HMS Excellent is a Royal Navy "stone frigate" (shore establishment) sited on Whale Island near Portsmouth in Hampshire.

[1] In the 1829 a Commander George Smith advocated the establishment of a Naval School of Gunnery; accordingly, the following year, the third-rate HMS Excellent was converted into a training ship and moored just north of Portsmouth Dockyard, opposite Fareham Creek.

In 1832 Smith was replaced in command by Captain Thomas Hastings, under whom the school grew both numerically and in reputation, as trained gunners began to prove their effectiveness in combat situations.

By this time, a rifle range had been established on the island for the use of HMS Excellent and the first building appeared there, the land having been somewhat drained and levelled.

(Later in his career Scott was again posted to HMS Excellent on two occasions, returning first as Commander in 1890 and then as Captain of the establishment in the early 1900s.

[7] Building work then continued alongside the tasks of draining and levelling the land (the site was known colloquially as 'Mud Island').

Centred on a large open drill ground, the site includes the officers' mess in a range to the north with rows of barracks blocks for ratings (demolished and rebuilt c. 2010) arrayed behind.

When the horses of the Royal Artillery intended to pull the gun carriage that bore her coffin from Windsor railway station became unmanageable, the sailors took their place, for which King Edward VII conferred the Victoria medal upon them on 16 March 1901 at Portsmouth, at the commencement of a world tour by the Duke and Duchess of Cornwall and York.