HMS Victory & the Journey Home
What we did
Olivia's Day Five — the last shanty, sung aboard HMS Victory.
We boarded bus and ferry both, the last time cross the sea,
I snapped a hundred waves and more as home we're bound to be.So it's home, me hearties, home we sail,
With Nelson's Victory to tell the tale!We toured the mighty Victory, so dark and snug below,
The ceiling near did brush my head, the decks all in a row.I stood upon the very spot where Nelson fought and fell,
At Trafalgar's great and famous fight the sailors knew so well.So it's home, me hearties, home we sail,
With Nelson's Victory to tell the tale!We saw the food the sailors ate, and learned with great surprise
That boys of just eleven years would load the guns likewise.Then one long weary bus ride home to end our island stay,
I closed my eyes and fell asleep — the last of our holiday.So it's home, me hearties, home we sail,
With Nelson's Victory to tell the tale!
Photos
The world's oldest warship — and its child crew
HMS Victory was launched all the way back in 1765, and she is still officially a commissioned ship of the Royal Navy today — which makes her the oldest naval warship in the world still in commission. She was Admiral Lord Nelson's flagship at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805, where he was fatally wounded. And those young cannon-loaders Olivia learned about were real: boys as young as 11 or 12 served aboard as "powder monkeys," dashing gunpowder from the store to the cannons in the heat of battle — because they were small and quick enough to squeeze through the ship's cramped, low decks.