COBI HMS Victory Set 20096

COBI's HMS Victory is a 1:144 model built from 2,517 blocks, 60.5 cm long and 43.5 cm high, with fourteen fabric sails and full rigging, working anchors, ship's boats on deck, and a display base with a plaque. Produced under licence from the National Museum of the Royal Navy. All markings are printed; the set contains no stickers.

Still in commission

Victory was ordered in 1758 and launched at Chatham in 1765, and she has never been decommissioned. She sits today in dry dock at Portsmouth with a serving Royal Navy captain, which makes her the oldest commissioned warship in the world — not a replica or a museum piece with a plaque, but a ship still on the Navy's books after more than two and a half centuries.

Trafalgar

On 21 October 1805 Nelson took twenty-seven ships against a combined French and Spanish fleet of thirty-three off Cape Trafalgar. The orthodox method was to form a line alongside the enemy and exchange broadsides. Nelson instead drove two columns straight through their line at right angles, which meant enduring fire for twenty minutes without being able to reply — and then broke the enemy formation into fragments that could be beaten separately.

It worked completely. The allied fleet lost twenty-two ships; the British lost none. Nelson was shot by a marksman in the rigging of the Redoutable at about half past one and died below decks three hours later, after he had been told the battle was won. The invasion of Britain was never attempted again.

Specifications

Pieces: 2,517 · Scale: 1:144 · Age: 11+ · Also included: 14 fabric sails, rigging, display base and plaque
Model dimensions: 60.5 × 19.5 × 43.5 cm (23.8 × 7.7 × 17.1 in)