Incredible progress is being made to conserve Lord Nelson’s legendary flagship, HMS Victory, as shipwrights mark a significant milestone in the £42 million restoration. It comes as the 100th futtock — a massive rib of oak at the heart of the ship’s frame — has been fitted into place, with each of the 16 shipbuilders carving their names into the timber before it was eased into the hull.
“Conserving a ship of this scale, age and importance is a unique challenge,” said Simon Williams, the project manager overseeing the decade-long effort. “Thanks to the skills and expertise of our shipwrights, and the wider project team, we are making incredible progress with two-thirds of planned futtock repairs complete.”
The work has revealed traces of past hands — a payslip, a ruler, and the distinctive timber marks once used to track construction. “It is believed that these marks etched into the ship’s timbers, usually using a rasping knife, were used as part of a wider identification system to track the construction process of HMS Victory,” according to Rosemary Thornber, the National Museum of the Royal Navy (NMRN) principal heritage advisor. They’d normally indicate a date, the part of the ship the timber relates to, and the Admiralty Broad Arrow, along with the initials of the dockyard manager receiving the timber. Now these marks serve as a tangible connection between the generations of skilled craftsmen who worked on the ship previously, and today’s ongoing conservation efforts.”
“It is now the turn of our shipwrights to leave their mark,” Williams said. “Victory is so much more than the story of Nelson and Trafalgar — she’s about all the people and events that have shaped her history and enabled her to survive.”
Due for completion in 2032, the restoration, which began in 2022, is a fight against rot and the slow destruction caused by wood-boring Deathwatch beetles. Each beam is cut, shaped, and fitted with precision, many arriving from France — a twist of history more than two centuries after Victory’s role in defeating Napoleon’s fleet.
Why HMS Victory is being rebuilt with French Oak planks…
Last year, Wood Central reported that shipbuilders had turned to Britain’s oldest foe to source the oak because “they have the best forests.” Williams noted that Nelson himself was “very concerned” about the “state” of British forests. The restoration will see Hewins Oak, WL West & Sons, and Border Harwoods supply timbers — all from PEFC-certified French forests.
“In the current age, France is a neighbour that we have a reasonably good relationship with, and they certainly have superiorly managed forests to the UK,” Williams said, adding that the decision to source French oak stems from a 17th-century policy to dedicate “large areas” of woodland to shipbuilding. “Even when Victory made her name, Napoleon instructed even more planting of trees,” Williams said late last year. “The French have been very, very good at managing usable forest since the 1600s.”
- To learn more about the restoration of HMS Victory and Lord Nelson’s concerns about the state of British forests, click here for Wood Central’s special feature from October 2024.
