HMS Victory model; three mast fully square rigged ship scale model carved from Original Victory oak.

Total length approximately 47 inches ( 120cm) - gun deck 27 inches long ( 70cm) - 35 " (89cm) high

This detailed scale model of HMS Victory a first rate ship of the line; a classic design of a three mast fully square rigged ship, is currently being carved by sculptor Ian G Brennan from an original many centuries old oak beam from Lord Nelson's Flagship HMS Victory. The carved hull of this Victory sculpture and the carved 'sea' the warship is sailing in is being carved entirely from within an old oak beam that was removed from the lower gun deck during the historic warship restoration.

The majority of this oak beam was found to be rotten or worm damaged hence the reason it was removed from the ship and as the beam was deemed unsuitable for restoration it was subsequently replaced by a large beam made from teak. Initially due to the condition of the oak beam it was thought nothing useful could be done with it, however after removing all the rotten oak it was found that almost 40 % of the remaining original beam, especially the part which would eventually end up being the hull and sea of the sculpture was mostly made up of good sound timber.

As well as the scale model's hull and the carved sea, all of the Victory's models masts, sails,104 cannon, anchors, small launches, rigging, flags etc are also being carved from original Victory oak. The 37 seven bellowing carved oak sails which the Victory carried in full sail are being carved as thin as egg shells in such a way as to represent the historic 18th century warship fast approaching Cape Trafalgar, 'Running before the Wind'.

Having been given this old oak beam all those years ago which obviously had seen better days, some might say if you wanted to produce a scale model of HMS Victory possibly the most efficient way to make one might be to cut the oak up into smaller pieces which will enable you to work on the modelling the ship much easier and once all the fine detail is completed glue it all together, just as ship model makers have been doing using a variety of different woods with excellent results for years. This particular wood however is very different than the wood normally used by ship model makers in the past, so it had to be treated differently. Not only was the oak rock hard and rather difficult to work, but as every single part of the now near completed model Victory actually came from HMS Victory itself it had to be treated with respect. Ian also didn't really like the idea of cutting this relatively long original oak beam into pieces and much preferred the idea of creating the Victory model just like a sculpture and carve it as much as possible all from one solid piece just as he normally does with his other wood sculptures.

As Michelangelo was once quoted as saying for marble carving but which is just as appropriate for wood carving " the sculpture already existed inside the block of marble, the stone was just the covering that contained a work of art; the sculptor only had to take away the part in excess" This Victory sculpture already existed in the old oak beam for centuries.

The history and the various stages behind the producing of the scale model of HMS Victory :-

During 1989/90, Ian G Brennan was commissioned by The Royal Naval Dockyard in Portsmouth to make an exact replica of the original Starboard Side Entrance Port on Admiral Nelson's Flagship's HMS Victory, to replace the original carved oak entrance port which was badly decayed and in many places it was only the thick layers of old black lead paint that was keeping most of the original entrance port together.

The replacement starboard side entrance port carved from mahogany by Ian G Brennan

Whilst Ian was carving this replacement entrance port for the middle gun deck, on the lower gun deck the centuries had also taken their toll on some of the other oak timbers which also had to be removed from within the Victory's hull during the restoration process. These old oak beams were also found to be badly rotten and worm damaged, often beyond repair and required replacing. Ian was asked by members of the ships crew as some of these beams were obviously not in any condition to be restored and then be returned to the ship, if he would be able to try and carve something with them, rather than the historic oak be simply wasted.

As the ships crew were often raising funds for the annual 'BBC Children in Need' TV program Ian suggested he would perhaps try and carve HMS Victory in a bas-relief panel which could then be auction off to help the ships crew with their annual fund raising for the 'BBC Children in Need' TV program. This fortunately worked out well and raised a lot of money for the BBC charity he then decided as there was still some of this oak left over he would make another panel for the following years fund raising event.

