HMS Victory gets a trim

The HMS Victory, drydocked in Portsmouth, England, is starting to fall apart under its own weight. In order to preserve it, curators are removing the vast amount of spars and rigging using a crane. I can only imagine what it would have been like to put up and take down masts and rigging on a ship like this, before mechanized cranes became available. (via http://www.oldsaltblog.com/)