By Margaret Maccoll
HMS Victory is a 104-gun first-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, ordered in 1758, launched in 1765 and best known for her role as Lord Nelson’s flagship at the Battle of Trafalgar on 21 October 1805.
In 1922, she was moved to a dry dock at Portsmouth, England, and preserved as a museum ship. It was here that Jim Pryce of Tewantin visited the world’s oldest naval ship still in commission, with 241 years’ service, before deciding to build a model of it.
Twenty years after he began, the ship has now been completed.
Using blue prints obtained from the museum and a variety of woods including pear, lime, beech, boxwood and a little Tasmanian oak Jim has carved and created a magnificent replica of the real frigate which took 6000 trees to make. It is completely rigged ready for sail and he has sourced items such as cannons from hobby shops and built lifeboats that are geared with oars and ropes ready to set sail.
The stately ship now rests on a board built for him by the men of the Mens Shed at Hibiscus Gardens Retirement Village where Jim and his wife Joy have lived for the past seven years. He’s not sure what to do with it now.
A seaman of the Australian and Merchant navies Jim began building model ships in his spare time as a seaman which he said was a common past-time amongst the men.
“It’s a wonderful hobby,“ he said, and one he would like to see his grandchildren adopt. He fears young people intent on computer games are losing building skills that he learnt as a young man.
Having also worked on lighthouse supply ships from a base at Cape Pillar in Melbourne Jim has already obtained the hull and plans for his new project. This one he plans will run after he installs a radio-controlled motor and propellor in it.
