Wooden miniature of Admiral Nelson's ship

Last year, on the occasion of the 250th anniversary of the building of HMS Victory - Admiral Nelson's famous ship - a commemorative exhibition was organized. The event took place in the old Chatham Dockyard in Kent, where the ship was built. Several replicas of the ship were on display. One of them has a very interesting story. It is a miniature made from a piece of wood from the famous ship.

A 17-year adventure

Twenty-five years before the Kent event, the restoration of the ship on which Admiral Nelson met his end was completed. It was the moment when the English sculptor Ian Brennan came into possession of some pieces of oak from a beam on the ship. He immediately had the idea to start work on a miniature of the famous ship.

Brennan never imagined this adventure would take 17 years. The very old and hard wood made the work very difficult, giving the artist the feeling of carving in concrete. He estimated the actual working time on the ship at more than 5,000 hours.

The ship was shown heading for the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805, when she defeated the French and Spanish fleets. It was also to be the last voyage of Admiral Nelson, who was shot during the battle and died in his cabin below decks, not before learning that he had won the battle.

The little ship, carved from the wood of her famous ancestor, is 1:66 scale, 120 cm long and contains 104 miniature cannons, over 600 meters of intricate ropes, 37 wind-inflated sails. It even has the flag with the famous exhortation: England expects every man to do his duty.

While working on the miniature, Brennan was called for restoration work at the shipyard. For the better part of a year he lived on the Victory, during which time he discovered that one of his ancestors had served on the ship and died during the Battle of Trafalgar.

The miniature was completed in 2010 and in 2015 it was exhibited for several months at the Chatham Shipyard. After the end of the exhibition the small ship returned to its pride of place in the artist's studio.

Here are some facts about the original. HMS Victory, the pride of the British fleet, was built from the wood of over 6,000 trees. In 1831, because of the aftermath of battle, it was proposed to destroy her, but Sir Thomas Hardy, the ship's captain at Trafalgar, refused to sign the order. In 1920 she nearly sank at Portsmouth, in the dock where she was moored. After a national appeal she was moved to Portsmouth Historic Dockyard, where she remains today. She is now seen by over 400,000 visitors a year.