Ships: New and old

Had a great day in Portsmouth this week.....don't think I've ever been there before!

So much to see and do and a day was not enough. First onboard HMS Warrior, the first part iron, part wood and part sail, part steam battle ship. When she was launched in 1860 she was the largest, fastest and most powerful warship in the world. Now I wasn't sure if I was really going to enjoy Portsmouth, but I was Soooooooo impressed with Warrior and her 40 canons that I couldn't wait to move on the The Mary Rose and HMS Victory! If truth be told, I could see that historically the Mary Rose was impressive, but there really isn't that much left of her.

Victory was a different story, you could stand in the very spot where Nelson fell in 1805, and go right down into the hold and imagine the living conditions of the sailors; not nice! I read about the punishments dished out on a regular basis that kept the crew on task and disciplined. Apparently for stealing, 600 lashes were seen as appropriate. However because not many people could cope with 600 in one go,they often dished out 200 at a time with a break of 2 weeks in between. Imagine the anticipation/horror of knowing your next 200 were coming up!

We also had a harbour trip and there were about 20 present day Royal Navy ships in and I got a bit carried away with the photo taking. I did note that nobody seemed to mind me taking photos of any of them, even the newest and most up to date stealth ship....HMS Daring! (in Chile I was advised not to take photos of their fleet). There were also 2 aircraft carriers, Invinsible and Ark Royal, very impressive up close!

There was also an interactive centre called Action Stations where you could do things like fly a helicopter simulator and do Royal Marine fitness and agility tests......the boys loved the rotating climbing wall which tilted back and forth and just kept going until you fell off! Lachie has now decided that he wants to fly helicopters when he grows up!!!!!

What we didn't have time for was the Submarine museum, D-Day museum, and Royal Marine museum, so guess what, we are going back again!