PRIZE OF TRAFALGAR

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 56, 3 September 1926, Page 7

PRIZE OF TRAFALGAR

OLD IMPLACABLE TO BE PRESERVED RELIC OF NELSON'S NAVY OF WOODEN WALLS. (United Press Association.—Copyright.) LONDON, 2nd September. The old wooden battleship of the line, the Implacable, a survivor of the Battle of Trafalgar, and a prize taken from the French, has been towed from Devonport and moored in Falmouth Harbour, where she was received with a civic ceremony, at which Sir Owen Seaman said that the sum of £25,000 required for the preservation and restoration of tho ship had been secured through a final gift of £5000 from a United States naval officer who served in the British Navy during the late war. Mr. G. E. Wheatly Cobb, who was greatly interested in naval archaeology, and who had done much for tho preservation of relics of tho Navy of wooden walls days, was responsiblo for the saving of tho Implacable from the ship-breakers. He said: "She.is one of tho world's historic treasures. We now have three great relics, the Victory, Implacable, and the Foudroyant.'' Mr. Cobb in 1908 obtained by an appeal to King Edward cancellation of tho order to - sell the Implacable, tho last survivor of '{;he enemy fleet at Tra; falgar, and the oldest ship afloat. In 1912 he took tho vessel over from the Admiralty and has since maintained her. Mr. Cobb has endeavoured to secure tho preservation of other historic ships. .