Trafalgar Bicennial Package

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Trafalgar Bicennial Package

[Many, many articles. The first gives the French perspective. We hear
from the Scots on their contribution and also how ignorant the Scots
are of the event. We hear from the Welsh, the Irish, the Maltese, the
Russians. And postage stamps from St. Helena and a new beer. We hear
from the Socialist Workers in the U.K., and about the role of blacks
and prostitutes as well as about Lord Nelson's mistress.

[I'll be listening to Haydn's Mass 11 (Old No. 9) in d. Though Haydn
did not die until 1809, the Lord Nelson Mass (Missa in angustiis,
"Mass in Time of Fear") was composed in 1798. Not intended for Lord
Nelson specifically, Nelson had cornered the Napoleonic fleet in
Abukar on August 1 and prevented the French conquest of Egypt. The
mass was completed on August 31 and first performed on September 15.
Haydn was unlikely to have known of Lord Nelson's victory, as the
courier with the news had raced across the Papal States to deliver it
on the very day of the first performance. It was dubbed "Missa in
angustiis" from the start, and Haydn gave the Nelson reference later
in his own catalog.

[All this from the notes by H.C. Robbins Landon on the early stereo
English Decca recording, ZRG 5235. He states that the work is
"arguably Haydn's greatest single composition. Only a single side was
recorded on 78s. I count four mono LPs, though there may have been
more. This appears to be the first stereo recording. It is conducted
by David Willcocks and employs the Choir of King's College, Cambridge,
and the London Symphony Orchestra. It features Sylvia Stakman,
soprano; Helen Watts, contralto; Wilfred Brown, tenor; and Tom Krause,
baritone. I do not collect Haydn vocal recordings, but the performance
is most definitely a worthy one.]

Entente Not So Cordiale
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/21/opinion/21wheatcroft.html
Op-Ed Contributor
By GEOFFREY WHEATCROFT
Monticello, Corsica

HOW to celebrate a victory among the vanquished? Today is an heroic
date in my country's history, the 200th anniversary of the Battle of
Trafalgar, when the Royal Navy destroyed the French and Spanish fleets
off Spain, and then, in the moment of supreme victory, Horatio Nelson
fell mortally wounded, the greatest of English admirals dying at the
greatest of English victories.

But I am not in England. I am in France, where Trafalgar Day most
decidedly is not being celebrated, and where, as I have learned, it is
still a sore subject.

Not that this is surprising. Any current animosity between France and
the United States is nothing compared with the ancient fraught
relationship between France and England, from the Hundred Years' War
to Napoleon.

Even now, French politicians wince when they reach London by way of
Waterloo station and look up Whitehall on their way to Downing Street
toward Trafalgar Square, with Lord Nelson atop his vast column.

Last year was the centenary of the Entente Cordiale, the somewhat
decorative agreement of 1904 between London and Paris, but the time
since has not seen the most cordial of Anglo-French relations. Iraq
has driven a wedge between the two countries, and President Jacques
Chirac quite lost his temper with Prime Minister Tony Blair when Mr.
Blair last raised the question of farm subsidies.

Anyone can learn about these difficulties on a personal level. When I
say I am in France, I am to be exact in northwestern Corsica:
Monticello is a hill village overlooking the sea not far from Calvi,
where my family and I come on holidays.

We have many friends in this place, and in the Pasturella, Jo-Jo
Martini's hotel-cafe here, there's a bantering spirit you could almost
call égalité and fraternité. On Sunday night we all grumbled as
Ajaccio was unjustly beaten by Lyon, though at least Ajaccio is still
in the French first division, unlike the other Corsican soccer club,
Bastia, which was demoted last season.

Even these names all echo distant Anglo-French rivalry. Ajaccio is the
birthplace of Napoleon Bonaparte (as you are rather often reminded
there), Bastia was taken in the siege of 1794 by Nelson himself,
shortly before he lost his eye in the attack on Calvi. As every
schoolboy - rather than lycéen - ought to know, this was the eye to
which, at the later Battle of Copenhagen, in 1801, Nelson held his
telescope so that he could not read an inconvenient signal.

He himself is far from hated on this island - "un bon mec," one of my
friends in the cafe says, a good guy - but that's because of local
history. In that 1794 operation, the British were supporting the
Corsican patriots led by Pasquale Paoli, whose luster still reflects
on Nelson among a later generation of Corsicans who'd like to break
away from France.

But Trafalgar is another matter. When I gently or jocosely raise the
subject, the reaction is either unprintable, or the conversation is
switched darkly into the local patois, or, from one acquaintance,
there comes a sarcastic allusion to the "great English naval
victories" from Trafalgar to Mers el-Kebir in the summer of 1940, when
Winston Churchill, with supreme ruthlessness, ordered the Royal Navy
to sink the fleet of the French, his allies only weeks earlier. All in
all, I doubt whether we shall be bandying historical reminiscences at
the cafe today.

Although all of that might have a ring of English arrogance, there is
another side to it. Plenty of Englishmen over the years have suffered
from what the Bloomsbury gang called French flu, an infection of
morbid Francophilia, a feeling that they ordered these things
artistically and intellectually better in France. But today it is
France that is passing through a crisis of confidence, culturally as
well as politically. Rather than Bloomsberries with French flu you are
now more likely to find French people admiring the vibrancy of
English-language literary culture.

