CELEBRATIONS to mark the bicentenary of Lord Horatio Nelson's victory at Trafalgar will be the biggest since the Queen's Golden Jubilee despite financial worries.

Greenwich's National Maritime Museum is working flat out to make the celebrations in 2005 the most memorable in recent maritime history, despite a Government funding crisis.

Royal Navy plans for much of its fleet to be in Britain are being blocked by the Government due to a budget crisis in armed defence and fear vessels will need to stay deployed in the Gulf.

A Ministry of Defence spokesman said: "The navy does not have as many vessels as it did 100 years ago, so there are less vessels to be able to deploy."

At least one of clipper Cutty Sark's three clinkers, used to transport passengers from the ship to land, will join a flotilla of boats which will sail up the Thames in a reconstruction of Nelson's funeral.

Operations manager of the Cutty Sark Trust Julia Parker said: "There are an awful lot of exciting ideas floating about. It is early days yet but we can guarantee it is going to be a really major celebration."

The National Maritime Museum has launched a project called Sea Britain 2005.

An exhibition of Nelson and Napoleon memoribilia will be on show throughout the year.

Currently on show in the Nelson Gallery at the museum is the uniform worn by the admiral when he was shot by a French marksman, his pigtail, bloodied stockings and Turner's Battle of Trafalgar portrait.

In a tribute to Britain's maritime heritage, 2005 has been named Year of the Sea by the Government.

The Battle of Trafalgar is widely recognised as the Royal Navy's greatest victory, which Nelson sacrificed his life to secure.