Pictures of the Day: The Royal Navy, Portsmouth Harbor, England

Another post from my photo backlog:

The Royal Navy has its main base in Portsmouth, on the south coast of England. I love the water and all that floats and flows upon and within it; all boats and ships, warships especially. I grew up reading Horatio Hornblower and other 18th and 19th century naval war stories, and my family has a bit of history with the U.S. Navy. I ought to have joined the Navy, if I had I'd probably still be in the military..  

These were all taken this past week, the night I took the ferry to France:

HMS Warrior Quayside

This here is the first ironclad commissioned by the Royal Navy, the Warrior.

You can't see the more famous historical ship docked in the navy yard there without entering through the gates. I didn't have time to do that, so I only caught a glimpse of Nelson's flagship, the champion of Trafalgar, and the current flagship of the Second Sea Lord, the Victory. It's a 104 gun, triple decked ship of the line. One of the most dangerous warships constructed of its era. I took this from the ferry as we passed out of port:

HMS Victory Quayside

It's kept docked, but is still commissioned, just like the USS Constitution, Old Ironsides (a fifty gun frigate, nowhere near as potent in firepower, but much quicker under sail than the Victory) in Boston.

One last gratuitous ship shot, this one of the Illustrious, which I think is now Britain's only current aircraft carrier. It's a short carrier, that only fields Harrier jump jets and helicopters, but it is still cool:

HMS Illustrious Quayside

There were a clutch of frigates and destroyers docked there in Portsmouth with them, too. My landlubber's eye thought most of them looked pretty well worse the wear, lots of streaming rust and crumby paint jobs. Not as tight and shipshape as the U.S. Navy looks at Bath Ironworks or Norfolk Naval Shipyard, but then few things look as sleek, dangerous and beautiful as a Aegis cruiser being refitted at Bath..



---