Portsmouth has been affectionately known as Pompey for years but nobody really seems to know why. There are quite a few theories about, as any quick search of the internet will show you, but I think the most likely is the one that refers to the navigational charts and shipping.
Ships entering Portsmouth harbour make an entry in the ships log 'Pom. P.' which refers to Portsmouth Point. Navigational charts also use this abbreviation, as 'Portsmouth Point' is apparently far too long to note down in full. Sounds plausible to me, and I reckon that's the one I shall go by!
So, anyway, Pompey or Portsmouth, I drove down for a day out with my nieces and my brother and mum, and it's a great place! There is so much to see and do that a day is nowhere near enough!! Just as well we got tickets for the harbour that are valid for a year so we can return as many times as we like!
My nieces live just north of Nottingham, which is about as far from any coastline as you can get in England, so it was good to take them down to the south coast and board the ferry for a trip round the harbour. The tour lasted an hour and took us pretty close to the Naval dockyards where we saw all sorts of ships in for repair or overhaul.
Pretty exciting for me was to see the icebreaker 'HMS Endurance' berthed alongside the aircraft carrier 'HMS Invincible'. I can't really explain why that particularly excites me, other than that I obviously don't get out much, but I was genuinely thrilled to see them both and see them together! Pity I didn't get a good shot of them, but at least we saw them anyway!
Something that struck me as we sailed round the harbour was the neat entanglement of old and new... ancient and modern twisted together as seamlessly and with all the strength of a good old-fashioned, but still used, nautical knot!
I think I mentioned a while ago about chatting to a couple of ex-submariners recently. They had been talking about a huge tank system that they have to go up inside from the bottom to the top. It filled me with horror to hear them talking about it... and gave me watery nightmares for weeks which I posted about a few months ago, but the true horror of it became apparent when I saw the tank in question. Oh my word... well, something with four letters in anyway, blimey!!!! It's HUGE!!!! Imagine that big tower filled with water and then having to go up inside it!! Ooh shuddery no, it fills me with absolute, sheer, unfettered, unbelievably immense amounts of horror! But, for those who could do it, this is where they did it.
HMS Dolphin was where submariners were trained and based for many years, and that is the very same tank they were telling me about. Brrrr, really, really makes me shudder!
Something else that blew my mind somewhat was this very impressive looking Palmerston Fort out in the Solent.
Approximately a mile out of Portsmouth Harbour, the fort is a totally man-made island, built in 1867 as a response to a threat of French invasion under Napoleon III. The four Palmerston forts were designed to protect the Naval dockyards at Portsmouth and were owned by the Ministry of Defence until as recently as 1982. Now privately owned, some are available for exclusive hire for parties or filming, and also have restaurants, museums and, on one of them, the potential for a micro-brewery! Marvellous!! A big up for Pompey!!!
Heading round the harbour to Gunwharf Quay, you can't help but notice the fantastic Spinnaker Tower. It is stunning! I haven't seen it at night but I've seen quite a few photos of it and it is simply beautiful. It's visible from so many areas around the harbour, and it blends so well with the masts, towers and rigging of the old Portsmouth Harbour. New and old, biding together beautifully.
Speaking of old and new, the captain of the ferry, who was also giving us a very entertaining commentary on the cruise, pointed out a very new and significant structure that sits in the dockyard beneath the mighty towers and historic masts... it is none other than the brand new Admiralty toilet block! I didn't get a photo of it, but if you really want to know it is quite spacious, built of red brick and looks very comfortable indeed!! Something else that caught my eye was this crane that I managed to get in the right place to make it look as if it was lifting the Spinnaker Tower into position.
Made me chortle anyway. Once back on solid ground, we explored the Historic Dockyard and, more specifically, the inner workings of the tremendously famous HMS Victory. What a fabulous ship!
It, as so many other things round Portsmouth, is also HUGE! The restoration and reconstruction of work and rest on board is awesome. It's so well done. Flash photography isn't allowed in many parts of the ship so I set my ISO to 3200 (yikes!! Yep!!!!) and tried it to see what I could get. The images are obviously a bit noisy, but overall I was pretty pleased with the way the Nikon handled such a ridiculously high ISO. The cannonballs are lined up right in the middle of the inner decks, as far from any light source as possible, and against dark wood planks.
Tricky for sure, but not too bad at all really. Not quite the composition I would have liked but I was laying on the floor and wedged against a pillar whilst getting tutted at by a very large and very vocal group of French tourists! So while I was at it, just to be equally obnoxious, I hung around for a few seconds more and got a photo of this grappling iron at the same time!!
Again, fairly noisy but not too bad.
The outer decks are also fascinating. The miles and miles of ropes and rigging are just mind-boggling! The buckets hanging along the rails were essential for the cannon, but they also look quite appealing at the same time.
But then I'm quite easily pleased!!
Wandering down onto the quayside again, I took a look around the ship and was gobsmacked at the size of it. Whichever way you look at it, it's a beautiful, beautiful ship! Whilst wandering about under the bowsprit, I looked across and saw yet another relationship between the old and the new. HMS Dauntless, the new Air Defence Destroyer of the Royal Navy berthed in the shadow of the magnificent HMS Victory.
Nautical knots everywhere you look!! There is still so much I want to see at Portsmouth, so you may be quite sure that I shall be back... and of course having paid for a full ticket anyway it'd be daft not to!! So, a big up for Pompey, it's awesome!!
Rebecca, x
www.rtphotographics.co.uk
rebecca@rtphotographics.co.uk
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