Experts have used 3D laser imaging to get under the skin of Lord Nelson’s famous ship HMS Victory and help with its future preservation.
Victory is the world’s oldest commissioned warship and was Nelson’s flag ship at the Battle of Trafalgar where the Royal Navy beat a combined French and Spanish fleet in 1805.
The 248-year-old vessel is pres-ently undergoing conservation at her home in Portsmouth’s Historic Dockyard and the new technique is allowing experts to see how the ship was made and the complexity of the 18th century vessel.
HMS Victory is a 104-gun first-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy. She was laid down in 1759 and launched in 1765. In 1922 she was moved to a dry dock at Portsmouth and preserved as a museum ship.
Rats routed off remote island
A five-year battle to eradicate rats from a remote Alaskan island has finally been won, officials say.
They say the island, long known as Rat Island because of its infestation of invasive Norway rats, is now teeming with birds. For the first time breeding tufted puffins have been documented on the island, which is not inhabited by people and is in the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge.
The makeover of the island includes a name change. Rat Island is now officially called Hawadax Island, a nod to the original Aleut name.
St George’s Day celebrations
The English would like to see St George’s Day celebrated more – despite most not knowing when it is, a new poll has found.
Only 40 per cent of those asked were aware the patron saint’s day is on April 23, compared with 70 per cent who said they knew US Independence Day was on July 4. Two-thirds (66 per cent) said St Patrick’s Day on March 17 is now more widely celebrated in Britain.
But the online survey by ICM of 2,360 British adults, including 1,739 respondents in England, found that three-quarters (76 per cent) would like to see St George’s day celebrated more.
Chris Brown charged again
Rapper Chris Brown was arrested and charged with assault in Washington yesterday after getting into a fight with a man outside a hotel near the White House.
Brown was charged with felony assault at 4.25am after the altercation outside the W Hotel, a few hundred metres from the White House, Metropolitan Police said.
Another man involved in the fight was arrested on the same charge. News reports referred to the second individual as Brown’s bodyguard. The victim was taken to the hospital.
Brown has been on probation since 2009 for assaulting Rihanna, his then girlfriend, and the new arrest could complicate that parole. This was revoked after Brown was charged with a hit-and-run traffic accident in Los Angeles, but reinstated after he agreed to another 1,000 hours of community labour.