Portsmouth Historic Dockyards

Thursday
The hope for today was that John and Jean would take us out on their sailing boat for the day. However, the weather thought otherwise, with gusting winds, grey skies and rain on and off all day. So instead we took the ferry from Gosport across to Portsmouth Historic Dockyards and spent a fascinating day exploring some of the historic ships on display. We started with HMS Warrior. Launched in 1860, at a time of empire and Britain’s dominance in trade and industry, HMS Warrior was the pride of Queen Victoria’s fleet. Warrior and her sister ship HMS Black Prince were the first armour-plated, iron-hulled warships, and were built in response to France's launching in 1859 of the first ocean-going ironclad warship, the wooden-hulled Gloire. Obsolescent following the 1871 launching of the mastless and more capable HMS Devastation, she was placed in reserve in 1875, and was decommissioned in 1883.
Next was HMS Victory, the Royal Navy's most famous warship, best known for her role as Lord Nelson's flagship at the Battle of Trafalgar on 21 October 1805.
We also toured HMS M33, the only warship from World War I open to visitors. She saw active service in the Mediterranean during the First World War and in Russia during the Allied Intervention in 1919.
The bottom right photo in my collage made an interesting contrast to these historic ships, HMS Queen Elizabeth, Britain’s latest aircraft carrier, commissioned in 2017, in her home port.