One of Kent’s most famous daughters celebrates her 250th birthday this year, and despite the fact that she’s creaking, sagging and will never move again, there’s going to be quite a party.

On May 7, 1765, HMS Victory was floated out of the Old Single Dock in Chatham’s Royal Dockyard. In the years to come, she would lead fleets in the American War of Independence, the French Revolutionary War and the Napoleonic Wars.

In October 1805 she achieved international fame as the flagship of Vice-Admiral Horatio Nelson in Britain’s greatest naval victory, the defeat of the French and Spanish at the Battle of Trafalgar.

Victory’s fame is perhaps most commonly associated with that fateful afternoon at the Battle of Trafalgar on October 21, 1805, when Nelson was struck down on her deck, having secured the victory that would see Britain’s dominance at sea for more than a century. It also sealed that moment in history when man and ship became enshrined into Britain’s national conscience.

Now an exciting exhibition at her birthplace, the Historic Dockyard Chatham, presents not only the bullet that killed Nelson aboard Victory, but a further 21 objects on loan from the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, which bring Victory’s glory days as Britain’s seaborne defender back to vivid life.

They include models of the ship – which ended its days at Portsmouth, where it remains on display – a decorative sword, original letters, plans and the centrepiece of the exhibition, HMS Victory’s figurehead.

The man behind HMS Victory: The Untold Story is naval historian Brian Lavery, who told What’s On all about Victory’s significance today.

What’s particularly special about Chatham in the world of naval history?

“Chatham is the best-preserved of the historic dockyards really. More of the buildings are still intact and of course it’s where they built the Victory as well. One of the themes of the exhibition is that Nelson learned to sail on the Medway. One of his first jobs was on a ship called the Triumph on the Medway, it didn’t go anywhere, it was a guard ship. His uncle was the captain and he put Nelson in charge of one of the ship’s boats, and he sailed all over the place, up to London, in that boat, and that was his first experience in command of anything. That was how he learned the basics before becoming an admiral.”

What is Victory’s significance?

“It’s difficult to encapsulate – you could start by saying she was Nelson’s flagship at Trafalgar, but she’s actually much more than that. She fought in several naval battles during the American War of Independence. They were all very indecisive battles, because Nelson was a boy at the time and so he wasn’t there to lead them into battle and show them how to win battles decisively. Then she was in the Mediterranean in the 1790s, and was off Corsica when Nelson lost the sight of his eye. She was the flagship at the battle of St Vincent, one of the biggest British victories of that time. She was 35 years old by that time, which is quite old for a ship and she was completely rebuilt at Chatham. It was touch and go whether she’d be converted into a prison ship, but they decided on a huge repair, from 1801 to 1803. Then she became Nelson’s flagship. Nelson spent two years without leaving her decks once.”

So Nelson and Victory were a real double act?

“They were. Two years after she was rebuilt at Chatham, he chased the French across the Atlantic. No British admiral had taken a ship that size across the Atlantic before. It shows a lot of confidence in her building.”

What happened to Victory after Nelson’s death?

“After Trafalgar, she was taken to the Baltic. It was very important that Britain should keep good relations. Admiral Saumarez was in charge by that time, whose telescope we have in the exhibition. He very diplomatically made sure there wasn’t a war with Sweden. He built up good relations with Russia, and the ultimate result of that was that Napoleon invaded Russia, which was one of the defining events of the century. From 1812 she was always moored in Portsmouth harbour. She was the flagship for the port admiral and used for court marshals. She was open to visitors, and Queen Victoria came several times, Beatrix Potter came, W S Gilbert came when he was writing HMS Pinafore. In every phase of history she’s got some kind of role. She was hit by a German bomb during the Second World War when Portsmouth dockyard was the target. She was used as a symbol of victory during the Second World War and world leaders all came to visit the Victory at one time or another. In the exhibition, there’s a reproduction of a painting showing Portsmouth dockyard being bombed and in the centre of it the mast of the Victory sticking up.”

Why is HMS Victory at Portsmouth and not Chatham?

“It’s just a matter of chance that she ended up there after the Baltic in 1812. It would have been which one had a dock free to put her into, or something like that. She’s permanently fixed in a dry dock and bolted down, it wouldn’t be possible to move her anywhere else. It’s a problem that she’s out in the open so she’s exposed to all the weather. She rests on cradles in the dry dock – now a ship’s designed to have every part of its hull supported by the water, so she’s been sagging for a long time around these cradles. They’ve got £50m to repair her which probably won’t be enough. One of the things we’ve got in the exhibition is the figurehead. It couldn’t stand the open air any more.”

The single lead shot that killed Nelson is mounted on remnants of gold lace from his uniform and contained in a locket.

Nelson was shot by a French marine as he stood on the deck of HMS Victory. The bullet was extracted from the wound by surgeon William Beatty, but it had caused fatal damage.

It was mounted into a locket for Beatty which he is said to have worn for the rest of his life. On Beatty’s death it was presented to Queen Victoria.

DID YOU KNOW?
Nelson lost his right arm in the Battle of Santa Cruz de Tenerife in 1797 after being hit by a musket ball shortly after stepping ashore. He was apparently giving orders again 30 minutes after the amputation.

Brian said: “It’s a tiny little thing, but that is the actual bullet. Somebody on the French ship the Redoutable fired it from the mast down.

"It went through Nelson’s shoulder, lungs and spine and it seems to have lodged there.

"He stayed alive for about two and three quarter hours after that, in absolute agony.

"He probably did say the famous last words to close friend and flag-captain, Thomas Hardy, ‘Kiss me Hardy’, not in the calm voice we imagine but gasping for breath.

“They carried him down three flights of stairs to the operating theatre of the ship, one thing which you wouldn’t do these days with someone with a spinal injury.

"The manual for surgeons in the Second World War said, ‘Whatever you do, don’t do what they did to Nelson – treat the wounded on the same deck if you possibly can’.”

Churchill’s favourite film, That Hamilton Woman, featured a model of HMS Victory.

The 1941 picture starred Vivien Leigh as Nelson’s mistress, Emma Hamilton, and Laurence Olivier as Nelson.

Brian said: “The model of Victory that was used for that film is in Chatham dockyard. Churchill saw the film at least five times and he always cried when he saw it.”

HMS Victory: The Untold Story is at the Historic Dockyard Chatham until Sunday, May 31. Dockyard entry costs £19 for adults, £11.50 for children or £49.50 for a family. Visit www.thedockyard.co.uk or call 01634 823800.