Originally Posted by Junglie
I recently visited the USS Constitution whilst i was in Boston and the tour was excellent and lead by a serving Petty Officer in the USN who was fiercely proud to be a memeber of her ships' company. An excellent tour as good as the one on HMS Victory and full of great stories.
They do 'doff their caps' to Victory during the tour and acknowledge her as being the older of the two and her status in history. Both are excellent visits if you get the chance. Regards Junglie
That's good to hear. Clearly to get Victory back in sea-going trim would be like returning a Spitfire or other historic to the air - much of the historic content would have to be lost in favour of operational constraints. I gather that when Victory was dry-docked in 1922 the integrity of the structure was very compromised and there was something like an 18" droop at the bow - the vessel is supported from beneath to order to keep it true.
Interestingly, in addition to all the other damage, she was rammed at hewr mooring by HMS Neptune in 1903 and came close to sinking.