Admiral Nelson's flagship, the HMS Victory, is to be repainted a delicate lemon colour as part of restoration works on the 250-year-old vessel.
Workers from the National Museum of the Royal Navy said the new shade would be more authentic than the current orange hue after scraping off 72 layers of paint to find the original colour.
The first coat of new paint was today drying on the hull of the vessel, which carried Lord Nelson during his historic victory at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805.
Despite the fact that this year is her 250th anniversary (she was launched on 7th May 1765), HMS Victory - a 104-gun first-rate ship of the line - is still a commissioned Royal Navy warship. She is the flagship of the First Sea Lord and could one day be sent into action again if necessary.
Admiral Nelson's HMS Victory to be painted a LEMON colour after museum scrapes off 72 layers of paint to find its original look as part of £40million restoration
Workers chipped away 72 layers of paint to discover original colours
Ship will be painted lemon-yellow and grey, rather than orange and black
New supports will also put in place and work done to reverse rot damage
By Chris Pleasance for MailOnline
29 June 2015
Daily Mail
Admiral Nelson's flagship, the HMS Victory, is to be repainted a delicate lemon colour as part of restoration works on the 250-year-old vessel.
Workers from the National Museum of the Royal Navy said the new shade would be more authentic than the current orange hue after scraping off 72 layers of paint to find the original colour.
The first coat of new paint was today drying on the hull of the vessel, which carried Lord Nelson during his historic victory at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805.
Restoration work on the Royal Navy's 104-gun first-rate ship of the line HMS Victory, the world's oldest warship still in commission, will see Nelson's flagship repainted lemon-yellow and grey after workers chipped away 72 layers of paint to uncover the original colours
Watch glorious footage of HMS Victory:
At the time of the conflict, the duty of maintaining the ship, including the paintwork, would have fallen to the Admirals' right-hand man, Captain Thomas Hardy.
But now the re-painting, set for completion in September, is being overseen by Andrew Baines, head of historic ships at the Royal Navy museum.
He said: 'HMS Victory is a unique and extremely complex archaeological artefact.
'Her fabric retains evidence of the ship's construction, modification, repair and conservation between 1759 and the present day.
'As such her timbers are artefacts and an incredibly rich source with literally dozens of layers of paint which have been analysed.
The repainting forms part of £40million restoration works on the ship, where Lord Nelson was killed during the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805
'By combining the archaeological evidence supplied and the original accounts for Victory's stores, held by the National Museum, we have been able to pinpoint precisely the colours worn by Victory at the Battle of Trafalgar.
'Visually there are also going to be some very big changes. She is going to look very different.
'The colour is much paler than what we have at the moment.
'A lot of very thorough work has gone into this. You don't just change the colour of HMS Victory without being absolutely certain; which we are.
'This is how she would have looked in Nelson's day.'
This latest round of maintenance work - costing as much as £40 million - is set to be the largest of its kind on any historical warship.
It is also the most comprehensive work to be done on the HMS Victory since she was first installed in dry dock at the heart of Portsmouth Historic Dockyard in the 1920s.
A full plan and its costs is expected to be announced in October, but work has already begun.
The warship is held in place in her dry dock in Portsmouth, Hants, by 22 steel cradles - which were put in when she was first docked there in the 1922.
But the weight of the ship around such a small number of supporting structures is causing damaging levels of stress on the timbers.
Now another 136 individual supports will be installed, at a cost of around £1.2m to £2.5m, by this time next year.
Efforts to stop water from soaking through her timbers and causing rot is well under way and work has also been done to the fire suppression system, after a devastating blaze on board the 1869 clipper ship Cutty Sark during its own restoration.
Andrew Baines, head of historic ships at the National Museum of the Royal Navy, said his team were 'certain' of the original colours of the ship (pictured, John Callow's painting of the Battle of Trafalgar)
The scale of the work means the Victory may not see her masts returned until 2030.
Mr Baines added: 'We are looking at a programme that is going to be around £35m to £40m in costs. That is going to be a huge amount for us to carry. But I am confident we are going to be able to do it.
'The important thing is so far we have stopped the rain getting in and we will have supported her better so she is in a much more stable position for the rest of the conservation work to begin.
'Nobody has ever done a project of this scale before and it is a truly unique situation, so the order of the day is slow and steady.
'You don't take any risks with something like HMS Victory.'
The warship, which has been in dry dock since 1922 and has seen more than 25 million people walk her decks, last went through a conservation project in 1955 which was eventually completed in 2002.
In 2012, £50m worth of investment was set aside for the HMS Victory Preservation Trust courtesy of a £25m capital grant from the Sir Donald Gosling Foundation matched by the Ministry of Defence.
