Guest Blog - Hemp on HMS Victory

I am pleased to introduce a guest writer this week. 'Kenyon' has been writing about hemp prolifically for some time on his blog http://hempforvictory.blogspot.com/

I am pleased that he accepted my invitation to put one of his articles here on Cafe Lumiere. Below is the interesting case of HMS Victory and its connection with hemp.

Please take it away Kenyon...


HEMP ON THE HMS VICTORY
A story in the Voice of Freedom (Issue 92, p.7) reports that the University of Southampton is set to close their Textile Conservation Centre, which stores the sails from Nelson's Victory. As any reader of this blog would know, they are made of hemp. 200,000 lbs. of hemp was on every man-o'-war in the 19th century. The UK went to great lengths to obtain it, including fighting a war, and making a pre-emptive strike to maintain a supply.
A petition to keep the centre open can be found at: http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/TCCClosure