There is something almost touching about Prime Minister Dominique de
Villepin's hero-worship of Napoleon, but plenty of Frenchmen find it
absurd. And while Mr. Chirac still insists on the superior virtue of
the French "social model" of high taxes and all-embracing welfare, an
answer comes from Nicolas Sarkozy, the capable and remarkably
ambitious politician who was Mr. Chirac's protégé and is now his
rival: the so-called social model is scarcely social if it means more
than 10 percent unemployment, and it isn't a model at all since no one
else wants to emulate it.

As to sports, for all that Lille held Manchester United to a tedious
goalless tie on Tuesday, few people think that a French team will win
the European club competition, while even fewer that les Bleus will
repeat their great victory in the 1998 soccer World Cup. And although
Lance Armstrong has departed, with some nasty kicks as he went, no one
thinks that a French rider will win the Tour de France in the
foreseeable future.

Plenty of Mr. Blair's own compatriots think that he was wrong and Mr.
Chirac was right about Iraq, and yet Mr. Blair has clearly
outmaneuvered the Frenchman in their latest jousts.

Sometimes, indeed, and for his vaunted attachment to the "European
idea," Mr. Blair seems to echo Nelson's great contemporary the Duke of
Wellington, who said (in a line I donate to the Bush White House), "We
are, we always have been, and I trust we always shall be, detested in
France."

Not my own view; and yet I know from experience that this on-and-off
friendship will always be awkward, not least because of long memories.
Why, in 10 years it will be time to celebrate the 200th anniversary of
Waterloo, as well as the 600th of the British victory at Agincourt.
And by "we," hélas, mes amis, I'm afraid I don't mean nous.

Geoffrey Wheatcroft is the author of "Le Tour: A History of the Tour
de France" and, most recently, "The Strange Death of Tory England."

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-1835362,00.html
The Times October 21, 2005

Victory's tarts with hearts toasted with Trafalgar rum
By Michael Evans, Defence Editor

THE role of three prostitutes who nursed casualties in HMS Victory at
the Battle of Trafalgar is being commemorated with a special rum as
part of the anniversary celebrations.

The Royal Society of Chemistry commissioned the rum to acknowledge the
part the three women played in treating sailors who were badly injured
during Nelson's finest victory in 1805. The society is aiming to
highlight the contribution that chemistry has made to the development
of medicines in the 200 years since the battle.

Inspiration for the project was a peripheral scene in the epic
painting, The Death of Nelson, by George Maclise, in the Walker Art
Gallery, Liverpool, in which three women are shown tending a sailor
slumped in the background while Nelson lies dying in the foreground.

Dr Simon Campbell, president of the society, said: "In this Trafalgar
month we are making a long overdue gesture to those brave women. We
might never know who they were -- although perhaps the artist knew --
but their ministrations to the wounded and dying should be recalled
with admiration.

"This also gives us an opportunity to reflect on the massive advances
that chemistry has allowed in the treatment of injuries and in
speeding recovery."

The first bottle of the limited edition Trafalgar Women rum was
uncorked outside the Lord Nelson pub in the Isle of Dogs, London,
yesterday.

As for Admiral Lord Nelson, he will be saluted in the Great Cabin on
board his flagship tonight in the presence of the Queen, 200 years to
the day after Trafalgar.

The grand dinner for 24 people, the most that can fit in the cabin
will be a strictly naval affair, with no government ministers present.
The Queen, who has the title of Lord High Admiral, approved the guest
list.

There will be six admirals of the fleet, headed by the Duke of
Edinburgh. Others include Sir Henry Leach, the former First Sea Lord
who convinced Margaret Thatcher in 1982 that a Royal Navy task force
could be dispatched to the Falkland Islands. Admiral Sir Alan West,
the present First Sea Lord, will host the dinner.

It is seen as the greatest honour for the Royal Navy: the Queen has
never dined in the Great Cabin on Trafalgar night. The guests, who
include Lieutenant Commander Patricia Kohn, one of the most junior
commanding officers in the Navy, will be served smoked salmon, Norfolk
beef and chocolate soufflé. The wines will include a vintage 1963 port
and a Pellegrino "Victory" Marsala, the fortified wine from Sicily
popularised by Nelson.

Admiral West, who retires in February after three years as First Sea
Lord, said that the celebrations to mark the 200th anniversary had
"gripped the whole nation". He said that to the British the sea was
"like the Wild West" to the Americans, and Nelson had been the
greatest seafaring hero.

Before going to the dinner in HMS Victory, the Queen will light a
national beacon in Ports- mouth harbour, and the lighting of a
thousand beacons around the country will follow.

200 years since Nelson did his duty
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/10/21/nelson21.xml&sSheet=/news/2005/10/21/ixhome.html
200 years since Nelson did his duty
By John Keegan
(Filed: 21/10/2005)

October 21, Trafalgar Day, used to be marked by the hoisting on
Nelson's column in London of Nelson's Trafalgar signal - England
expects that every man will do his duty.

It made a brave display, the coloured bunting flapping against the
grey stone column at Nelson's feet, and it was popular with Londoners,
but it isn't to modern tastes.

Curiously, the signal nearly didn't appear. Nelson's first version was
that "Nelson confides" but his flag lieutenant pointed out that those
words were not in the code book and would have to be spelled out
letter by letter, so he changed his mind. The signal provoked grumbles
in the fleet from old salts who mumbled that they had always done
their duty. Nelson, however, was on tenterhooks. He had been planning
the encounter with the French - with whom the Spanish had recently
become allied - for months. He was determined to win and to destroy
the combined fleet in the process.

Only by a complete victory could he make England safe from Napoleon,
who had filled every estuary and port on the Channel coast with
invasion barges to carry his army, camped on the cliffs outside
Boulogne, to England.