It was always rather difficult to try and find the most suitable piece of oak for the carving as the beams were often covered in many layers of old lead paint, although on the outside it might initially appear to be a quite reasonable piece of timber however more often than not the moment the surface paint was removed the rot and worm damage was found to be more extensive than you first hoped, when you first started carving into the old beam great lumps of oak would simply end up just crumble away in your hands and in the end more often than not you would often find nothing of any size could be carved from that particular piece.

With the bi-centenary of the Battle of Trafalgar over a decade away, Ian thought that perhaps with bits of the victory oak he had left over still in his workshop he might try it might be possible to preserve the oak in a somewhat different form, namely a full three-dimensional scale sculpture of HMS Victory in full sail, heading towards Cape Trafalgar. Ian knew it would obviously take him a long time to carve, especially as he had never tried to produce a sculpture of a ship before and more particularly as it was going to be carved from the remains of this old victory oak which had obviously seen better days

The top and base of the original Victory oak beam used for the Victory Sculpture - the hook used to support the mess table on the lower gun deck still embedded in the beam

The picture’s above shows how extensive the rotten and worm damaged oak was and how all those hundreds of years in such adverse conditions on the gun deck had taken its toll. It also shows one end of the original iron bolt that had once fixed the beam in position on the Victory’s lower gun deck and also an old rusting iron hook which would have held one of the gun decks mess tables still firmly embedded in the beam.

Although most of this victory oak beam due to its age was badly decayed and worm damaged on first inspection it would appear to be quite unusable; however after carefully removing large junks of the rotten oak and treating the worm damage wood, sound oak started to appear through and work could begin. Although having to try and carve fine detail often against the grain and through the embedded nails and bolts still caused quite a few problems at times.

The 32 pounder cannon and mess tables on the lower gun deck on HMS Victory, when battle stations was announced the ropes holding the mess tables were removed from the hooks in the beams which enabled the mess tables to be quickly stored away.

Ian’s initial problem was to try and work out exactly where the hull of the scale model Victory could best be carved as large as possible using the remaining sound piece of oak, trying to avoid the old nails and bolt holes which were still present in a lot of the beam.

On many occasions the merits of attempting to produce the model warship from within one of the original oak beam that was once an integral part of the very structure of HMS Victory's soon began to disappear. The problem with trying to produce the hull of the Victory sculpture in perfect scale carved from a single piece of rock hard old oak which was full of rusty hand made nails, iron bolts and other metal fragments, not to mention rotten timber riddled with holes from the long departed wood worm, were all too soon apparent.

Fortunately however on this particular beam after removing all the rotten and worm damaged oak from one side of the beam sound oak started to show through which would at least enable the hull and the sea to be carved from one piece and with careful cutting away around the proposed hull of the ship sufficient size off cuts of oak was also found which could be usefully be used elsewhere on the sculpture.

One of the large iron bolt which was still present in the beam passed right through the timber and would originally have been used to bolt together this and the other interconnecting beams. The victory's skilful construction by the 18 century shipwrights was such that the ship was cleverly held together by bolts and an assortment of nails and mitred joints, each carefully shaped to lock together into the corresponding beam.

Some of the original bolts and nails were temporarily removed whenever possible to assist the carving process these were retained and placed back in the original position later; some of the iron bolts had rusted in position over the years and were initially impossible to remove until the vast majority of oak which surrounded them had been cut away. The larger of these original iron bolts was eventually cut through at what is now the sculpture’s ‘sea level’.

The shape of the Victory's hull now carved within the oak beam after most of the damaged oak had been removed

After having taken careful measurements and narrowly avoiding the iron bolts and bolt holes, it was just possible to carve the basic shape of the hull from sea level right up to the highest point of the models Quarter deck and Forecastle all in one piece. The white lead paint which was frequently used within the interior of the warship was used to try and improve the rather dimly lit interior. This paint can still be seen covering two sides of the beam as well as the rather rusty iron hook, which is still in its original position which is beneath the victory sculpture itself.

