By the numbers
12,158 Steps
8.97kms
The morning turned out to be overcast and I was worried that
my washing would get wet or stay wet for the rest of the day even though it was
partially dry already. I did move some of the clothes to my room and made sure
they would not fall out the window while I was out. While it looked like the
weather was going to turn out wet, I left my raincoat behind as I didn’t want
too much weight in case it became hot again. I visited the local maccas just as
their computer system went down and was trying to load up. I waited anyway and
had breaky. I was able to collect my tickets from the station for Monday and
get a ticket to be dropped off at the last station on the line in Portsmouth.
That would only take around 10 mins when it was around 45 mins to walk from
where I am.
I arrived at the Portsmouth Maritime museum, which was
around several minutes from the station. The museum was actually doing bag
checks and they were happy with my bag as I had my ID, water and the charger. I
was able to pick up my tickets and I did plan to visit the Submarine Museum
that was on the otherside, which had a ferry service that drops you off on the
other side of the river. That was my plan, although I headed to where the Mary
Rose was located. That museum was the one I had wanted to visit last time I was
in England and they were still building the museum, which didn’t open until
around 2013. The Mary Rose had a long service history unlike another ship known
as Vasa in Sweden. The Mary Rose had something like 15 years service and it was
during a battle she sank in Portsmouth. It wasn’t due to being enemy action.
She was under water for around 400 or so years before being raised to the
surface. Only half a ship remained asthe other half rotted away. They spent
years learning about the remains and what was found around the vessel. The
purpose built museum.
The museum was on three levels and I entered on the middle
level and actually didn’t realise it at the time. It was actually a separate
ticket from the main entry from the maritime museum, although you were required
to have an entry ticket. I knew all that when I booked the tickets before I
left. They had actually found plenty of artifacts with the remains of The Mary
Rose and used the same stuff that was used to preserve The Vasa. There were remains
with the ship and they could get plenty of data including DNA from them to the
point where they had information on diseases, the food they would have eaten
and where they would have come from. Could even tell if they were trained with
a long bow, which was unique as warfare soon changed through the use of canons
and firearms so the injuries through constant training meant they would vanish.
They even had a dog that was on the ship at the time, but they were not sure if
it was a rat catcher. The ship on several occasions had been refurbished over
is lifetime until it sank. I liked how they even found the remains of two
cooking pots with the bricks for the fire. I was there on all floors for a
couple of hours having a look around and was very happy that in long last that
I had gotten there.
By the time I left the museum, I had lunch, where I thought
I should stop for a little bit before moving on. I was heading to the Submarine
Museum, well the ferry that would take me there. I was looking at HMS Victory
and the last timew I was on that ship, you could not do so invividually as it
was only by a tour. Plus due to ‘military’ secrets you were not allowed to take
photos. I turned around and decided, sure I will do the HMS Victory. The reason
it it was involved with the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805 that apparently lead to
the victory in Waterloo. Horatio Nelson died once the battle ended as he had
been shot while on the deck. He was given a funeral where he was buried in St
Paul’s in London. You were now able to do an audio tour where you pressed the
device against some little boxes that gave you the next audio guide. As you
walk along the ship it gives you the next part of the story from the Battle of
Trafalgar and Nelson’s wounding and eventual death. After the battle the
Victory ended up back in Portsmouth where she was sitting as a tourist
attraction until placed on dry dock and partially restored in the 1920s. At the
moment they are looking at and solving potential problems. They are replacing
the struts holding the ship as the old ones were causing the hull to split,
which mean water was getting inside and rotting the timbers.
Nearby was a vessel that was involved with the Gallipoli campaign,
but I only looked on the outside as I found the story of the Battle of
Trafalgar that included information that explained why you could have easy
access to Victory. The Navy had given the ship over to a trust that would go
about securing the vessel for the future and hopefully crate a temperature controlled
environment like The Mary Rose. The same museum had a panorama of the battle
that had been painted long after the battle, but not as good as the one in Waterloo.
The rest of the museum showed off figureheads from other vessels over the years
before they were broken up. There was another part of a building that was
dedicated towards Nelson and it included how he was injured. I was wondering
how he lost an arm and that was in one battle and then lost the sight in one
eye. He even had to learn to write with his other hand after losing the other.
He was apparently a tactical genius and was why the battle in Trafalgar was
won, although the Victory was nearly lost in the process.
By the time I left the museum it was only going to be open
for another 15 mins. I had seen most of it, but not every single thing in the
area. I spent time with what I wanted before ending my day wandering around the
Horrible Histories section on Pirates. It was really for kids to learn about
pirates, but I thought it was a good way to end the day. I wanted to catch the
next train back to Fratton. I knew I needed to get back early enough to get something
to eat and to grab my dry clothes as it turned out to be another hot day. I had
a look at a Tesco Express to see if they had hot food and the fridges had gone
down quite possibly from the heat. I ended up with KFC and was happy to be out
of that building as it was messy.
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