Little as he knew of naval warfare, Napoleon did recognise that he
could not risk the Grand Army at sea while the Royal Navy was still
intact and near at hand.

He had therefore charged his admiral Villeneuve to draw off the
British squadrons which blockaded his fleet in its harbours. He
rightly doubted that he could successfully challenge the British to
action. The unfortunate Villeneuve found himself caught between two
fires, the raging impatience of the Emperor and the massed guns of the
Royal Navy.

He sought a middle way out. On March 30 he sailed from Toulon for the
West Indies, hoping to draw the British Mediterranean fleet behind
him, lose it somewhere across the Atlantic and get back into European
waters, free to mount an offensive against whatever British ship
remained to menace the invasion barges.

Villeneuve got to the West Indies but on arrival found Nelson attached
as firmly to his tail as if he had been dragged behind. He could not
break the attachment when he turned for home. Arriving in Spanish
waters in August, he found Nelson still up with him, where he remained
as summer turned to autumn. Villeneuve also found carping letters from
Napoleon, accusing him of fearing to fight.

In the end Villeneuve decided to fight, but wrote to the French navy
minister that he did not know what to do. Nelson knew exactly what to
do. He had worked out a method of fighting a large scale naval battle
and now fretted to put it into effect.

On leave at Merton, in what today is south London, he had his captains
down to be instructed in the new tactics. He would brief them again
when he saw them the day before the battle off Cadiz near Gibraltar.

Nelson's plan was to solve the problem of sailing down on the enemy
with the wind, which always left the opponent with the option of
sailing off when defeat threatened. Nelson now planned not to lay his
fleet alongside the enemy on the windward side but to sail through the
enemy line and lay alongside to leeward, thus putting the enemy
between their opponents and the wind and trapping them so that they
could be beaten down by the gunnery.

By the morning of Oct 21, his captains knew exactly what they had to
do. They were assured of victory, as long as the Combined Fleet left
port to accept battle. Villeneuve decided to do so, though with a
heavy heart; he feared defeat but he feared even more Napoleon's
disfavour if he did not fight.

The morning of Oct 21 1805 was calm with light winds scarcely strong
enough to move the two columns of Nelson's fleet at more than walking
pace. Nelson led the left-hand column, Admiral Collingwood the
right-hand. Their ships were severely punished in the approach,
Victory's foresails today on display at Portsmouth show 100 shot
holes. The two columns bore on inexorably however and once through the
enemy line turned to cut off its retreat. The gunnery battle then
began in earnest.

British gunnery was greatly superior to the enemy's and, as the
British succeeded in surrounding several clusters of French ships, the
execution done was frightful. Victory was joined by several ships
around the French Redoubtable, commanded by the tiny captain Lucas,
less than five feet tall.

Lucas however was a fire eater and had crowded his tops with
musketeers. It was one of these men firing down on to Victory's
quarterdeck who shot Nelson. The bullet lodged in his spine and though
the admiral survived long enough to learn that the Combined Fleet was
beaten, died before the end of the battle.

The calm of the morning was succeeded by a violent storm, which drove
many of the surviving enemy ships ashore, with terrible loss of life -
8,500 dead and wounded out of 50,000 present.

Only 16 of the 28 enemy ships survived. None of the 23 British ships
was lost. Victory of course survives to this day. And if Britain has
such a thing as a national shrine she is it.

At Trafalgar under Nelson's command, she and her sisters assured that
Britain would not be invaded and that Napoleon would have to look
elsewhere for a victory.

He kept on trying until 1815 when, at Waterloo, he was defeated on his
own element, on land.

18 October 2005: Navy expects the public to fly the flag for Nelson
17 September 2005: Two centuries on, Nelson's spirit sails again
10 September 2005: Read all about it: Nelson's great victory at
Trafalgar

Related links

Tom Utley: We need another Nelson
How the news was brought to Britain
Celebrations sail to spectacular end
External links
Nelson - National Maritime Museum
Royal Naval Museum
Trafalgar Festival - SeaBritain 2005

[Click the URL to get these.]

Meanwhile: When Britannia ruled the waves
http://www.iht.com/bin/print_ipub.php?file=/articles/2005/10/19/opinion/edbeam.php

International Herald Tribune
Meanwhile: When Britannia ruled the waves
By Alex Beam The Boston Globe
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 19, 2005

BOSTON Friday marks the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Trafalgar,
when Lord Horatio Nelson whipped the bloody bejesus out of the
combined French and Spanish fleets off Gibraltar. It was perhaps
England's finest hour. In one of history's most famous rallying cries,
the one-eyed, one-armed Nelson informed his sailors that England
expected "every man to do his duty," and for the most part they did.

Cool Britannia has turned the anniversary into a year-long orgy of
nostalgia. Understandably so. Once Nelson expired in a pool of his own
blood after the battle, it was pretty much downhill from there.

Here is a nation that ruled and, yes, civilized, much of the known
world for centuries that is now best known for 1) domiciling a
transoceanic airline that offers in-flight massages (Virgin Atlantic)
and 2) a monarch-in-waiting who talks to his plants (Charles).

Charles and his relatives will be much in evidence this coming
weekend. The Queen, her consort and the surviving First Sea Lords of
her reign will dine onboard Nelson's flagship Victory on Friday, and
then start a chain of ceremonial beacon-lightings throughout the
country. Charles will light a beacon closer to his beloved hunting
preserve in Balmoral, Scotland. Princess Anne will be in Wales, and so
on.

Trafalgar mania kicked off in June with a bizarre reenactment of the
battle near Portsmouth. One hundred and sixty-seven ships from 36
countries participated, in part, it was noted, because the British
Navy is now one-fifteenth the size it was in Nelson's time.

