HMS Victory's masts removed for major conservation work: 'The Big repair!'

More than 250 years after her launch, the masts of HMS Victory have been taken down as part of "The Big Repair".

The decade-long conservation project costs £40million to prevent further sagging and decay in the ship's hull.

Often described as the world's oldest commissioned warship and Britain's most famous warship, HMS Victory has undergone one of the most significant phases of preservation in her history.

Project Manager Simon Williams told GB News: "Working on a vessel like this is endlessly challenging, but what we're doing at the moment is the most challenging."

The project, which is being carried out at the dockyard in Portsmouth, is seen as a crucial step in conservation work expected to run through to 2033.

"This piece of work has taken months and months of planning," Mr Williams stated. "It's been very detailed."

The Victorian wrought-iron masts, which have endured more than a century of exposure to the elements, now need specialist repair work that could not be done safely while they remained in place.

"They've obviously experienced a lot of weathering over the last century," he said.

Strong winds earlier in the week forced delays.

When conditions improved, a 750-tonne crane was used to lower the structures onto the dockside with what crews described as "millimetre perfect control".

"As we took the tension away in the crane hook and started to ease the mast away, you could visibly see and hear the timbers relaxing as the weight was coming off," Lead Rigger Stuart Sheldon revealed. "The mast's been sat on those timbers since 1894."

With the masts now resting on trestles, their full length is visible for the first time.

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"One of the really impressive things is seeing all the different colour paint schemes as you go down – it's like a kaleidoscope," Mr Sheldon commented.

The removals clear the way for a vast scaffold enclosure to be built around the ship, as engineers work to ensure Nelson's flagship can be protected for generations to come.