One of the great relics of the Royal Navy, HMS Victory’s foretopsail from the Battle of Trafalgar, will be on show to the general public for the first time in seven years in 2005.

The sail, still riddled with holes - the scars of the clash with the French and Spanish fleets - was last displayed in Portsmouth Historic Dockyard during the International Festival of the Sea in 1998.

Since then further conservation work has been carried out on the artefact by experts working with the Royal Navy – Nelson’s flagship remains a commissioned warship, today serving as the flagship of the Second Sea Lord.

As part of the bicentennial commemorations of the battle, the sail will get a rare public showing in the controlled environment which is its home on the top floor of Storehouse No.10, part of the Royal Naval Museum in Portsmouth.

A lift will be provided to the floor to allow disabled visitors to see the sail, which will be on display between March and the end of October.

Also as part of bicentenary events, the museum is showcasing the ‘Trafalgar Roll’, which is the result of two decades’ research by a couple of historians into as many of the sailors who served at the battle as possible.

The museum already holds a Victory Roll, giving details of the flagship’s complement on the day of battle, but the expanded roll will address the omission of other vessels and their ships’ companies, who played a crucial role in the Navy’s decisive victory.

Another historic warship comes under the spotlight at the end of the month.

Victorian ironclad HMS Warrior is spending November in dry dock, her first such stint in a decade, as part of a general overhaul of the warship.

The ship, since the late 1980s a tourist attraction in Portsmouth Harbour, is due to go into dry dock on October 30 to allow her hull to be repainted and maintenance checks made to the parts of the vessel normally hidden below the waterline.

A new type of paint will be used on Warrior, which should mean she will not have to be docked down for another 15-20 years.

Whilst in dry dock, Warrior’s berth will also be dredged to get rid of the silt which has accumulated in the past decade.