Demonstrating that history has a sense of humor, the largest ship in
the reenactment was a French aircraft carrier named for an Anglophobe,
the Charles de Gaulle. The rival navies were divided into "red" and
"blue" teams, to avoid offending Britain's Spanish and French allies.

You can watch video of the reenactment on the British Broadcasting
Corporation's website, bbc.com. I also enjoyed the website's "Battle
of Trafalgar" game, which allows you to sail two columns of tiny,
digital lozenges - Nelson's fleet - through the serried ranks of the
French and Spanish boats.

Authors have naturally capitalized on the bicentenary to hack out
commemorative volumes. There are new biographies of Nelson and Vice
Admiral Cuthbert Collingwood, his right-hand man, as it were. Adam
Nicolson's much-praised "Seize the Fire: Heroism, Duty, and the Battle
of Trafalgar" prompted reviewer Christopher Hitchens to speculate that
French Admiral Pierre-Charles Villeneuve "wanted to lose" the epic
confrontation. If so, it was one of the few things he did right that
day.

Another well-received book, Roy Adkins's "Nelson's Trafalgar: The
Battle That Changed the World," points out that while England expected
every man to do his duty, it didn't much care about the women.

Many women dwelt in the "wooden world,"' as the Royal Navy has been
called, but when it came time to hand out general service medals to
Trafalgar survivors in 1847, women were excluded. How very
unsurprising.

This Friday, writes Andrew Roberts in The New Criterion, "there will
hardly be a sober breath drawn by any Briton who has any patriotism in
his soul." Bottoms up, my friends! Only nine years and eight months
until the Waterloo bicentennial!

(Alex Beam is a columnist for The Boston Globe, where this article
first appeared.)

Going into battle for Nelson
http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/going-into-battle-for-nelson/2005/10/19/1129401317143.html
Welcome to Sydney Morning Herald Online.

October 20, 2005

There are good reasons to celebrate a famous foreign victory tomorrow,
writes John Huxley.

It took almost six months for news to reach Sydney of Lord Nelson's
victory over combined French and Spanish fleets at Trafalgar. When it
did come, brought by a ship that had fortuitously received the
intelligence shortly before rounding the Cape of Good Hope, the city's
church bells rang out in celebration.

Two hundred years on, the bells will be heard again as Sydney
commemorates the bicentenary of the day-long sea battle fought off the
south-west coast of Spain on October 21, 1805. At 6pm tomorrow, the St
Mary's Basilica Society of Change Ringers, based at the cathedral
overlooking Hyde Park, and other local churches will join a
co-ordinated international ring.

"This time, because of our geography, we'll be slightly ahead of the
UK," explained Elizabeth Hill of the St Mary's society, which will be
ringing a challenging method involving 12 bells called Bristol
Maximus.

Elsewhere over the next few days, press gangs dressed in period
costume will roam The Rocks waylaying recruits for His Majesty's Navy.
Mugs of rum and pints of special-brew "Broadside" beer will be sunk at
the Lord Nelson, the city's longest-serving pub.

The National Maritime Museum will host a weekend of celebrations.
There will also be dinners, debates and exhibitions.

What? Australians celebrate another English victory, especially one
that occurred two centuries ago on the other side of the world?

Well, yes, says the historian Peter Poland, who explains that the
battle is a significant landmark in the colony's history. "Trafalgar
gave Britain command of the seas for a century and put to an end the
possibility of any other country making a settlement or taking control
in Australia," Poland says. "It's also such a wonderful story of
courage, romance and, of course, heroism."

Christopher Deans is the great, great grandson of Thomas Masterman
Hardy, captain of HMS Victory, who was with Nelson shortly before the
admiral died after being hit by a stray bullet.

Ever since, historians have argued over whether the dying Nelson said
"kiss me, Hardy", or "kismet, Hardy". (Kismet means "fate" or "lot".)
Deans, of Rushcutters Bay, favours the former, but says "the debate
will go on forever".

Such is the enduring fame of a man whose exploits entered the English
language in phrases such as "the Nelson touch" and "turning a blind
eye", to which the admiral placed his telescope to avoid seeing a
signal he wished to ignore at the Battle of Copenhagen.

As Lindsey Shaw, senior curator at the maritime museum, explains,
Nelson was a vain, irritable and intelligent self-promoter, "openly
human and flawed". But he was forgiven his personality and his
all-too-public adulterous liaison with Lady Hamilton by a navy and a
nation that loved him for his aggressive seamanship, his success and
his lifelong devotion to king, country and God.

"Nelson was a great hero. In the whole span of British history he
still stands as one of the greatest. The legend reminds us of the
great value of heroic leadership when a nation falls under fire and
stress," says Mary-Louise Williams, director of the museum.

Tomorrow, the museum is holding a black-tie dinner. On Saturday, it is
holding a lunch and screening films about the man and his last battle
and on Sunday it will host a day-long seminar and stage a day of
harbourside activities.

The museum also has on display two cabinets of "Nelsonia", ranging
from a walking stick made of timber from HMS Victory to a fridge
magnet featuring Lady Hamilton.

Nearby, the Lord Nelson Hotel, which opened in 1841, has a week-long
program of events, featuring re-enactors dressed as sailors from
Nelson's ship and musicians.

"There'll be some fun and frivolity," promises the owner, Blair
Hayden, who admits the anniversary is a "bit of a godsend" for the
pokie-free, English-style pub. "And some serious history."

