User:Ykraps/Sandbox 4
{{short description|1765 first-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy}}
{{Other ships|List of ships named HMS Victory{{!}}List of ships named HMS Victory}}
{{Use British English|date=February 2023}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2018}}
| {{Infobox ship begin}}
{{Infobox ship image | Ship image = {{multiple images |perrow=1 2|total_width=250px|align=center | image1 = HMSVictoryPortsmouthEngland (version 2).jpg | image2 = HMS Victory - bow.jpg | image3 = HMSVictory.jpg | image4 = Victory 32pdr gundeck (5694565962).jpg | image5 = The Sick Room, HMS Victory.jpg | image6 = Victory Portsmouth um 1900.jpg | image7= HMS Victory Figurehead - geograph.org.uk - 548098.jpg}} | Ship caption = HMS Victory at Portsmouth Historic Dockyard }} {{Infobox ship career | Hide header = | Ship country = United Kingdom | Ship flag = {{shipboxflag|Kingdom of Great Britain|naval}} | Ship name = HMS Victory | Ship ordered = 14 July 1758 | Ship builder = Chatham Dockyard | Ship laid down = 23 July 1759 | Ship launched = {{start date and age|1765|5|7|df=y}} | Ship acquired = | Ship commissioned = 1778 | Ship decommissioned = | Ship in service = {{#expr:{{CURRENTYEAR}}-1778}} years | Ship out of service = | Ship struck = | Ship reinstated = | Ship homeport = *Portsmouth Historic Dockyard, England
| Ship captured = | Ship fate = | Ship status= *Active
| Ship notes = | Ship honours = *Participated in:
}} {{Infobox ship characteristics | Hide header = | Header caption = Lavery (2003) p. 175 | Ship class = 104-gun first-rate ship of the line | Ship displacement = 3,500 Long ton (3,556 tonnes){{cite web |url=https://www.royalnavy.mod.uk/news-and-latest-activity/features/trafalgar-day/hms-victory |publisher=Royal Navy |title=HMS Victory |access-date=8 April 2023 }} | Ship tons burthen = 2,142 bm | Ship length = *{{convert|186|ft|m|abbr=on}} (gundeck),
| Ship beam = {{convert|51|ft|10|in|m|abbr=on}} | Ship draught = {{convert|28|ft|9|in|m|abbr=on}} | Ship hold depth = {{convert|21|ft|6|in|m|abbr=on}} | Ship propulsion = Sails—{{convert|6510|sqyd|abbr=on}} | Ship sail plan = Full-rigged ship | Ship speed = up to {{convert|11|kn|km/h}} | Ship complement = Approximately 850 | Ship armament = *Trafalgar:
| Ship notes = Height from waterline to top of mainmast: 205 ft (62.5 m) }} |
HMS Victory is a 104-gun first-rate wooden sailing ship of the line. With {{#expr:{{CURRENTYEAR}}-1778}} years of service as of {{CURRENTYEAR}}, she is the world's oldest naval vessel still in commission. She was ordered for the Royal Navy in 1758, during the Seven Years War and laid down in 1759. That year saw British victories at Quebec, Minden, Lagos and Quiberon Bay and these may have influenced the choice of name when it was selected in October the following year. In particular, the action in Quiberon Bay had a profound affect on the course of the war; severely weakening the French Navy and shifting its focus away from the sea. There was therefore no urgency to complete the ship and the signing of the Treaty of Paris in February 1763, meant that when Victory was finally floated out in 1765, she was placed in ordinary. Her construction had taken 6,000 trees, 90% of them oak.
Victory was first commissioned in March 1778 during the American Revolutionary War, seeing action at the First Battle of Ushant in 1778, shortly after France had openly declared her support for Britain's rebel colonies in North America, and the Second Battle of Ushant in 1781. After taking part in the relief of Gibraltar in 1782, Victory, and the fleet she was sailing with, encountered a combined Spanish and French force at the Battle of Cape Spartel. Much of the shot from the allied ships fell short and the British, with orders to return to the English Channel, did not bother to reply. This was her last action of the war; hostilities ended in 1783 and Victory was placed in ordinary once more.
In 1787, Victory was ordered to be fitted for sea following a revolt in the Netherlands but the threat had subsided before the work had been completed. She was ready for the Nootka Crisis and Russian Armament in 1790 but both events were settled before she was called into action. During the French Revolutionary War, Victory served in the Mediterranean Fleet, co-operating in the occupation of Toulon in August and the Invasion of Corsica between February and August 1794. She was at the Battle of the Hyeres Islands in 1795 and the Battle of Cape St Vincent in 1797. When Admiral Horatio Nelson was appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Mediterranean Fleet in 1803, he hoisted his flag aboard Victory and in 1805 took her into action at the Battle of Trafalgar. After 1824, she was relegated to the role of harbour ship. In 1922, she was moved to a dry dock at Portsmouth, England, and preserved as a museum ship. She has been the flagship of the First Sea Lord since October 2012.