Nelson’s fore topsail goes on display at the National Museum of the Royal Navy in Portsmouth for a limited time this summer.
Even as the admiral lay dying, deep below decks aboard HMS Victory, during the Battle of Trafalgar on 21st October 1805, the fore topsail of his 104 gun flagship was taking a terrible strafing from the French and Spanish guns. As a main target for the enemy gunners it received 90 pock marks and holes, including a 24ft rent from canon balls.
And now the Trafalgar foretopsail, the only surviving sail from the Battle of Trafalgar, is back on display in the Museum’s Storehouse 10 (upstairs at the Royal Naval Musem), in Portsmouth Historic Dockyard.
Measuring 80 feet at its foot, 54 feet at the head and 55 feet deep, the 3,618 square feet square sail weighs 360kg and was sewn in 1803 at the Royal Navy yard at Chatham in Kent. On 6 January 1806 the sail was taken off HMS Victory a few weeks after she returned from Gibraltar to Chatham. It was back aboard Victory in the late 1890s and displayed at the centenary aboard in 1905. Following HMS Victory’s berthing in No. 2 dock in Portsmouth Naval Base in 1922, the sail was again removed and much later rediscovered in a gymnasium in the Royal Naval Barracks – at HMS Nelson, under gym mats, in 1960. It was then returned to the ship a couple of years later on display in a glass case. By 1993 the sail was in the care of Victory’s project manager the late Peter Goodwin who recorded it before entrusting it to Banks Sails in Fareham who repaired it enough, with a backing of light synthetic netting, to be on display again for Portsmouth’s 1998 Festival of the Sea.
It later went to the Textile Conservation Centre at the University of Southampton where Paul Garside and Paul Wyeth assessed its condition with electric micrography, doing more work before it was displayed at Portsmouth for the Battle of Trafalgar Bicentenary year in 2005.
“HMS Victory, Nelson and the Battle of Trafalgar are key to our history,” comments Matthew Sheldon, Director of Heritage at the NMRN. “The sail is an amazing object, scarred by battle and like HMS Victory herself, a proud survivor of an iconic battle. But it is also a vast handmade object from Georgian times that required great skill and knowledge to create it. Seeing it is a real treat and will be a highlight for the summer.”
Diana McCormack, Senior Conservator, the NMRN adds: “The latest conservation steps taken include placing the sail in an environmentally controlled space. A team of six textile conservators were involved in the cleaning programme. The sail itself was heavily soiled and under an electron microscope contaminants could be seen to have razor-like edges that were capable of abrading the sail fibres. The removal of these was achieved by low suction vacuum cleaning and by gentle mechanical action.
“Our job now is to prevent any further deterioration because the fibres are sensitive to shrinking and warping or fading if the conditions are wrong. And to find a way to put the sail on permanent display so its story of incredible survival can be shared by visitors.”
The sail went on display last week and the museum hopes it can be open to the public until December. It is already attracting a lot of attention according to the NMRN’s Jane Hodgkins.
Entry to the Trafalgar Sail is part of the Portsmouth Historic Dockyard Full Navy Ticket available on www.historicdockyard.co.uk which costs from £31 per adult with under 16s free during the summer holidays and valid for multiple entries throughout the year. Book online to save 20% at www.historicdockyard.co.uk
From www.nmrn.org.uk
Main photo: Senior conservator Diana McCormack making final checks on the Trafalgar Sail
The sail was “discovered” in the gym at HMS Nelson in 1962
In this superb painting of the Victory in light airs by Geoff Hunt her fore topsail’s area is increased with studding sails run out on extra spars along the yard arm