30,000-Pound Foremast Removed from 261-Year-Old HMS Victory in $57M Restoration

At Portsmouth Historic Dockyard in England, workers successfully detached the foremast from HMS Victory, the oldest commissioned warship globally, as part of a $57 million restoration initiative known as the Big Repair. This operation took place overnight from April 27 to April 28, 2025. Weighing over 30,000 pounds and towering more than 75 feet, the foremast was removed by shipwrights below deck and hoisted onto the dockside by a large crane for repairs. This is the second mast to be taken down; the main lower mast, which is 105 feet tall and weighs 57,000 pounds, was removed in 2021. The mizzen mast and bowsprit are next in line for removal. The Big Repair marks a century since the ship was placed in dry dock. All masts are expected to be reinstalled by 2033. The wrought-iron masts, which replaced decaying wooden ones in the 1890s, are thought to be the last remaining 19th-century iron masts still operational. Launched in 1765, HMS Victory was constructed from over 2,000 oak trees and served as Horatio Nelson's flagship during the 1805 Battle of Trafalgar. Since 1928, it has attracted over 30 million visitors. In 2012, custodianship shifted from the British Ministry of Defense to the National Museum of the Royal Navy. Experts have noted that the ship is collapsing under its weight, with the upper deck shifting toward the keel at a rate of half a centimeter annually. Renovations still allow visitor access.