Fighting Top to Keelson: Saving the Mainmast of HMS Victory

Complex and challenging: removing HMS Victory's lower mainmast for restoration and repair.
Produced by Maritime Films UK for The National Museum of the Royal Navy.
Director/Camera/Edit: Rob White/Andy Jones, with David Botwinik

[@yoke-munchan1813]

What a task! Well done. Imagine these ship of the line after an engagement, clearing the deck, rigging replacement while injured, short-handed, and most likely in bad sea conditions. Amazing!

[@Cabmaker]

I can’t imagine how they originally got those masts up when the ship was first being built. Amazing

[@markalton2809]

All without a single combustion engine involved.

[@davidholman2536]

A crane hulk was an old ship used for mast lifts. Big cables, capstans and lots of muscle. I assume a historian will chip in next with a better answer.

[@johnmartlew5897]

@@markalton2809. Of course if one had been offered them they would have refused. For ecological reasons.

[@williamrobinson7435]

No you're absolutely right, though the crane hulk was often called the sheer hulk. Good answer though. ​@@davidholman2536

[@JamesAAshton]

@@davidholman2536A "sheer hulk" was the more common term. Dibdin was wrong about that in "Tom Bowling".

[@williamrobinson7435]

Wow! Hats off, whether athwartships or fore & aft, to all involved. 🌟👍

[@oldschool1993]

I've been on the Victory a couple of times and the tour is always interesting. However, it would be more interesting if they had put a little information in the video about how the mast was originally installed and how masts were repaired after storm or battle damage. BTW- the USS Constitution " Old Ironsides" though not quite as old as Victory is still afloat and commissioned in the US Navy.

[@ukdave57]

Amazing work. Well done to all involved.

[@bholdr----0]

Were there any coins under the mast? A naval tradition was to put a coin under the mast where ot sat on the keelson, and it'd be interested to see what was there! (I couldn't tell, even with the good resolution of this vid.) When was the main mast in this vid oroginally stepped? It couldn't be original, right? (At the least, the main mast was pretty well shot up at Trafalgar, if I recall correctly.) Very interesting vid, btw!

[@lancer525]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/pV6tlYl9r8R-bNEsi=veAsH9Cl-UsfBUq7

[@tommiatkins3443]

Back when she was active, the shipyard would have her sticks off with no planning, in all weather, and replaced in a few days.

[@jamieblanche3963]

@@emptymannull So you would rather deny those keen to learn of the opportunity? Rather you would sneer at their achievements? However will those skills survive...

[@Whitpusmc]

Sadly so many skills have been lost to time. Stuff passed down from master to apprentice and never written down. There was an incentive to keep these skills “in house” to maintain wages, competitive advantage, national security, security of trades etc. Masons are just one example.

[@ryder6070]

You know absolutely nothing about these people. @@emptymannull

[@ryder6070]

judgmenntal fucjk@@emptymannull

[@sblack48]

Wrought iron? I always assumed it was wood. So how was it formed! Was it a casting?

[@user-lv7ph7hs7l]

It's not original. From the 1900s refit. They would be elm. Made of several trees, a "made mast" as opposed to a mast made of a single tree.

[@user-lv7ph7hs7l]

I did some more research her current masts are from 1897, her masts were found to be rotten and replaced by the iron masts of HMS Shah. Around 1810 iron became more common. Trincomalee for instance has her wooden hull (teak) reinforced by iron. That and the teak is why she is in near perfect condition and still floating as is her sister Unicorn, though in worse shape cosmetically. But the timbers are sound. Of course they are 50 years younger than Victory but it shows how insanely tough teak is. That's why decks on all ships are still teak. But it's nearing extinction and prices are insane. A single slab 3 m long can be 10k. But at the time they had used so much oak that they didn't have enough to build ships anymore so around 1800 teak became popular.

[@JamesAAshton]

There were originally wood. These iron masts were only installed in 1893.

[@davidpowell6098]

Makes you wonder how they built her without the tech we have today, horses, and men built her, no machines.

[@Pocketfarmer1]

They had lots of machines. They didn’t have engine or motor powered machines. Do a dive into the factory they built to make all the blocks used on Victory. All most a modern assembly line. It’s quite amazing.

[@JohnyG29]

People were not as stupid or primitive in the 18th century as you seem to think.

[@knottyal2428]

I believe the dockyard was equipped with shearlegs, to pull out masts or replace them. Pulley blocks can multiply power for men and horses.

[@danuk-]

Awful what they did to that ship. Looks like a beautiful tree thats been felled. I cannot believe they were not about to save and maintain all its rigging.

[@user-lv7ph7hs7l]

You do know she is being restored. It will all be put back together. Taking the mast of is sailship maintenance 101. They did that all the time back in the day.

[@oldschool1993]

Riggers- also referred to as the "R" word.

[@bigbob1699]

Please call Boston USA , our Uss Constitution is still sailing.

[@JohnyG29]

Yeah, but that ship is tiny compared to Victory and 35 years younger.

[@richardsinger01]

​@@JohnyG29I don't think thats true - but it depends what you mean by tiny. Displacement maybe? Constitution is considerably longer than Victory.

[@borisvdr]

@@richardsinger01 I think HMS Victory's 104 guns compared to USS Constitution's 44 says it all.

[@davidhjortnaes2000]

In the right kind of weather the Constitution would dismast the Victory and win. She would also be raked multiple times through the bow and stern. Frigates could beat a ship of the line, and that is why frigates sailed with line ships.

[@dolvaran]

@@davidhjortnaes2000 Even in a dead calm, Victory would deploy boats to train her guns. In any event, Constitution (which is also a great ship) would be completely disabled before her guns were even in range to do any real damage. 32-pounders outrange 24-pounders you know.

[@colinsmith6116]

Please stop that bloody noise in the background.

[@alanbromfield1387]

Unwatchable 🤬