Yet another Victory

[Talos2000]

I am researching my family tree and have found an ancestral cousin “John Murison, MD” who, upon graduating, served as a ship’s surgeon during an arctic voyage. His obituary states that the ship he served on was named Victory. No dates are given, but the most likely time frame would be the 1870s. 1880's at the very latest. I would love to be able to find out more details of this voyage.

I can find no record of any such ship Victory. There is, of course, John Ross’s paddle steamer, but this was famously abandoned in the Boothia peninsula in 1832. So if my ancestor did indeed serve on a Victory during an arctic voyage in the 1870s it would surely have to have been a different ship.

Can anybody identify this ship, and it's arctic history?

[Navclio]

This is getting beyond the "Age of Sail." The last HMS Victory in J.J. Colledge, Ships of the Royal Navy: An Historical Index is the three-decked 100-gun first rate ship of the line that served as the flagship of Vice-Admiral Viscount Nelson at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805. It is still extant at Portsmouth Royal Dockyard, although not afloat. I believe that it has been kept in commission, like USS Constitution (which is still afloat and able to proceed under sail), precluding any other British navy ship being named Victory. Colledge mentions the following other vessles named Victory since 1805:

• A 76-ton dockyard tug, C.210, 1904-34

• A trawler hired for harbor service, 1915-17

• A hired antisubmarine trawler with one 4-inch gun, 1939-45

Organizations besides the Royal Navy, including the merchant marine, could name vessels Victory.

[jon_ystrad]

I had a good look but could not find anything. Can you post his obituary in full?

Regards
Jon