ASK a Briton to name a warship, and chances are it will be HMS Victory, flagship at Trafalgar, epitome of the age of sail.

Victory was laid down in 1759, launched six years later, but not commissioned for a further 13 years to allow her timbers to season. Bristling with 100 guns split over three decks, the first rate was one of 12 ‘battleships’, to use a modern expression, ordered by the Government during the Seven Years’ War with France.

The cost was £63,000 – something like £200m today, or the cost of a new frigate – and with such expenditure, Victory was rarely anything other than a flagship for a succession of admirals.

Carrying a complement of more than 800 sailors, 226ft warship could manage upwards of nine knots in ideal sailing conditions – roughly 10mph.

Although best remembered for her role at Trafalgar, the ship saw action at Ushant in 1781 and St Vincent 16 years later.

Two decades of almost continuous service on the high seas – Admirals Howe, Hood, Jervis and Saumarez were among those who hoisted their flags aboard Victory – took their toll on the fine ship.

After Cape St Vincent, the Admiralty was all for converting Victory into a hospital ship. The loss of the first rate HMS Impregnable in 1799 spared Victory this fate.

Instead, she returned to her birthplace of Chatham for a three-year overhaul – ‘the Great Refit’ to allow her to continue her service.

In May 1803, Nelson raised his flag aboard the newly-refurbished Victory as Commander-in-Chief of the Mediterranean Fleet. For the next 18 months, the ship was continuously at sea as the admiral blockaded the French in Toulon.

That game of cat-and-mouse with Admiral Villeneuve, Nelson’s opponent, ended at Trafalgar on October 21 1805.

Victory, leading the charge, engaged Villeneuve’s flagship Bucentaure and the Redoubtable. Broadsides from Victory tore into the enemy ship at the speed of 1,600ft per second – a full broadside weighed more than 1,100lbs.

In the ensuing battle, the flagship was severely damaged. Her fore topmasts and yards, studdingsail booms and yards, jibbooms and entire mizzen masts were shot away. At least 200 primitive hand grenades were thrown at the first rate, apart from the cannon fire and musket shot. Fires raged, window panes shattered, and 57 men, including Nelson, were killed; a further 102 were wounded.

So damaged was Victory off Cadiz that she had to be towed into Gibraltar. She finally arrived in England in December, before sailing from Portsmouth to Chatham for major repairs beginning in January 1806.

After refit, Victory resumed service with the Fleet, chiefly in support of Wellington’s campaign in the Iberian peninsula, as well as in the Baltic.

She was finally retired from active service in December 1812, underwent repairs, and then spent more than half a century as the flagship of the port admiral in Portsmouth. In 1889, she assumed the title of flagship of the Commander-in-Chief Naval Home Command, a duty she performs to this day.

Moored in one of the busiest harbours in the world, it was not surprising that she was eventually rammed by an old ironclad, HMS Neptune, being towed to the breaker’s yard, in 1903, causing severe damage.

Accidents such as the ramming and general concern over the state of the Royal Navy’s iconic warship prompted a growing campaign to permanently preserve Victory, a campaign which ended in the ship being dry-docked in 1922 in her present home.

Six years of work then followed, restoring the ship to her 1805 configuration at a cost then in excess of £100,000 – nearly £25m by today’s money. She finally opened to the public in 1928, and remains so more than 75 years later.

Today, beyond serving as a tourist attraction for upwards of 400,000 visitors each year, Victory serves as the flagship of the Second Sea Lord, hosts numerous official events and dinners.

It costs anywhere between £500,000 and £1m per year to look after the ship, preserving and maintaining the well-trodden timbers, and a further £1m to crew her – a cost offset by the £1m raised in ticket sales to look around her.

Length: 226ft
Beam: 51ft
Complement: 820-850
Displacement: 3,500 tons
Armament: 30 x 32-pounders (lower gun deck), 28 x 24-pounders (middle gun deck), 30 x 12-pounders (long) (upper gun deck), 12 x 12-pounders (short) (quarter gun deck) and 2 x 12-pounders (medium) and 2 x 68-pounder carronades (forecastle)