#hms invincible

From top to bottom we have a rum barrel from the 19th century, underneath is a square plate from the wreck of HMS Invincible which sank in 1758 off the Isle of Wight. This is the typical plate used by sailors to keep their food from slipping away.

Two pipe bowls underneath from the 18th or 19th century and the roll underneath is a tobacco roll. Tobacco leaves were sprinkled with rum by the sailor and wrapped in canvas and tightly wrapped with tarred rope to protect the leaves and save storage space.

Full deck operations HMS Invincible.

Sea Harriers from HMS Invincible in flight over the Adriatic during Operation Grapple, the British military deployment in support of the United Nations Peace Keeping Force in Bosnia (UNPROFOR). Invincible sailed for the Adriatic on 22 July 1993 to relieve HMS Ark Royal. She remained in theatre until March 1994, with No 800, 814, 846 and 849A Naval Air Squadrons embarked. On 20 September 1993, the ship hosted unsuccessful Warring Parties Peace Talks, involving Lord Owen and Mr Stoltenborg.

As I’m weeding thru the paper debris of 54 years, I ran across this pamphlet I had from a visit to the HMS Invincible, when she was in port in Stavanger, Norway, after a NATO North Sea exercise. This was probably 1981 or there abouts.

I had to go see what the Invincible is up to these days, and sadly, she was  scrapped in 2011.

A project to excavate a warship wrecked in the Solent in 1758 has won lottery funding support.

HMS Invincible - built by the French in 1744 and captured by the British in 1747 - is believed to be one of the most significant warships ever built.

Teams of archaeologists have already dived on the wreck and it is hoped hundreds of artefacts can be retrieved and put on public display.

Development funding of £16,400 has been awarded by the Heritage Lottery Fund.