Airfix HMS Victory Questions

[Doug]

Hi all,

Recently on a short holiday managed to visit one of my favorite ships the HMS Victory at Portsmouth, which rekindled my desire to build said ship from an old Airfix kit I had in my stash. I want to build it as she was at the time of Trafalgar, which I think took place in 1805, however the Airfix kit states it is a model of the Victory as she looked in 1765 so what do I need to delete or add to complete the ship during the battle?

Secondly although the ship is being refitted and painted at the moment so nearly all the masts, sails and some of the deck equipment was off being renovated I couldn't help noticing that the rear of the ship looks totally different in real life to that of the kits box picture especially in the wooden structures ringed below:

Can anyone tell me what they were used for and if they were still used during the 1805 time period I am looking for as there was no sign of them on the ship or on the models of the ship in the museum?

TIA.

Doug S.

Edited May 10, 2013 by Doug

[Mister Surveyor]

Not very sure... for tethering boats or hanging something? They are a bit like the big anchor posts forward. They are very big and heavy, and I'd wonder about the anchoring points for the beams, especially the aft ones

A quick search on Google images does show the side ones on the ship at Portsmouth

This model suggests they are all boat davits:-

http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?hl=en&biw=1600&bih=805&tbm=isch&tbnid=LWBh7QS2ZxcuLM:&imgrefurl=http://www.naintrading.co.uk/model-ships/hms-victory-p-478.html&docid=gI_L-yfL9aKYHM&imgurl=http://www.naintrading.com/data/ships/0HMS%252520Victory%252520Close%252520Sail%252520L60%252520-%25252001.jpg&w=1280&h=1074&ei=r2WNUbj8EfCb1AXH_YDYCQ&zoom=1&ved=1t:3588,r:93,s:0,i:448&iact=rc&dur=322&page=4&tbnh=169&tbnw=198&start=85&ndsp=32&tx=151&ty=107

This view does show them

http://farm1.staticflickr.com/2/2056216_f7f20b4fcc.jpg

Edited May 10, 2013 by Mister Surveyor

[Doug]

Hi there,

As I said was there a couple of weeks ago and all these "posts" "davitts" have been removed for restoration so were not attached to the ship when i was there, however one of the models in the Victory Museum did have these posts on it so perhaps your right about them being launch davitts.

Cheers mister Surveyor.

Doug S.

[foxy]

Yes thats what they are and sometimes a boat hung there for the Captain.

Nice pictures, do you have any more as i will be building this ship in the near future.

[swordfish fairey]

I took these in 2007 and have a few more if you need some.........

Smudge

[Murdo]

^{I would love to visit that ship some day!}

[Hepster]

I have one of these in the stash, and I checked out the official HMS Victory website which has a couple of model making sections, which you can find by following the HMS Victory tab and then selecting the Reference tab.

[foxy]

Thanks Smudge and Hepster.

All will help when I get around to this ship.

[Killingholme]

They're boat davits.

If you're serious about modelling victory at a specific time in her life, this website is invaluable. http://pete-coleman.com/forum/. You need to register, but you'll not regret it.

I think the consensus is that at Trafalgar Victory would have had quarter davits, but not stern davits. Other things, like the presence (or otherwise) of a side entry port) are more contentious.

The Airfix kit, to all intents and purposes (for such a small scale) depicts the ship in 1805. The 1765 on the box is spurious- the ship looked very, very different when she was launched so don't let that mislead you.

regds,

Will

[markjames68]

Visited the victory about 3 yrs ago, she is absolutely amazing and a beautiful thing to see, i was amazed by how well she is looked after and the seemingly immaculate condition she is in, am currently building. 1/32 scratchbuild of her from the pics i took amongst other references ( about 82 inch hull if i recall correctly)

[John W Reid]

Building the Victory was a 20 year experience for me.Loved every minute. Cheers! John.