Some of it will be provided by Stephen Gapps, a historian and
re-enactor who has "fought" in battles from Hastings to Vinegar Hill,
in western Sydney, in civil wars from England to America.

This year, Gapps also participated in the re-enactment of the Battle
of Trafalgar in the English Channel off Portsmouth, serving on one of
167 naval, merchant and tall ships from 36 countries. "I hope over the
next few days we can convey something of that experience."

Peter Poland, who recently returned to his home town of Portsmouth to
re-enact Nelson's last walk (with, among others, the public servant
George Rose - after whom Rose Bay and Rose Hill were named), had hoped
to fly Nelson's famous signal "England expects every man will do his
duty" from the flagstaff at the South Head signal station.

Sadly, he and fellow members of the Woollahra History and Heritage
Society found that only 16 of the 31 flags needed were still in use.
While the Royal Australian Navy was prepared to lend these, the cost
of making the remaining 15 was too great.

Independent Online Edition > This Britain : app3
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/this_britain/article320576.ece
The black heroes of Trafalgar

The seamen who did their duty for Nelson and England 200 years ago came from
many nations and races, and included black men from the West Indies, says
Colin Brown

Published: 19 October 2005

They were brutally disciplined, under-nourished and the envy of
Europe.

This week, 200 years after their historic battle, Admiral Horatio
Nelson and his heroic crews will be celebrated across the country for
pulling off England's most significant naval victory.

Inspired by Nelson's famous last order to the fleet that "England
expects that every man will do his duty," the men were true to their
leader's word.

A few hours later, Nelson lay dying on the deck of his flagship, the
Victory, knowing that the defeat of the combined French and the
Spanish fleet was within his grasp.

England had been spared the invasion by Napoleon's French army.
However, the great victory at Cape Trafalgar off the west coast of
Spain was owed in large part to a forgotten foreign legion of sailors.
More than a third of the crew of the Victory were drawn from outside
England, including the West Indies, Africa, France and Spain.

The crews on board the English fleet were renowned for their
toughness. Public floggings were frequent, there was a lack of
drinking water, food was in short supply and scurvy was common. They
were also the best-drilled and most disciplined force on the seas.

Many of the foreigners on board may have been press-ganged, the hated
system of recruitment that was still rife in the Royal Navy, which was
always short of sailors to man the so-called "wooden walls" of
England.

Little is known about the foreigners who made up nearly a third of
Nelson's flagship, and the many more who served on the other men of
war in Nelson's fleet that day.

Malcolm Godfrey, 50, a retired naval officer, who has researched the
black sailors who served alongside England's most famous naval hero,
said some may have been recruited while Nelson's fleet chased the
French fleet in the Caribbean.

"The problem is that the records at the time show the country where
they joined ship, but not their ethnicity," said Mr Godfrey, who runs
an event company in Greenwich, home of the National Maritime Museum
and the former RN College, now a university, where Nelson's body was
taken before his state funeral.

"In the run-up to the battle of Trafalgar," said Mr Godfrey, "they
chased the French fleet to the Caribbean. The Navy brought in people
from the Caribbean because they were used to the climate. They could
have pressed men as they pursued the French.

"They also released men from slavery and they were freed to join the
Navy. A lot of those listed on board as Americans could possibly have
been black slaves who were freed.''

The black sailors were such an integral part of the Royal Navy that a
black figure is given a key role in the painting of the death of
Nelson by Daniel Maclise which is in the Walker Art Gallery,
Liverpool, with a copy on the wall of the Royal Gallery in the House
of Lords. The sailor, flanked by two redcoats, is pictured in the
centre of the canvas, standing over the dying Nelson, and he is
pointing up at the rigging, probably at the sniper who fired the fatal
ball that had penetrated Lord Nelson's spine.

An almost identical black figure was also carved later on the plinth
on the south side of Nelson's Column in Trafalgar Square. The man is
unidentified, but may be one of the nine West Indians who were listed
on board the Victory at the battle. They include Jonathan Hardy, 25,
an ordinary seaman, John Thomas, 23, a Jamaican landsman, or John
Francois, 32, an ordinary seaman. George Ryan, 24, also was listed as
"African''.

Pieter Van der Merwe, of the National Maritime Museum at Greenwich,
said there was "little evidence" that the blacks in the Royal Navy in
Nelson's day suffered "institutional discrimination". However, he
pointed out that it was rare for blacks to be promoted beyond able
seaman, and being made a commissioned officer was almost unheard of,
although a mixed race "mulatto" rose to become an RN Captain in the
West Indies, where he served out his naval career.

The number of foreign nationals in the crew of the Victory was
"unremarkable at the time given the international nature of the
seafaring population,'' he added.

Colin White, director of Trafalgar 200 and curator of Nelson and
Napoleon at the National Maritime Museum, said: "There were certainly
'men of colour' on the British side at Trafalgar. There were, for
example, West Indians and an African on board the Victory, as well as
Indians."

Nelson's Navy may now be seen as being as English as boiled beef, but
the Victory muster book listed only 441 English on board on the
morning of the battle. The remainder were a seafaring United Nations:
64 Scots, 63 Irish, 18 Welsh, 3 Shetlanders, 2 Channel Islanders, one
Manxman, 21 Americans, 7 Dutch, 6 Swedes, 4 Italians, 4 Maltese, 3
Norwegians, 3 Germans, 2 Swiss, 2 Portuguese, 2 Danes, 2 Indians, 1
Russian, 1 Brazilian, 1 African, 9 West Indians, and three French
volunteers.