Last year, the government invested a further £5m when it was estimated at least £50m needed to be spent on HMS Victory over the next 15 years.
Workers from the National Museum of the Royal Navy said the new shade would be more authentic than the current orange hue after scraping off 72 layers of paint to find the original colour.
The first coat of new paint was today drying on the hull of the vessel, which carried Lord Nelson during his historic victory at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805.
Despite the fact that this year is her 250th anniversary (she was launched on 7th May 1765), HMS Victory - a 104-gun first-rate ship of the line - is still a commissioned Royal Navy warship. She is the flagship of the First Sea Lord and could one day be sent into action again if necessary.
Admiral Nelson's HMS Victory to be painted a LEMON colour after museum scrapes off 72 layers of paint to find its original look as part of £40million restoration
Workers chipped away 72 layers of paint to discover original colours
Ship will be painted lemon-yellow and grey, rather than orange and black
New supports will also put in place and work done to reverse rot damage
By Chris Pleasance for MailOnline
29 June 2015
Daily Mail
Admiral Nelson's flagship, the HMS Victory, is to be repainted a delicate lemon colour as part of restoration works on the 250-year-old vessel.
Workers from the National Museum of the Royal Navy said the new shade would be more authentic than the current orange hue after scraping off 72 layers of paint to find the original colour.
The first coat of new paint was today drying on the hull of the vessel, which carried Lord Nelson during his historic victory at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805.
Restoration work on the Royal Navy's 104-gun first-rate ship of the line HMS Victory, the world's oldest warship still in commission, will see Nelson's flagship repainted lemon-yellow and grey after workers chipped away 72 layers of paint to uncover the original colours
Watch glorious footage of HMS Victory:
At the time of the conflict, the duty of maintaining the ship, including the paintwork, would have fallen to the Admirals' right-hand man, Captain Thomas Hardy.
But now the re-painting, set for completion in September, is being overseen by Andrew Baines, head of historic ships at the Royal Navy museum.
He said: 'HMS Victory is a unique and extremely complex archaeological artefact.
'Her fabric retains evidence of the ship's construction, modification, repair and conservation between 1759 and the present day.
'As such her timbers are artefacts and an incredibly rich source with literally dozens of layers of paint which have been analysed.
The repainting forms part of £40million restoration works on the ship, where Lord Nelson was killed during the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805
'By combining the archaeological evidence supplied and the original accounts for Victory's stores, held by the National Museum, we have been able to pinpoint precisely the colours worn by Victory at the Battle of Trafalgar.
'Visually there are also going to be some very big changes. She is going to look very different.
'The colour is much paler than what we have at the moment.
'A lot of very thorough work has gone into this. You don't just change the colour of HMS Victory without being absolutely certain; which we are.
'This is how she would have looked in Nelson's day.'
This latest round of maintenance work - costing as much as £40 million - is set to be the largest of its kind on any historical warship.
It is also the most comprehensive work to be done on the HMS Victory since she was first installed in dry dock at the heart of Portsmouth Historic Dockyard in the 1920s.
A full plan and its costs is expected to be announced in October, but work has already begun.
The warship is held in place in her dry dock in Portsmouth, Hants, by 22 steel cradles - which were put in when she was first docked there in the 1922.
But the weight of the ship around such a small number of supporting structures is causing damaging levels of stress on the timbers.
Now another 136 individual supports will be installed, at a cost of around £1.2m to £2.5m, by this time next year.
Efforts to stop water from soaking through her timbers and causing rot is well under way and work has also been done to the fire suppression system, after a devastating blaze on board the 1869 clipper ship Cutty Sark during its own restoration.
Andrew Baines, head of historic ships at the National Museum of the Royal Navy, said his team were 'certain' of the original colours of the ship (pictured, John Callow's painting of the Battle of Trafalgar)
The scale of the work means the Victory may not see her masts returned until 2030.
Mr Baines added: 'We are looking at a programme that is going to be around £35m to £40m in costs. That is going to be a huge amount for us to carry. But I am confident we are going to be able to do it.
'The important thing is so far we have stopped the rain getting in and we will have supported her better so she is in a much more stable position for the rest of the conservation work to begin.
'Nobody has ever done a project of this scale before and it is a truly unique situation, so the order of the day is slow and steady.
'You don't take any risks with something like HMS Victory.'
The warship, which has been in dry dock since 1922 and has seen more than 25 million people walk her decks, last went through a conservation project in 1955 which was eventually completed in 2002.
In 2012, £50m worth of investment was set aside for the HMS Victory Preservation Trust courtesy of a £25m capital grant from the Sir Donald Gosling Foundation matched by the Ministry of Defence.
Last year, the government invested a further £5m when it was estimated at least £50m needed to be spent on HMS Victory over the next 15 years.