Throughout the whole carving process the 'off cuts' of the old victory oak were retained which were later to be used to carve the masts, sails, rigging, cannon etc. Due to the oak due to its great age being is so strong and stable; Ian was able to carve all the sails almost as thin as egg shells, which gave the desired effect of Lord Nelson's famous Warship in full sail upon the Sea.

shown below; a small selection of the 104 different cannon barrels which have been turned now awaiting the cannon undercarriage, wheels and crossbar to be carved, only the cannon barrels are visible on most of the three gun decks so Ian only has to fully carve 26 cannon with all the undercarriage showing; these will be twelve 12 pounders for the Quarter Deck; and for the Forecastle, twelve 12 pounder guns, two - 68 pounders (Carronades) and two 12 pounders (Bow- chasers)

Some of the carved barrels for the 12 pounder gun - 68 pounder carronade -32 pounder cannon - a 32 pounder cannon alongside a one pence and one cent coin

As the warships fine detail is often being carved against the grain and also has with the occasional old rusty nail and bolt getting in the way it has proved quite problematic at times. He has tried to save as much of the off cuts as possible whilst he was working cutting the wood in such a way as he worked to maximise whatever good quality original oak was available.

Although Ian's normal way of working is to producing the whole of his sculptures from a single piece of wood, due to the depth of the original oak beam available and the eventual height of the Victory sculpture it was obviously still be necessary to carve all the sails and masts separately . At the moment all the sails are held in position with soft wax so everything can be easily removed to work on more effectively. It will not be until all the fine detail of the carving has been completed and sanded smooth will the whole carving be fully be assembled together with all the masts, sails, flags, cannon, anchors, small launches carved oak rigging and flags finally glued into position.

Although they are not required at this stage of the carving Ian has started to carve some of these signal flags depicting the famous signal that Admiral Nelson flew at Trafalgar, ’England Expects that every man will do his duty' and 'Follow more closely' along with the white ensign and union jack, even the rope rigging the flags will be attached to like everything else on the victory sculpture, will be carved from original victory oak and when completed the signal flags will be flown high amongst the carved rigging just as it was during the battle of Trafalgar. The oak being so old it is very stable and also holds detail very well so you can you carve very thin oak ropes and even carve them to give the appearance they were slightly sagging under their own weight as ropes on fully rigged ships tended to do.

On and off for almost two decades whenever he could somehow try and find the time, Ian has been working on this scale Victory model. So far he has spent almost 3,000 hours working on this Victory sculpture. Ian explains "It is a rather slow process as the oak being so old and hard it is just like trying to carve concrete, you have to take your time and try to carve it right first time, the original oak itself is obviously difficult to come by you cannot make a mistake and simply throw the piece of wood away and go to the local timber yard and get some more.

It is expected to take many more months of full time work before it will be finally completed. Having dedicated so much of his time often forgoing holidays working on this sculpture over the years it does nowadays unfortunately get more and more difficult each year to try and find even a few 'spare' hours let alone the many hundreds of hours that is still required to actually finish the Victory as he would like and it surely deserves." As this Victory sculpture was not a commission and Ian being quite a long way off retirement age which might well have been the most appropriate time to undertake such a project, he like most people still needs to earn his living and quite rightly working on his sculpture commissions has to take priority.

Initially in 1990 when the idea of produce this Victory sculpture arose it was thought it would be a rather nice idea to have it completed by the bi-centenary of the battle of Trafalgar in 2005, however working on his commissions as he did this date came and went. Having now missed one of the main reasons he first started work on carving the Victory, the project was then abandoned for two years until a work injury prevented Ian working on his larger sculptures for several months, he soon found however that despite this temporary halt on the larger sculptures he was still more than capable of carving the Victory model which has now rekindled his interest once again trying to find the time to complete the sculpture..

