The Royal Navy has a proud tradition as 'The Senior Service' dating back as an organised force - according to some historians - to Alfred the Great. In 1509, the newly-crowned King Henry VIII ordered a rearmament of the fleet and in this era great ships of 600 tonnes and more were built including the 'Mary Rose'. By the 17th century, King Charles I's major progamme of warship building the Royal Navy had expanded further to become the most powerful in the world.
These eight stamps celebrate key Royal Navy vessels from the past 500 years, from Henry VIII's 'Mary Rose' to HMS Queen Elizabeth launched in 2014. The four pairs of stamps - 1st class NVI; £1.35; £1.55 and £1.60 feature fine paintings of the ships featured.
The Gold 500 cover features HMS Dreadnought, launched in 1906, it revolutionized naval warfare and prompted a naval race between Great Britain and Germany in the years leading to the outbreak of war in 1914. The cover has a photograph of HMS Dreadnought framed by a magnificent 22ct gold-blocked design and carries a pictorial Greenwich compass handstamp for the location of the National Maritime Museum. Numbered Limited Edition of 500.
