Here's the latest on our travels abroad!
Portsmouth
We took the train from Esher west and south, to the coastal city of Portsmouth. This is where King Henry VIII first established the British Navy. We were able to walk the short distance from the train station to the harbor proper. Here there is a wonderful exhibit here about the Mary Rose, King Henry's flagship, that sank off the coast during battle in 1545.
Archeologists have been able to recover remnants from the ship over 400 years after she sank! The docent in the museum had several items that Andrew and I were actually able to hold and examine. One piece of rope still had the smell of tar!
Next,
we took a tour of the HMS Victory, the ship commanded by Lord Admiral Nelson,
and on which he died at the battle of Trafalgar. The ship is in dry-dock,
but the tour, with a wonderful guide, enabled us to see much of the ship.
We were able to see where Admiral Nelson was shot, and where he died, as well as
the gun emplacements (104 cannons alone!). To me the most interesting
feature of the Victory was where the Junior Officers slept. Our guide
explained that these young men commanded 10-12 cannons apiece, determining when
to fire. But more extraordinarily, they were only ages 11-14!
Apparently they were commissioned through family connections (nobility/other
upper class). But their sleeping quarters looked like jail cells - with
bars on the door. This was not to imprison them, but rather to protect
them from the enlisted men, most of whom had been pressed into service! I
tried to imagine Andrew at age 12 telling 20 rowdy sailors when to fire a
cannon, and couldn't!
We were also able to tour the Royal Naval Museum, where the history of the British navy, from Henry's time to present, is chronicled.
Finally, we visited the current Royal Navy exhibit - sort of a recruiting tool, showing the Royal Navy today, its various missions, and providing interactive war games. Andrew had a great time, but declined to enlist!