September 21, 2002

September 21, 2002

Finished with my Leiden meetings, I took a puddle jumper to Southampton, England for more business. I take advantage of the opportunity and stay an extra day giving me most of Saturday to see some sights. I start with the nearby Portsmouth Historic Dockyard. It turns out to be a big place and I end up spending all day here. I start out in the Dockyard Museum where I learn that this area has been the prime shipbuilding spot for the British Navy since around 1200. For most of its life the British navy ruled the ocean. At times this dockyard was the largest industrial complex in the world making state of the art naval war machines. Most of the exhibit is about what it was like to have worked here in wooden ship days.

I then move on to the Royal Navy Museum that has several exhibit themes. The most interesting ones are about the Battle of Trafalgar where the combined French and Spanish navies were defeated in 1807, and another on Lord Nelson, hero of Trafalgar. I also visit the Mary Rose museum. The HMS Mary Rose was the flagship of Henry VIII. It sank in 1565 outside the harbor as it went to meet the French in battle. It was raised in 1982 and this museum contains the artifacts found inside.

From the museums I move on to the ships available for touring. The most famous is the HMS Victory, the flagship of Nelson at Trafalgar. It is in remarkably good condition. There is a memorial on the ship marking the spot where Lord Nelson died during the Battle of Trafalgar.

The Mary Rose, which sat on the bottom of the harbor for 400+ years, is not in as good a shape. Only one side survives and it is behind glass and being sprayed with an aqueous polyethylene wax solution for preservation. This will continue for many years more to come. Before leaving I also take the harbor tour, which is unexciting.