The HMS Victory was a first-rate three-decker, carrying 110 guns, and was accounted the finest ship in the service. In 1744, she was the flagship of Admiral Sir J. Balchen, a venerable officer of 75 years of age, who had been called from the honourable retirement of Greenwich Hospital to command a fleet destined to relieve Sir Charles Hardy, then blockaded in Lisbon by a superior French force, under the Count de Rochambault. On returning from the successful performance of this service, the fleet was dispersed in the chops of the Channel by a tremendous gale, on October 4th. The rest of the ships, though much shattered, gained the anchorage of Spithead in safety, but the Victory was never more heard of, though from the evidence of fishermen of the island of Alderney, she was believed to have run on to the Caskets, some dangerous rocks lying off that island, where her gallant crew of about a thousand perished to a man

The France II was launched at Bordeaux in 1911 for the New Caledonia nickel ore trade to Europe. Although not the last commercial square-rigged sailing vessel to be built, the France represents the apogee of merchant sail and her great size and powerful performance can be seen as a culmination of technological developments from the second half of the 19th century which gave such impetus to the evolution of the square-rigger over that time. France II measured 5,633 tons gross on a length of 419 feet. Her beam was 56 feet and her depth 25 feet.

Armed with two canons, France II surmounted all odds during World War I by regularly skirting the three symbolic Capes: Cape Horn, the Cape of Good Hope, and Cape Leeuwin.

On a calm sea on July 11 1922, the great ship ran aground at the Ouano reefs in New Caledonia. She would remain a familiar silhouette for the next 20 years to those passionate about the sea. In 1944 American bombers destroyed the wreck signaling the death of the greatest tall ship ever built. (164196-3)