The weight would be too great to bear and so they have had to reduce the weight and replace timbers rotten from years of neglect

Jonathan Bowman

Jonathon Bowman, managing director of Victory Ltd, said a table and eight dining chairs could fetch as much as �15,000.

"The timbers were stripped out over the last eight years in the refurbishment programme.

"She is now sitting in concrete in a dry dock. The weight would be too great to bear and so they have had to reduce the weight and replace timbers rotten from years of neglect."

He said the wood is being made into limited edition pieces by "leading British craftspeople".

Items would range from the �15,000 dining suite to more affordably-priced mementoes like candlesticks and pepper pots.

Rotting hulk

HMS Victory is the oldest commissioned warship in the world, and is still manned by Officers and Ratings of the Royal Navy.

She was launched on 7 May 1765 at Chatham Dockyard in Kent and took part in many famous battles before Trafalgar.

By 1920, HMS Victory had become a 'hulk' moored in Portsmouth Harbour. Many of her timbers were rotting and a great deal of restoration needed to be done.

The money raised by the sale of timbers will go towards the bicentennial celebrations of the Battle of Trafalgar on 21 October 2005.