

In 1803 it became Nelson’s flagship in the Mediterranean and carried him in his pursuit of Admiral Villeneuve across the Atlantic. It then took Nelson from Portsmouth to join, and take command of, Vice-Admiral Collingwood’s fleet that was watching the combined Franco-Spanish fleet at Cadiz in October 1805. During the subsequent battle off Cape Trafalgar, Nelson was mortally wounded by a bullet while standing on the upper deck.

‘Victory’ next served in the Baltic as the flagship of Admiral Saumarez and was withdrawn from active service in 1812. Taken to Portsmouth, it was selected as the permanent, and stationary, flagship of the commander-in-chief there, lying at moorings in the harbour. In 1922, under pressure from the Society for Nautical Research, it was brought into No. 2 Dry Dock, Chatham, where it was restored and re-rigged to its state at Trafalgar.

See also SLR0515, SLR0516 and SLR0520.