PRESERVING THE VICTORY

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXIII, 23 July 1929, Page 10

PRESERVING THE VICTORY

Responsibility for further expenditure necessary to complete the restwalion "I 11.M.5. Victory has been undertaken by the Admiralty! Speaking at the annual meeting of llio Society for Nautical liesearch, the chairman of the council, Admiral Sir George- Hope, said the "Save the Victory" Fund was inaugurated in 1922. and two years later the appeal was closed. It had then reached a total of £75,000. Since 1924, without any further appeal to the public, the society iiad raised additional funds amounting to nearly £30,000. Since they started work in June, 1953, they had expended over £IOO,OOO on the ship herself. Lacking further financial resources yet unwilling to leave their work unfinished, they had proposed to the Admiralty that some assistance should be given from Navy Voles. The official reply stated that (he commissioners proposed to continue the work of restoration gradually, as part of the ordinary naval repair and maintenance programme, and invited the society to nominate an advisory committee to ensure that "such worlc should only he undertaken under the best expert advice as to the probable .state of the Victory at the time of Trafalgar, so that nothing may be done which is not in complete harmony with the restoration already carried out."' Admiral Hope explained that although the work of preservation was complete, the work of restoration was not. What remained to be done was the fitting and equipment of the ship.