On the morning of 21 October 1805, the crew were eager to get on with
the job for which they were trained, as one English eyewitness
records: "As the day dawned the horizon appeared covered with ships.
The whole force of the enemy was discovered standing to the southward,
distant about nine miles, between us and the coast near Trafalgar. I
was awakened by the cheers of the crew and by their rushing up the
hatchways to get a glimpse of the hostile fleet."

However, there would also have been many foreign languages mixed with
the English as the crew caught their first sight of the French and
Spanish ships.

Records show that among the foreign nationals on board the Victory at
the last muster were three Frenchmen, who were volunteers, but were
fighting against their own countrymen.

One of the Frenchmen, John Rawlins, aged 25, was officially listed as
a landsman, which meant he had no previous seafaring experience when
he was taken on board. John Dupuis, aged 32, a second French sailor on
board the Victory, was officially listed as an ordinary seaman. John
Packet, 47, the third Frenchman, was recorded as an able seaman, which
suggested that he had served at sea for some time.

Many more sailors were listed with unknown origins but could have been
drafted into the crew from abroad. They included Charles Sayking, an
ordinary seaman, and Jas Sarr, a supply man, neither of whom have
countries listed after their names. The Americans included John Stair,
27, an able seaman, William Sweat, 21, Charles Thomas, 25, William
Thompson, 30, all ordinary seamen, and a teenager, Richard Bulkeley,
18, a midshipman.

England's flagship crew included Frederick Bush, 24, a German, an
ordinary seaman. The Swedish contingent on board the Victory included
Peter Blumberry, 28, and Peter Which, 24. Hans Yaule, a landsman, came
from Switzerland to fight alongside Nelson. The Italians included
Phillip Thovez, 20, a midshipman, and Filippo Vava, 24, a private in
the red coat of the Royal Marines.

Perhaps the most exotic member of the "foreign legion" was Gaetano
Spedillo, an Italian, who was listed as the "retinue valet" and may
have been responsible for making sure that Lord Nelson was
immaculately turned out that day. If so, he failed to remind his
Lordship to carry his sword on deck. It was left in his cabin.

One of the "Americans" may have been the same William Brown who was
later discovered to be a woman while serving on the Charlotte and was
dismissed from the Navy in 1815 - after serving 11 years at sea and
becoming captain of the foretop.

Women were often allowed to sail with their partners on board ship.
Two women are clearly portrayed on the deck of the Victory in the
paintingThe Death of Nelson. The master gunner of the Victory had his
wife on board.

Many of the foreigners on board could have been pressed against their
wishes, and some played a key role in the battle. A Swiss, Andrew
Sach, 35, was a yeoman of the sheets, and Samuel Spencer, 26, the
master's mate, was from Halifax in Canada.

A Royal Marine, Lt Paul Harris Nicholas, who was on board HMS
Belleisle, recalled: "The determined and resolute countenance of the
weather-beaten sailor, here and there brightened by a smile of
exultation, was well suited to the terrific appearance which they
exhibited. Some were stripped to the waist; some had bared their necks
and arms; others had tied a handkerchief round their heads; and all
seemed eagerly to await the order to engage. My two brother officers
and myself were stationed, with about thirty men at small arms, on the
poop, on the front of which I was now standing. The shot began to pass
over us and gave us an intimation of what we should in a few minutes
undergo. An awful silence prevailed in the ship, only interrupted by
the commanding voice of Captain Hargood, "Steady! Starboard a little!
Steady so!" echoed by the master directing the quartermasters at the
wheel. A shriek soon followed - a cry of agony was produced by the
next shot - and the loss of the head of a poor recruit was the effect
of the succeeding, and as we advanced, destruction rapidly increased."

The crew of the Victory suffered some of the worst casualties of the
fleet at the battle, with 57 of her crew killed or dying of their
wounds a few days later, and a further 102 wounded.

The full list of the muster of the Victory is on the official website
at www.hms-victory.com. An exhibition, Black Sailors in Nelson's Navy,
is currently at the visitor centre of the Old Royal Naval College,
Greenwich.

The Trafalgar Trail, a guide to Nelson and the South-east of England,
by Malcolm Godfrey, is due to be published next month

Five who played key roles in British history

Johnson Beharry

The Grenada-born private became the first living recipient of the
Victoria Cross in 36 years this March after he twice risked his life
to rescue comrades in southern Iraq. Pte Beharry, 25, returned to his
vehicle after it was ambushed in May 2003 to help comrades, and a
month later he manoeuvred his vehicle into cover during a mortar
attack.

William Hall

Able Seaman Hall joined the Royal Navy in 1815, andwas the only black
man aboard his ship when it sailed up the Ganges in 1857 to help quell
the Indian Mutiny. His brigade was charged with trying to capture a
formidable fortress and as the gunners were picked off, Hall dragged
the cannon and reload it alone until the walls were breached. He was
the first black man to be awarded the Victoria Cross.

Mary Seacole

After offering her services as a nurse to the War Office in London
four times and being rebuffed because of her colour, Mary Seacole
funded her own journey to the Crimea in 1855 to tend to wounded
British soldiers and officers. The Jamaica-born clinician spent two
years running her "British Hotel" near Sebastapol, helping troops on
the battlefield.

She returned to Britain destitute but was feted by officers who knew
of her reputation. Seacole faded from public memory after her death,
but last year topped a poll of 100 Great Black Britons.

Walter Tull

After losing both his parents at the age of 11, Waltr Tull's sporting
prowess led him to overcome racial prejudice and become Britain's
second black professional footballer when he joined Tottenham Hotspur
in 1908.He joined the Army in 1914 and became the first black British
officer in 1917 - despiteregulations forbidding it.Lieutenant Tull was
killed during the second battle of the Somme, in 1918. He was
recommended for the military cross.

