#3: HMS Victory: Nelson's Flagship at the Greatest Naval Battle Ever Fought
At the Battle of Trafalgar on October 21, 1805, HMS Victory led the British fleet directly into the combined French and Spanish line, enduring raking fire from multiple enemy ships at point-blank range. Admiral Horatio Nelson was shot by a French marksman and died below decks three hours later, but not before learning that his fleet had won one of the most decisive victories in the history of naval warfare, 22 enemy ships captured or destroyed without a single British vessel lost.
Victory is the world's oldest naval ship still in commission, launched in 1765, 32 years before USS Constitution. Her 104 guns spread across three decks could deliver a broadside weighing over half a ton. At Trafalgar, she was crewed by 821 men and suffered 57 killed and 102 wounded in the close-quarters carnage. Nelson's final signal, "England expects that every man will do his duty," became the most famous message in military history. Victory now sits in permanent dry dock at the Portsmouth Historic Dockyard, still flying the flag of the First Sea Lord. She is, quite simply, the most revered warship in existence.