Now other possible future rather important deadlines presents themselves, such as this year the bi-centenary in 2008 of HMS Victory being re-commissioned after having extensive repairs after the Battle of Trafalgar, however as Ian is now back working normally on his larger sculpture, other bi-centenaries further away in the future are perhaps a more realistic possibility. Maybe to commemorate the two successful Baltic campaigns or at the last resort the bi-centenaries of HMS Victory ending her active career on November 7 1812, time will tell.

When Ian finally does complete the Victory sculpture what remains of the original HMS Victory's old paint still fixed to the beam will be retained, along with the original hand made square nails, old copper screws with their green patina which has gradually built up over the years and also the rusty iron bolts all firmly fixed in their original position still attached to the base of the oak beam. Ian at the moment however has another dilemma, at this stage he is not quite sure what if any finish to apply to the sculpture once it is completed .

Although the oak would obviously look rather splendid after sealing and polishing particularly with the superb grain pattern showing through, however he thinks that perhaps a polished finish particular on this Victory oak might not be quite appropriate, so instead he might leave the sculpture with its natural old oak finish and texture just as it has always been for many centuries, hidden deep within the old oak beam on board the Victory lower gun deck. Even without polishing the wood the grain pattern shows up superbly well and gives a very pleasant natural dark and light effect which helps give the sculpture a rather realistic natural colour in the ships hull and particular the billowing sails

Another rather compelling reason not to apply any finish to the sculpture, if you ever had the opportunity to visit Nelson's Flagship the first thing you will often notice on entering the ship is the strong smell of old oak, rope and tar which permutated throughout the 18 century warship. Traces of this rather distinctive aroma could also be found in Ian's studio from this old oak whilst he was working on the Victory sculpture itself, he feels it might be rather a shame to seal in this centuries old fragrance under a wood sealant.

However as an experiment a thin coat of Danish oil was applied to a spare sail he carved from one of the off cuts of Victory oak, once the stunning grain pattern and colour of the centuries old oak showed through he was then convinces that he would definitely maybe, finish the whole sculpture with a wood finish, however as it is still not yet know who will eventually own this Victory model and indeed were it will end up, the decision to polish or not to polish is still quite some way off.

On that historic and momentous day in 1805 off Cape Trafalgar, within the cramp dimly lit lower gun deck, amid the noise and confusion from the fierce battle being fort all around, the Victory sculpture although yet to be released by the sculptors hands, was being protected from all the elements deep within the oak beam, and although this beam containing the sculpture was bolted directly above the fearsome 32 ponder cannon being used so effectively by the ships well drilled crew just inches below, it had manage to survived both the Battle of Trafalgar and the following two centuries.

Throughout the long hours the deadly battle raged, the exhausted gun crews anxieties and eventual exaltation as the battle won, was being absorbed into the very fibre of this piece of English oak. This beam was indeed an integral part of the heart and structure of HMS Victory's great 'wooden walls'. If only walls could talk.

Although Ian G Brennan has for over twenty years been created a huge variety of detailed and often highly elaborate sculptures, many of which have been commissioned by the British Royal Household, this scale sculpture of HMS Victory must surely rate as one of the most irreplaceable wood carvings he has ever produced and although yet to be completed, the sculpture has already featured on numerous occasions in television programs, newspaper and magazine articles and continues to do so.

This Victory sculpture must also be one of the most unique examples of Maritime Art around, especially when you consider not only has the sculpture been produced entirely from original centuries old oak from HMS Victory's lower gun deck and was once an integral part of the warship, but it has also been created by the actual wood carver who worked on-board the historic 18th century warship, commissioned to carve the replacement Starboard side Entrance Port on the middle gun deck of Lord Nelson's famous Flagship.

Who would have thought that these few centuries old discarded rotten oak beams which were once bolted in place above one of HMS Victory's formidable 32 pounder cannon on the warships lower gun deck; these oak beams full of old corroding hand made iron bolts and nails along with the traces of long departed woodworm once hidden beneath thick layers of lead paint will, with a little more time and no less skill by Ian eventually be salvaged into something quite so remarkable