CO climbs rigging

The commanding officer of HMS Victory demonstrated he has a head for heights as he climbed 205 feet up the main mast and straight into the history books.

Lieutenant Commander Oscar Whild is believed to be the Victory’s first captain to have ever scaled the mast to check the rigging and general condition of the ship’s fittings using rope access techniques normally used for caving activities.

Back when the ship was a working vessel, inspections would only have been carried out by the ship’s crew rather than risk their captain.
Yet despite the chilly autumn weather Lt Cdr Whild took just ten minutes to reach the top where he demonstrated the ease of new ropes and equipment provided by Bell Rigging.

“It was good to see the mast up close,” he said. “There is an awful lot of rigging up there which looks complicated from the ground but from the top you can see how it all fits together.

“These checks of the rigging, blocks and masts are very important as it gives a much greater confidence in what we have above our heads.”

For the past few years inspections have been carried out from the platform of a cherry picker which didn’t allow for complete access to the ropes or fittings. This meant that large areas of the deck would need to be cordoned off.

The fitting of new abseiling ropes to HMS Victory will allow the ship to open much larger areas of the upper deck during routine maintenance allowing widest possible public access to the ship.

The rigging needs to be regularly serviced as it is constantly exposed to the elements.

Despite the captain’s enthusiasm, all future inspections will be carried out by climbers from Bell Rigging in conjunction with the naval base’s partners BVT Surface Fleet.

Picture: A Cooper (Bell Rigging)