Sponsors
National Historic Ships UK acknowledges the financial support of its sponsors
About the museum
The National Museum of the Royal Navy (NMRN) was created in early 2009 to act as a single non-departmental public body for the museums of the Royal Navy. The museum is housed within Portsmouth Historic Dockyard and neighboured by the International Boatbuilding College (Portsmouth) and the Mary Rose Museum.
The vessels
NMRN is responsible for 16 historic vessels through which it tells the story of warship design and innovation. The site in Portsmouth is home to three vessels listed on the National Historic Fleet:
HMS Victory was launched in 1765 and saw active service for 34 years, serving under a number of distinguished Admirals, and most famously she served as Lord Nelson’s Flagship, leading the British fleet in the Battle of Trafalgar where Nelson died on board. Now part of the museum she has a dual role as the Flagship of the First Sea Lord and as a living museum to the Georgian Navy. She transferred to The National Museum of the Royal Navy in 2012.
HMS Warrior is a lasting memorial to Victorian craftsmanship, ingenuity and manufacturing skills. Built in 1860 in response to French iron plated wooden ship design, she was the first iron hulled frigate able to reach high speed under sail and steam and she could outrun and outgun any ship afloat. However, her championship of the seas was to be short-lived, as she was superseded by faster designs with bigger guns and thicker armour. In 1929 she was converted into an oil pontoon until 1978 when work began to conserve her as the only surviving example of the 'Black Battlefleet’.
HMS M.33, built in 1915, was one of a new class of particularly shallow draft monitors that would allow her guns to work effectively in a seaway. She saw service through the First World War across Europe, most notably during the Gallipoli campaign. Post-war she was renamed and became a tender vessel and was eventually converted to a boom defence workshop in 1939 until 1987 when works began to save her. She now sits in No.1 Dock alongside HMS Victory, and visitors start with a 6 metre descent into the bottom of the dock before stepping aboard
SHTP 2 training placement
Trainees are given the opportunity to work on conservation projects across the NMRN collection as part of the conservation team, including working with timber, metal, fabric and other materials. This allows them to gain experience of a busy national museum. Alongside their placement, trainees will also complete the NHS-UK Historic Vessel Conservation course.
