| 24 January 2012
Vigilance can report that the wreck of the historically important HMS Victory has been gifted to the Maritime Heritage Foundation. The ship was the predecessor to Admiral Nelson’s flagship preserved at Portsmouth Dockyard. This Victory sank in a storm in 1744 with the loss of over a thousand crew.
According to an MoD source after a period of joint consultation between the Ministry of Defence and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) and with a public consultation period, an agreement was reached with the Maritime Heritage Foundation for the trust to undertake the future management of the wreck site.
HMS Victory (1744) was discovered on 2 February 2009 by the US deep-sea exploration company Odyssey Marine Exploration in the WesternEnglish Channel at a depth of 80 metres, located outside British and French territorial waters.
The source said the finding of the HMS Victory (1744) is of unique importance to British Naval heritage as it is unusual to find the remains of a British First Rate warship of this period, adding in its heyday, the ship represented the pinnacle of naval technology. The ship was fitted with a complete arsenal of bronze cannon, which is extremely rare.
Andrew Robathan MP, Minister for Defence Personnel, Welfare and Veterans said: “The gift of the 1744 HMS Victory to the Maritime Heritage Foundation should give better protection to the wreck which is very important to British naval heritage. We welcome the agreement of the Trust to assume responsibility for this unique part of our maritime history.”
The Victory was a 100 gun First Rate ship of the line launched in 1738 and was the flagship of Admiral Sir John Balchin when he led a force to relieve a French blockade of the River Tagus in Portugal, where a British convoy with stores for Gibraltar was incarcerated. The blockade was lifted, the French retreated to Cadiz and Admiral Balchin escorted the convoy to Gibraltar. On the fleet’s return journey a storm separated HMS Victory from the rest of the fleet. The ship and her crew of over a thousand were not seen again.
The Maritime Heritage Foundation is a registered charity, the chairman of which is Lord Lingfield. It has been established especially to recover, preserve and display in public museums artefacts from HMS Victory (1744) and to promote knowledge and understanding of our maritime heritage, particularly through educational projects.
The Maritime Heritage Foundation will be supported by an Advisory Group, with representatives of English Heritage and the NationalMuseum of the Royal Navy. The Group will advise on the extent to which actions proposed by the Foundation are consistent with the archaeological principles set out in Annex A to the UNESCO Convention on the Protection of Underwater Cultural Heritage.