Portsmouth Historic Dockyard (pt 1)

It has been quite a while since I have been down to the Historic Dockyards at Portsmouth but there is so much there that it is always worth a visit. Going there on what was predicted to be the hottest day of the year probably wasn’t the smartest move but we’d planned it for a while and moved the date once already so this was baked in – literally as it turned out.

(Not) Down and (not) out

We (Dad and I) had decided that it would be good to visit the submarine museum as that is now included in the ticket price as well as the water bus to get you to Gosport where it is situated. This was quickly knocked on the head when we learned that it wasn’t open on Mondays. Note to self – always check opening times and dates before making plans! With this disapointment out the way we adjusted our plans accordingly.

Fortunately there is plenty to do on site and certainly too much to do all in one day. We had purchased the “all-you-can-eat” tickets allowing us to visit whatever we wanted. Additionally, as is popular these days, the ticket is valid for as many visits as you want to make in one year. If you are wondering why charities make this what seems overly generous offer it is to do with the gift aid laws according to section 3.39.6 of this fascinating guide to Gift Aid for charities. Net net we will come back to do what we couldn’t do today.

Mary Rose

We decided to start with the Mary Rose. On reflection I think this was a poor choice as it was the only one of the three exhibits we visited that was air conditioned and we actually should have done it last.

The last time I was here the ship was still shrouded behind walls with small viewing portholes cut in it while they sprayed it with the resin that was going to preserve the ship. Now that process has been completed and the whole ship is on display (or at least what is left of it). No more looking through a fine mist of liquid. No more looking through a porthole. You can now see it in all its glory. It’s an amazing thing and a great testomony to those that had the vision to see it brought up and made safe.

It is not just the ship itself of course but also the artifacts that came up with it, some 19,000 apparently, although only a small number are on display at each end of the building. There are some fascinating pieces but what really brought it to life were the descriptions of a few of the people working on the ship built out using modern techniques. This allowed a picture to be painted of people with such bad teeth that they would have been able to only chew on one side and walking with a limp due to one leg being shorter than the other. This really made it for me.

We had a long conversation with a knowledgable guide there talking about the Mary Rose who described it as “England’s Pompeii”. I’m not sure I would say that but it is certainly historically significant.

HMS Victory

Victory has been in Portsmouth for as long as I can remember and over the years it seems to have been in a constant state of repair such that there can’t be much of the origial vessel remaining now. On this visit the whole of the middle of the ship was covered in scaffolding hiding the beauty of the ship itself. However, one thing it did do was provide some welcome shade from the baking sun and for that I was very thankful.

Since my last visit the Victory has taken a leaf out of SS Great Britains book and drained the swamp below and allowed you to walk under the hull – always a fascinating and unusual view. It is also an odd sensation walking below a huge ship just held up by a few props!

HMS M.33

New since my last visit was HMS M.33 which was basically a floating tin can. Life onboard the ship was basic and sounded pretty awful. Today it was sweltering inside so what it must have been like when also rocking and rolling on the open seas doesn’t bear thinking about. To be honest I was glad to exit it.

Bang up to date

One of the great things about Portsmouth is that it is not just a museum but also an active naval port. This means that you are surrounded by vessels both old and new. In our case the new Royal Navy fleet’s aircraft carriers were in port – HMS Queen Elizabeth (R08) and HMS Prince of Wales (R09) being fitted out before active duty. If I’m honest I think that they are a waste of money which could be spent elsewhere but they were impressive nevertheless.

And that’s all we had time for. We were beat by this point due to a combination of the heat and walking so we will come back again in the next 12 months to do what we couldn’t this time – just not on a Monday and not during a heatwave!