A heavily armed Royal Navy vessel that has been drydocked in Portsmouth for an extended period is at the centre of a scandal this morning after it emerged the ship has no engine.
The vessel, bristling with more than 100 guns, has been in Portsmouth for some time. Now, with no engine, there are fears she may never sail again. We understand that the Admiralty considers the vessel too old to be fitted with engines at this stage, particularly given her current condition and the extent of work required to return her to sea.
The UK Defence Journal understands that plans were once considered to repurpose the ship as a floating depot and, at one stage, as a prison vessel. The vessel has been the flagship of the First Sea Lord since October 2012. Prior to this, she was the flagship of the Second Sea Lord.
Concerns about the ship’s ability to remain afloat are not new. She was moved into No. 2 Dry Dock in Portsmouth in 1922 after her condition deteriorated to the point that she could no longer safely stay in the water, and she has remained there ever since. There has, however, been little operational urgency. With the United Kingdom and France largely on good terms in recent years, officials are said to have seen no pressing requirement to return the vessel to active service.
The ship is a 104-gun first-rate ship of the line, displacing around 3,500 tonnes and measuring 186 feet along the gundeck, with an overall length of 227 feet 6 inches. With a beam of 51 feet 10 inches and a draught of 28 feet 9 inches, she was designed for sail propulsion, carrying some 6,510 square yards of canvas under a full-rigged plan and capable of speeds of up to 11 knots. Her complement stood at approximately 850 personnel, with armament at Trafalgar including 32-pounders, 24-pounders, 12-pounders and carronades distributed across multiple decks.
Congratulations, and thank you for reading the whole article; this is just an April Fools Day joke. The article above is not true, and if anyone is sharing it after April 1st, please remind them of that fact. The purpose of this article, aside from our usual April Fool’s Day joke, is to make the point that reading beyond the headline should be the norm every day, not just on the 1st of April. There’s a large volume of misinformation online. Make sure you don’t add to it by sharing articles without reading them. Finally, be careful of the person sharing this article after the 1st of April as they very clearly don’t read what they share.
I like this one, a good addition to the April 1 roster.
Might even get some people too.
Could do without the italicized sermon at the end.
Did you fall for it : )
That was brilliant, saw the picture alongside the title and was smiling immediately.
I love HMS victory and this was a brilliant April 1st article. Especially because I do t think you told a single lie!
She’s still in better condition than some of the T23’s! Perhaps she was fitted for but not equiped with engines like T45 😉
Mk41 upgrade for Mary rose
In her day she truly was a force to be reckoned with, what a beauty!
these April Fools’ Day articles are always good. they make me chuckle
and let’s be honest; we could all do with a humorous morale lift the way the world is currently
Very good! And the Navy will be renaming it HMS Milliband all wind and p***.
Second best April fools historical joke this year. I can see this glorious old girl from the front of my flat and Warrior from the car park. Nice to live so close to legends
Not really funny given the shocking state of the Andrew
Well I fell for this one until the mention of 100 guns, then it clicked, with no engine could only be one wonderful old ship HMS Victory. which I have seen many times and been aboard during my years in the ANDREW. Wish we had as many ships today back then we really did have a Navy for the age we were in.
BZ
It’s more accurate and less missleading than most of the stuff published by the tabloids.
Loved this, great fun
I will wait until someone in the White House reads the first few lines, then tells the Mango Mussulini, who will repeat it to the world as fact! 😂
Read my post from Susan, ur a Hero Lad, x
Where can I get one for my kid’s paddling pool?Full size Rep.
Where can I get one for my kid’s paddling pool?Full size Rep. NERF GUNS ON THE TURRETS, Mum and Dad on Defence with NERF GUNS,LEGGO GRANADES, POKAMON SEA MINES AND STINKY BOMBS TO THE REAR, Ha ha ha ha don’t tell Trump he’ll want to Join In, ( THE IMBECILE, FREAK, POWER MAD AND THEN MINNING MY GARDEN FOR URANIUM ), God Bless you Bunnies u are so happy in your cages and bunny runs in the Garden, love’s ya 😉
RUN OR HOP AWAY BUNNIES,
How is this remotely funny? Lame
This site is quite frankly useless at the best of times. The “joke” April falls or not about the 13 cruisers was cringe worthy and this one even worse.
Seriously get a life and do a decent job for once please!
This was an elite April Fools joke
More so because the article is is actually, despite all the laughter, factually correct. Currently the oldest commissioned warship in the world and flagship of the 1SL. Sadly the US own the oldest commissioned warship still afloat so they get to crow about that one. Now on a slightly different tack, would it be worth sticking a big diesel in Warrior. It would be another frigate sized vessel to do navigation training on…
Loved it, but don’t get Mark Felton started again. 🙂
Respect to HMS Victory and all who sailed in her. Aside from the key point on journalism and reading / thinking skills, there’s a lot of Naval history to be learnt for the lessons to be learnt, which were written in blood, often.
Editor, please reach out to diligent historians for more defence history and analysis that can engage and educate UKDJ audiences?
Is tgat were i left his enterprise arnada