[Illustration: _The "Salvador del Mundo" striking to the
"Victory" at St. Vincent._]
Every Englishman, we imagine, knows that the "VICTORY" was the ship
which bore Lord Nelson's flag, and on board of which he received his
death wound in the moment of triumph over the combined fleets of
France and Spain, off Cape Trafalgar; but as very few are aware of her
numerous and distinguished services, extending over many years, and
preceding that sad yet glorious climax, this memoir of her career has
been drawn up, with the hope of making her history from her launch to
the present time better known; and that the hundreds who yearly visit
her may carry away a record of their visit, to remind them of the
classic ground they have been treading, and recall to their
recollections some of the splendid deeds of the past, which gained for
England the proud title of "Mistress of the Seas."
There have been "VICTORY'S" in the English navy ever since the year
1570, and as each successive ship, from old age or misfortune, has
disappeared from the list, another has soon after appeared to take her
place.
The ship immediately preceding the existing "VICTORY," was, like
her, a first-rate three-decker, carrying 110 guns, and was accounted
the finest ship in the service. In 1744 she was the flagship of
Admiral Sir J. Balchen, a venerable officer of 75 years of age, who
had been called from the honourable retirement of Greenwich Hospital
to command a fleet destined to relieve Sir Charles Hardy, then
blockaded in Lisbon by a superior French force, under the Count de
Rochambault. On returning from the successful performance of this
service, the fleet was dispersed in the chops of the Channel by a
tremendous gale, on October 4th. The rest of the ships, though much
shattered, gained the anchorage of Spithead in safety, but the
"VICTORY" was never more heard of, though from the evidence of
fishermen of the island of Alderney, she was believed to have run on
to the Caskets, some dangerous rocks lying off that island, where her
gallant crew of about a thousand perished to a man.
In 1765, on the 7th May, was launched from Chatham Dockyard the
present "VICTORY" which had been built from designs of Sir Thomas
Slade, then surveyor of the navy.