A MORWELLHAM Quay boatbuilding firm has won an unusual order that Admiral Horatio Nelson would himself be proud to sail in.

Will Stirling from Tavistock runs the wooden shipbuilding and repair firm Stirling and Son, who operate the docks and slipway at Morwellham Quay.

His yard has been awarded a Ministry of Defence contract to build a new 25 foot yawl for HMS Victory, the world's oldest surviving warship, from which Nelson led the British fleet into the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805 and on whose the deck the Admiral died from a musket ball, having first learned of his victory over the combined French and Spanish fleets.

Will's connections to Britain's maritime past are also ancestral. He is able to trace back a family link to Admiral Lord Nelson, Britain's greatest naval hero, whom he describes as a 'very great uncle'.

Will's great great grandfather, Admiral Sir Robert Barlow became connected to the Nelson family when his daughter Hilare married William Nelson, the famous naval commander Horatio's younger brother.

The connection has been carried through the eldest son of the family ever since and Will, as William Nelson Charles Stirling, still recognises the connection — his one year old son is called Alfred Nelson Barlow Stirling.

The yawl was built from a plan of 1793 held at the Greenwich National Maritime Museum.

Will has an MA degree in maritime history from Exeter University and specialised in the design and construction of wooden vessels between 1770 and 1850.

The specification for the yawl was taken by Will from a naval architecture book dating from 1805. It is built of full length larch planking on an oak frame with copper fastenings throughout.

The yawl took four months to complete, and will form part of the Portsmouth-based warship's complement of boats. It is currently on display at Morwellham Quay and due to be collected during October.

Peter Goodwin, keeper and curator HMS Victory and a recognised published authority on shipbuilding and the Navy of this period, said a yawl was mentioned in the 'Boatswains and Carpenters Expense Books' for HMS Victory, which provided an account of all materials used on repairs and maintenance between August and November 1805.

He described how, like a cutter, a ship's yawl would have been used for 'ferrying crew and officers between ships, surveying and mapping, landing shore parties, for amphibious attack, attacking and capturing ships at anchor, conveying stores and pulling the ship when becalmed'.

Last year, Will launched a replica of a 15 ton 1835 smuggling lugger, Alert.

Alert was designed and built with complete reference to contemporary plans. After an excursion around Plymouth Breakwater she sailed to North East Iceland and back to her berth at Morwellham.

Stirling and Son also build traditional wooden dinghies and have recently rebuilt one of the few remaining Tamar salmon skiffs.

The 100 ton West Country ketch Garlandstone, owned by Morwellham, is maintained by the company on a two day a week basis and was on the slipway last winter.

She is now back in the Great Dock and open to the public.