P - Portsmouth Naval Base and HMS Victory
In Nelson's time as now, Portsmouth was the premier British naval base. Strategically placed in Hampshire at the half-way point of the English Channel, it was equally convenient for ships operating in the North Sea as for those heading westwards for the Atlantic and further afield. It offered a large stretch of protected inland water with a long expanse of foreshore ideally suited for naval installations; together with a spacious, sheltered, deep-water anchorage close by at Spithead, where large fleets could assemble in safety.
Warships had been based at Portsmouth since the 1200s, but the naval dockyard was founded by King Henry VIII in 1540. By 1800 the Royal Dockyard had expanded to become one of the largest industrial complexes in the country, employing over 1,000 men to build and repair warships, and to manufacture all the equipment needed to keep them afloat and in fighting trim. In addition there were facilities for producing food and brewing beer, and a large arsenal for guns and ammunition.
Nelson visited Portsmouth on a number of occasions during his naval career: the first time in 1776, when he was just seventeen, on his way to take up an appointment as a lieutenant in HMS Worcester. Nearly thirty years later he ate his last meal in England at the George Hotel in the town centre, before embarking in HMS Victory on his way to the Battle of Trafalgar, 21 October 1805. But generally, his memories of Portsmouth tended to be of unhappy returns – as in 1797 when he came back a pain-racked invalid after losing his arm at Tenerife in July 1797 – and of emotional partings – particularly from Emma Hamilton in 1803, and again in 1805.
Portsmouth is now one of the principal centres in Britain for Nelsonian studies. His flagship HMS Victory lies in a drydock at the very centre of the old 18th century yard that he knew. Many of Nelson's relics are displayed alongside in the Royal Naval Museum, housed in the three Great Storehouses built in the mid 18th century to contain the spare gear of the ships on which Nelson served. In nearby Old Portsmouth it is still possible to trace the route of the last walk he took on English soil from the George Hotel to the beach.
Part of the Nelson A to Z, Edited extracts taken from The Nelson Encyclopædia by Dr Colin White, Chatham Publishing London, 2002.