Maritime Portsmouth

As an island, Britain has always been a maritime nation. This is an opportunity to visit a seafaring city that brings together 400 years of maritime history, from the 15th century to the Victorian era.

Portsmouth has the oldest operational naval base in the world, dating from 1495, and is the best place in the UK to find ships and buildings related to the British navy in the age of sail. The Royal Navy helped to make Britain into a global power, and Portsmouth played a key part in this dramatic story.

This is an opportunity to examine every aspect of two of our Navy’s most famous ships, the Mary Rose and the Victory, with an expert to explain their significance. Sunk on the way to battle off Southsea in 1545, the Mary Rose and its contents make up one of the most important 16th-century collections anywhere, all beautifully displayed in the new museum. The Victory - preserved because of its associations with Horatio Nelson and Trafalgar – can tell us about what it was like to work and fight aboard a first rate ship of the line at the height of the age of sail.