Could You Survive 30 Days Aboard HMS Victory?

Could you survive 30 days aboard HMS Victory in 1805? At the Battle of Trafalgar, HMS Victory carried 821 men and 104 guns - but battle was only part of what made life aboard a Royal Navy warship brutal. In this episode of Past Was Hard, you’ll experience the everyday reality of life aboard HMS Victory: sleeping inches away from other sailors, living directly beside enormous cannons, climbing dangerous rigging, eating preserved food, dealing with sickness, using almost-privacy-free toilets, and working constantly to keep a wooden warship alive at sea. Then the battle begins. What had been your bedroom becomes a gun deck filled with smoke, cannon fire, splintering timber and hundreds of ordinary sailors trying to keep the ship fighting. Could you survive an entire month? Subscribe to Past Was Hard for more stories about what everyday life was actually like in the past. Because the past was harder than it looks. Sources consulted include material from the National Museum of the Royal Navy, Royal Museums Greenwich, the Society for Nautical Research, and the U.S. Naval Institute. #History #HMSVictory #AgeOfSail