Article. Brian Thomas visit Portsmouth Historic Dockyard.

Entering the dockyard at Queens Street gate after parking in the well- marked car park situated beneath the new and gorgeous apartment block 200 yards to the right before the gate, we entered the ticket office. At £16.50 (seniors) and £18.50 I thought the price expensive but the seven major exhibits and the enormous effort and investment that has obviously been lavished on them makes the price good value.

We booked our tour of Nelson’s Victory and hurried to join the queue. An extraordinarily well-versed guide (lacking a little in humour but you can’t have everything) led our group through the mind-numbing relic of The 1805 Battle of Trafalgar. The tour lasted 50 minutes but for me it could have gone on for hours – such is the quality and attention to detail given to every part of the ship. I found the lower decks particularly interesting with sights of the powder handling and storage areas, ballast arrangements and mast steps plus much more. It crossed my mind that not by accident was the huge cache of explosives, missiles and their preparation facilities situated as far for'ard and therefore as far away from the Captain's and his officer's quarters as possible.
I left with my mind full of wonder at the skills of our ancient ship builders, admiration for the officers and men who lived and fought in such cramped and awful conditions and appreciation for the effort and standard our modern craftsmen have achieved in preserving the Worlds Greatest Warship.

Next we entered the Mary Rose Ship Hall and collected a small Ipod device that played a pre-recorded tour. A balcony opposite the salvaged remains of the ship allowed a view of the inside of the starboard hull. The timbers are constantly sprayed with a mixture of wax and water to preserve the 500 year old structure. The treatment will finish in 2009 when the wax will have permeated the cells of the wood to stabilise the structure for posterity. By 2011 the exhibit will be dry and viewers will be able to see much of Henry the V111's 1511 Flagship close to.

With the excellent and informative narration of the Mary Rose project The Royal Naval Museum is split into a number of buildings, each one bulging with attractive exhibits, but culture overload began to set in. Thankfully my ticket covers unlimited visits to the museums for a year. I have the Dockyard Apprentice, Harbour Tour, Action Stations and the 1860 Steam/Sailing warship HMS Warrior yet to do. I will certainly re-visit to cover these items. I am sorry we ran out of time to visit the Warrior. She is afloat, but tied up to a quay, and from the guide description, ‘HMS Warrior was the World’s largest, fastest, most heavily armed, most heavily armoured warship of the time. No opponent dared challenge her,’ I am intrigued and can’t wait.

When compared to the cost of a seat at a Premiership football game, £16.50 towards the upkeep of this national jewel seems not so bad after all.

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PORTSMOUTH HISTORIC DOCKYARD