Britannia Reeves assist move for HMS Victory

Britannia Reeves have recently been involved in the removal of an “incredibly rare” cannon recovered from the wreck of the predecessor to Nelson’s flagship HMS Victory, which is due to be displayed at the National Museum of the Royal Navy (NMRN), just yards from Nelson’s HMS Victory at Portsmouth Historic Dockyard.

The cannon weighs in at 42 pound cannons and was salvaged from the wreck of HMS Victory 1744 which was only discovered 10 years ago. The ship went down during a storm off the coast of Plymouth with all 1,100 crew lost in the disaster.

At 174ft long, equipped with 110 cannons, the Victory was the largest yet fastest ship of its era and the pride of the Royal Navy. It went down in stormy seas in October 1744 after successfully liberating a Mediterranean convoy which had been blocked at the River Tagus in Lisbon by the French during the War of Austrian Succession.

Britannia Reeves own crew needed all their firepower to move the cannon into place and worked into the evening to safely transport the item to its delivery point. The story was picked up by local and national newswires and appeared on the ITV website and the Daily Mail website.