Ulric Cross

As a 24-year-old in 1941, Ulric Cross sailed from Trinidad to join the
RAF to fight Nazi Germany. He trained as a navigator and excelled to
the extent that he joined the elite Pathfinder squadron of Mosquito
bombers. By the end of the war, he had flown more than 80 bombing
missions, including 21 over Berlin.He later told how his plane once
limped back to Britain after losing an engine. He was awarded the
Distinguished Flying Cross and the Distinguished Service Order before
becoming a lawyer and eminent judge.

Cahal Milmo

icWales - Our iron as well as our guts
http://icwales.icnetwork.co.uk/0100news/features/tm_objectid=16265727&method=full&siteid=50082&headline=our-iron-as-well-as-our-guts-name_page.html

Our iron as well as our guts
Oct 19 2005
Western Mail

Nelson's brilliance and the courage of his sailors at the Battle of
Trafalgar was underpinned by Welsh technology and firepower, writes
Paul Loveluck

WALES had a much greater stake in the Battle of Trafalgar than many
people realise.

Napoleon's defeat at Trafalgar secured Britain from the threat of
invasion and confirmed British Naval supremacy for more than 100
years.

Story continues Continue story

Nelson's courage in leading the British armada is world renowned and
he was voted one of the greatest ever Britons in a 2002 poll.

Less well known, but equally worthy of celebration, was the crucial
role Wales played in the legendary victory.

While Welsh sailors made up less than 5% of Nelson's 15,000-strong
force, it was Wales' pioneering industry that really made the
difference.

In tabloid speak, it was Welsh iron and copper "what won it".

You won't necessarily read about it in mainstream history books but
Nelson's fleet relied on the innovation, technology and raw materials
that had already propelled South Wales to the forefront of the
industrial revolution.

The 27 ships of the British fleet were constructed from Powys oak
which had been acclaimed by the Navy as the best ship building
material around.

But to really score over his French and Spanish enemies, Nelson
ensured his ships were lined with the finest Welsh copper, giving them
improved manoeuvrability and a significant speed advantage.

Large metal plates manufactured in Swansea using copper mined in
Anglesey were used to cover the hulls of the flotilla, and it was
world famous Welsh iron that armed the ships.

When it came to attacking Napoleon's forces, Nelson looked to the
Valleys for assistance. He was determined that his arsenal had to be
the biggest and the best and as far as he was concerned, there was
only one place up to the job.

At the turn of the 19th century, Cyfarthfa ironworks in Merthyr Tydfil
was the biggest in the world and had developed a reputation for
manufacturing guns and naval cannons of the highest quality and
precision.

Three years before the battle, Nelson made a surprise visit to the
town he called "Myrter Tidder" to see for himself the production of
weaponry.

At this point he was already a national hero and a public holiday was
proclaimed.

Unfortunately his visit was marred by the death of a 14-year-old boy
killed by a cannon ball fired in Nelson's honour.

However, a large order for weaponry from the ironworks resulted, which
significantly boosted the local economy.

The visit was part of a wider tour around South Wales during which the
admiral was accompanied by his mistress Lady Emma Hamilton and her
husband Sir William Hamilton, who had estates in Pembrokeshire.

Nelson's reception varied between adulation for his naval prowess and
the scandal caused by his involvement with a married woman.

His faith in the weapons manufactured at Cyfarthfa certainly paid off.

On October 21, 1805, the Royal Navy destroyed an allied French and
Spanish fleet of 33 ships west of Cape Trafalgar in south-west Spain.

France and Spain lost 22 ships, the British none. Nelson died late in
the battle, by which time his victory had confirmed his place as one
of Britain's greatest military war heroes.

Wales' important role in Trafalgar is being commemorated by the
National Waterfront Museum in Swansea, which opened its doors to the
public on Monday. In addition to an exhibition, the museum has
launched a "Nelson in Wales Trail" in the form of a leaflet that
describes his 1802 journey and highlights some of the stops on his
route.

Wales' part in Nelson's flagship victory is a little-known feature of
our rich industrial past, recognised as a key driver for community
regeneration today.

The big and colourful picture of industrial South Wales is a story
worth remembering and one worth telling.

As we remember the courage and tactical genius of one of history's
greatest leaders, we should celebrate the significant contribution
Wales - as the world's first industrial nation - made in giving the
Royal Navy that all-important edge over their continental opponents.

**Paul Loveluck is chair of Herian, Heritage in Action Now, a
partnership set up to celebrate Wales' rich industrial past and
harness its potential for economic and social benefit. He is also
president of the National Museums and Galleries of Wales.
www.herian.org

icWales - The Welsh at Trafalgar
http://icwales.icnetwork.co.uk/0100news/features/tm_objectid=16265693&method=full&siteid=50082&headline=the-welsh-at-trafalgar-name_page.html

Oct 19 2005
Western Mail

This Friday will mark the 200th anniversary of the world's most famous
naval engagement, the Battle of Trafalgar. The Welsh also played their
part in the conflict, Gethin Matthews discovers

ALL it took was 33 ships. On October 21, 1805, those Royal Navy ships,
under the command of the legendary Admiral Horatio Nelson, smashed a
larger French-Spanish fleet off Cape Trafalgar on the Atlantic coast
of Spain.

It scuppered Napoleon's plans to invade Britain, and it was the start
of the chain of events that led to his eventual defeat.

