Sail of the Century

It had hardly seen the light of day since 1805, but when the top foresail from Admiral Lord Nelson's flagship HMS Victory was pulled from its sail bag and shown at the International Festival of the Sea at Portsmouth, UK, in 1998, it proved to be one of the highlights of the event. Now conservation work has been completed by the Society of Nautical Research and the Textiles Conservation Centre, with the help of a GBP5000 donation from Pusser's, and the sail will once again be on display to the public next year as part of the bicentennial celebrations of the Battle of Trafalgar.

The sail, which is now known as the HMS Victory Trafalgar Sail, was packed away after the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805 complete with some 90 holes from cannon and musket shot, and left largely untouched for nearly 200 years. Measuring 80 feet at its base, 54 feet at its head, and 54 feet deep, the sail covers an area of 3,618 square feet; it has never been hoisted since Trafalgar. It is thought to be the only surviving sail of the battle, and therefore not only holds clues as the methods of sailmaking 200 years ago, but is also of huge historical importance.

The Battle of Trafalgar rates as one of the greatest naval victories in history, as Lord Nelson directed the English fleet against a numerically superior French and Spanish fleet near Cadiz, Spain. It was before Trafalgar that Nelson raised his legendary flag signal 'England expects that every man will do his duty', and his brilliant tactics ensured that Britannia truly ruled the waves; sadly, the battle was also to cost Nelson his life. It was after Trafalgar that Nelson's body was brought back to England preserved in a barrel of rum which the sailors drank, thereby giving the rum its nickname of Nelson's Blood... The Trafalgar Sail will be on display in Portsmouth's Historic Dockyard in an environmentally-controlled area of Storehouse 10 from March to October 2005.