Portsmouth Historic Dockyard is visited by Year 7

The silence was violently broken by the hail of cannon fire which hit our ship. I struggled to maintain my balance as wave after wave of shells tore huge holes in the wood, sending splinters in all directions. 104 of our own guns opened in retaliation, smoke clouding our lower gun deck. The Battle of Trafalgar had begun….

This was the experience which the Year 7 children had during our visit to Portsmouth Historic Dockyard, bringing history to ‘life’ in an interactive and exploratory way. Visiting HMS Victory, they gained a great insight into what life was like for both the sailors and marines who fought in the Battle of Trafalgar. A highlight was a visit to the doctor’s surgery and the nearby spot were Nelson finally passed away. The children received an in-depth talk about medical care during the period and Nelson’s death. In the morning, the children also had a workshop exploring, ‘slavery through objects’. This enabled everyone to get hands on with their history, handling various replica and real-life objects from the period. There were opportunities to ask questions and better understand what life was like for slaves.

In the afternoon, the children were able to contrast life on HMS Victory with that of HMS Warrior, the first ironclad warship. Launched in 1860, at a time of empire and Britain’s dominance in trade and industry, Warrior was the pride of Queen Victoria’s fleet. The final stop off was the ‘Trafalgar Experience’, a multi-media walk through of the battle. It was amazing to stand on the gundeck of the Victory and feel what it must have been like to be there on 21 October 1805!

It was a great day and it was impressive to see the knowledge and understanding on show from all children.

“I really enjoyed the day spent exploring the Historic Dockyard. I found it especially interesting to see the contrast between the two ships, HMS Victory and HMS Warrior. The changes in size and engineering were very impressive. I would very much prefer to live and work on HMS Warrior”.  Jasper  

“It was really fun exploring HMS Victory, however it was tricky moving around the ship as the ceilings was so low. It was very cramped, I definitely wouldn’t want to fight on the ship in battle”. Archie 

Mr Capozzoli

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