HMS Victory davits

[rkwz]

Hello all ,

 

I was just wondering if the Trafalgar period HMS Victory would have had the same davits sitting just above the lower gun deck like those from a picture (colorised photo?) of her in the 19th century I believe:

 

 

 

 

 

[Jim Lad]

This watercolour by Clarkson Stansfield of the Victory being towed into Gibraltar after Trafalgar may be of use to you.  This image is from the Royal Museums at Greenwich.  I believe his finished work is in the Victoria and Albert Museum.

 

John

 

[shipman]

The shortest answer to your question is, no.

[rkwz]

Thanks everyone. Longridge makes no mention of these lower davits in the fore section of the ships hull so I suppose they were an addition post Trafalgar.

 

 

On 10/4/2020 at 1:24 PM, Jim Lad said:

This watercolour by Clarkson Stansfield of the Victory being towed into Gibraltar after Trafalgar may be of use to you.  This image is from the Royal Museums at Greenwich.  I believe his finished work is in the Victoria and Albert Museum.

 

John

 

 

Thank you for the tip. I wish I'd paid more attention the last time I was at the V&A (over 7 years now - 1 day is hardly enough time)... hopefully I'll have the chance to visit again once travel returns to normal.

 

[shipman]

Victory was re-purposed several times after 'retirement'; mainly as an accommodation ship, also as a prison, a hospital and a prison.

Sometime she was rammed by an Ironclad which broke it's tow on it's way to the breakers. Photo's do exist of this incident, but can I find them on the 'net'?

[dafi]

These "side"-davits were not present at Trafalgar for sure, the earliest proof I know is about 1860.

 

Even the aft Davits do not show up as evidence before 1824.

 

All contemporary drawings, paintings and plans I know do not show these davits until 1807- The last one without is from Robert Dodd, published in 1807, still with the old beakhead bulkhead. 

 

First appearance are on drawings John Christian Schetky 1824 and 1827 and Edward William Cooke 1828. Ever since these are a prominent feature on all following illustrations.

 

The same goes for the stern davits, who first shown up in 1920 if I am not mistaken.

 

But these are my little thought after looking at this detail for a long time already. Take your own conbclusions 😉

 

XXXDAn

 

PS: Clarkson Stansfield´s "Victory being towed into Gibraltar after Trafalgar" was made after 1857 afaik, so I would not take too much into consideration for the details.

[dafi]

On 10/5/2020 at 10:54 AM, shipman said:

Victory was re-purposed several times after 'retirement'; mainly as an accommodation ship, also as a prison, a hospital and a prison.

Sometime she was rammed by an Ironclad which broke it's tow on it's way to the breakers. Photo's do exist of this incident, but can I find them on the 'net'?

 

@shipmanHere they are 🙂

 

[shipman]

Thanks for the photo's, Dafi. It's so long since I saw them I was almost convinced I'd imagined them.

Your Victory project is becoming a new wonder of the world.

[dafi]

Small remark off topic: One can easily identify the area of the impact, as there is the external gangway on the left and the small platform just left of the hole 🙂

 

XXXDAn

 

[dafi]

Just another off topic to the picture in the first post: Have you realized all the people painting the ship? There are two man on top of the davits in question, two are painting the main topmast, two are painting the fore topmast and there were more doing works in the missing parts of the picture 🙂

 

XXXDAn

[rkwz]

18 hours ago, dafi said:

These "side"-davits were not present at Trafalgar for sure, the earliest proof I know is about 1860.

 

Even the aft Davits do not show up as evidence before 1824.

 

All contemporary drawings, paintings and plans I know do not show these davits until 1807- The last one without is from Robert Dodd, published in 1807, still with the old beakhead bulkhead. 

 

First appearance are on drawings John Christian Schetky 1824 and 1827 and Edward William Cooke 1828. Ever since these are a prominent feature on all following illustrations.

 

The same goes for the stern davits, who first shown up in 1920 if I am not mistaken.

 

But these are my little thought after looking at this detail for a long time already. Take your own conbclusions 😉

 

XXXDAn

 

PS: Clarkson Stansfield´s "Victory being towed into Gibraltar after Trafalgar" was made after 1857 afaik, so I would not take too much into consideration for the details.

 

Thanks, Daniel. I discovered some of your earlier posts regarding the davits after I posted this! 😂

 

I do have yet another ignorant landlubber question then... how were the smaller boats lowered into the sea in the absence of the stern and quarter/aft davits?

 

16 hours ago, dafi said:

Just another off topic to the picture in the first post: Have you realized all the people painting the ship? There are two man on top of the davits in question, two are painting the main topmast, two are painting the fore topmast and there were more doing works in the missing parts of the picture 🙂

 

XXXDAn

 

Great eye for detail! Hopefully they were maintaining adequate 1.5m social distancing if the photo was taken during the spanish flu epidemic...

 

 

Cheers,

 

Ron

 

[dafi]

As far as I know this picture was taken about 1880, no spanish flue yet in sight.

 

Boats being hoisted out with the help of the yards.

 

XxXDAn