200-year-old figurehead from HMS Victory that was chopped up by MISTAKE is restored to former glory

A 200-year-old Royal Navy figurehead from Lord Nelson’s well-known warship HMS Victory which was chopped up with a chainsaw by mistake has been painstakingly restored to its former glory.   

The 10ft-tall picket piece of artwork is from HMS Victory, the warship commanded by naval hero Admiral Nelson through the Battle of Trafalgar.

Originally thought to have been destroyed within the mid-to-late twentieth century, the 200-year-old artefact was ‘rediscovered’ following a yr of scientific and historic investigation.

Painstaking research of the artefact and naval historic information revealed it was made in 1815 to substitute Victory’s unique figurehead after that was broken through the Battle of Trafalgar.

A 200-year-old Royal Navy figurehead from Lord Nelson’s well-known warship HMS Victory which was chopped up with a chainsaw by mistake has been painstakingly restored to its former glory

Originally thought to have been destroyed within the mid-to-late twentieth century, the 200-year-old artefact was ‘rediscovered’ following a yr of scientific and historic investigation 

But an error by contractors led to the art work being destroyed in 2009 as employees mistakenly thought it was merely a modern-day work.

The sculpture was sliced into six items by a chainsaw and locked into storage in 2012.

In 2019, heritage chiefs from the National Museum of the Royal Navy – which now tends to Victory – launched an investigation into the wrecked figurehead in its vaults.

They found the carving had in actual fact been created to substitute the figurehead broken within the battle towards the Spanish and French armada in 1805.

Pictured: HMS Victory at Portsmouth New Hampshire in dock 

Pictured: An engraved illustration of Lord Nelson from 1885

It is now on show in The National Museum of the Royal Navy’s latest gallery ‘HMS Victory: The Nation’s Flagship’, which has simply opened at Portsmouth Historic Dockyard.

The sculpture, now on show on the Victory Gallery, depicts two angels supporting the UK royal coat of arms, surmounted by a crown.

Andrew Baines, the nationwide museum’s deputy director, revealed his group had been blown away after they found the figurehead’s true historical past.

He mentioned: ‘When we found that it was 206 years outdated, we had been completely delighted.’

Naval archives present the figurehead was commissioned in summer time 1815 and constructed on the Isle of Wight at a value of £65 – roughly £65,000 right now.

HMS Victory, primarily based at Portsmouth Historic Dockyard, is the oldest commissioned warship on this planet.