Workers remove Hms Victory foremast during 30,000-pound repair

Workers removed hms victory’s foremast overnight on April 27-28, lifting the more than 30,000-pound spar by crane as part of conservation work. The ship remains open to visitors while the Big Repair continues at Portsmouth Historic Dockyard.

The foremast is more than 75 feet tall and is the ship’s second-largest mast. Andrew Baines, executive director of operations for the National Museum of the Royal Navy, said the restoration would reveal parts of Victory that were last seen by the 18th-century shipwrights who built her.

Portsmouth Historic Dockyard

Shipwrights below the deck detached the mast before a massive crane lowered it onto the dockside for repair. The work is part of a $57 million effort on the vessel, which was launched in 1765, commissioned in 1778 and later served as Horatio Nelson’s flagship at the 1805 Battle of Trafalgar.

The project marks a century since the ship was moved to dry dock and will leave Victory covered in scaffolding for the duration. Baines said, “We’re going to reveal parts of Victory that were last seen by the 18th-century shipwrights who built her” and, “It feels like we’re shaking hands with that team from across the centuries.”

Victory’s remaining masts

The mizzen mast and bowsprit will be removed in the coming days, while the vessel’s main lower mast was removed in 2021. All masts are due to return to the vessel in 2033, after work on the ship’s structure continues around the iron masts installed in 1893.

The current repair follows experts’ finding about a decade ago that Victory was collapsing under its own weight. Since 1928, more than 30 million people have visited the ship, and custodianship passed to the National Museum of the Royal Navy in 2012.