HMS Victory is launched at Chatham Dockyard, Kent. She is not commissioned until 1778.

HMS Victory is a 104-gun first-rate wooden sailing ship of the line. With 247 years of service as of 2025, she is the world's oldest naval vessel still in commission. She was ordered for the Royal Navy in 1758, during the Seven Years' War and laid down in 1759. That year saw British victories at Quebec, Minden, Lagos and Quiberon Bay and these may have influenced the choice of name when it was selected in October the following year. In particular, the action in Quiberon Bay had a profound effect on the course of the war; severely weakening the French Navy and shifting its focus away from the sea. There was therefore no urgency to complete the ship and the signing of the Treaty of Paris in February 1763 meant that when Victory was finally floated out in 1765, she was placed in ordinary. Her construction had taken 6,000 trees, 90% of them oak.

Chatham Dockyard was a Royal Navy Dockyard located on the River Medway in Kent. Established in Chatham in the mid-16th century, the dockyard subsequently expanded into neighbouring Gillingham; at its most extensive two-thirds of the dockyard lay in Gillingham, one-third in Chatham.

May 7 is the 127th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar; 238 days remain until the end of the year.