A recent episode of the popular TV programme, “The Antiques Roadshow“, shown on South Africa’s main satellite television channel, featured a curious item that piqued my interest. It was a wooden column, made from a large baulk of timber from Admiral Nelson’s famous flagship, HMS Victory. The show’s expert remarked that about a century ago, the manufacture of furniture and mementoes from the timber of scrapped and obsolete warships was very popular and initiated a fashion which spread across the then British Empire.
To read the full article, download it from the Natalia archives, and scroll to page 83:
Dominy, G (2015). She saved Natal in 1842. In “Notes and Queries”. Natalia, Issue 45, pp 83-85