Story continues Continue story

More than 600 of the sailors who fought in the battle were Welsh, or
3.5% of the total in the Royal Navy force - roughly what one would
expect in terms of the population of Wales at that time.

Dr Reg Davies, a medical researcher whose pastime is finding details
about Welsh mariners, has compiled an index of where these sailors
came from and, whenever possible, has traced their subsequent careers
after Trafalgar.

"As you might expect, the coastal Welsh counties with the strongest
maritime traditions provided the lion's share of the sailors," he
explains. "The index contains 116 seamen from Pembrokeshire; 86 from
Glamorgan; and over 50 from each of the counties of Caernarfonshire,
Carmarthenshire and Anglesey."

Some 31 Welshmen served on Nelson's flagship HMS Victory. The most
prominent of these was Lewis Roteley of Swansea, Second Lieutenant of
the Marines. Hard as nails and brave to the point of recklessness,
Lewis took command of the Marines at the height of the battle. His
superior officer had been shot dead by a French sniper at the same
time as Nelson received his fatal wound. Despite being wounded
himself, Lewis led the Marines to the upper deck to fire back at the
snipers in the rigging of the French ship Redoubtable. In 15 minutes
they had cleared the marksmen.

Lewis describes his experiences during the battle in vivid terms -
striving to put into words what it was like to be on the middle deck
of a three-decked battleship in the heat of the battle, the enemy so
close that the Victory's cannon were actually touching the
Redoubtable's sides.

"There was the fire from above, the fire from below, the guns
recoiling with violence, reports louder than thunder, the decks
heaving and the sides straining. I fancied myself in the infernal
regions, where every man appeared a devil."

Many years on, when Lewis Roteley had retired from his military
exploits as a Major, he became a well-known figure in Swansea society,
renowned for his connection with Trafalgar. Remarkably, in the hours
after the battle he had obtained Nelson's blood-stained stockings.
Dinner guests at his home in Swansea would be entertained by being
shown these and other relics of the battle. The Major was furious in
1848 when his tailor clandestinely measured the stockings and made a
duplicate pair, which were exhibited around South Wales as the genuine
relic of Nelson. Lewis Roteley's prized possession is now on display
at the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich.

Lewis's local newspaper, The Cambrian, contains various accounts
throughout the years of the Swansea man's bravery, right up until his
death in 1861. His obituary shows the high regard in which he was held
because of his connection with Trafalgar. However, it's not an easy
task to find obituaries of other Welsh veterans of the battle. The
majority died without having their passing noted in the newspapers,
which were dominated at the time by the interests of the upper
classes.

However, when they can be found, the obituaries demonstrate how
Trafalgar veterans were well-known and respected in their home
communities. This is clear in the obituary of Griffith Owen, published
in the newspaper Baner ac Amserau Cymru in July 1860: Griffith Owen
(alias Griffith Bach), Conwy: the deceased was well-known to many
strangers who visited Conwy. He used to sell fruits, etc, near the
railway station, and he was certain of attracting a visitor's
attention because he had on his cabin a notice that he had served
under the immortal Lord Nelson, in the war that claimed that hero's
life.

Owen's connection with Trafalgar is also commemorated on his
gravestone at St Mary's Church, Conwy, which names his ship as the
Conqueror. Dr Davies's index confirms the details. "There were
actually two Welshmen named Griffith Owen at the Battle of Trafalgar,
but only one on HMS Conqueror, a 24-year-old ordinary seaman, entered
in the muster list as "Griffin Owen". His birthplace is given as
"Hamlock, Wales", which I would suggest is the scribe's way of
recording Amlwch, on the Isle of Anglesey."

Other reminders of the battle can be seen around Wales, such as the
gravestone of David Lewis in Aberystwyth, which commemorates the
deceased's involvement at Trafalgar. There are also numerous examples
of Welshmen who claimed to be at Trafalgar but whose names do not
appear on the ships' muster lists. When James Morgan, the former
landlord of the "Nelson's Victory" public house in Pontypool, died in
June 1863, the local paper declared him a Trafalgar veteran. The
report even added that his mother had travelled to Portsmouth to see
her hero-son return from Trafalgar in the Victory.

But whatever stories Morgan had spun over the years, his name does not
appear on the muster-roll of the Victory nor any of the other ships
involved in the battle, nor did any James Morgan receive the Trafalgar
medal for his part in the triumph. Similarly the Cardiganshire poet
David Williams boasted to anyone who would listen of how he was
"Nelson's friend", and had stood side by side with his pal when the
fatal shot was fired. Although this claim was nonsense, Williams was a
veteran of Nelson's victory against the French in the Battle of the
Nile (1798).

However, it wasn't all about glory. The records show that many Welsh
survivors of the battle had to cope with horrific wounds, men such as
James Davis of Pembrokeshire and Thomas Davies of Aberystwyth, both of
whom lost legs at Trafalgar and had to beg for disability pensions. Dr
Davies says, "I found a petition from James Davis in which he asked
for money as he was incapable of earning his keep. He had served in
HMS Belleisle, which was the Royal Navy ship that suffered most during
the battle, losing all three masts and having her hull shot to pieces,
and yet she refused to surrender. Of her crew, 34 were killed and 94
wounded, including Davis, who lost his right leg below the knee."

Further searching through the Admiralty records showed that Davis was
a 24-year old, who had joined the Navy in July 1805, being paid a
bounty of £1 10s.

The fact that Davis was paid a bounty means that he signed up as a
volunteer, but the entry might hide the real truth. Dr Davies
discovered that both James Davis and a Pembroke man named John Owens
had joined the Royal Navy from a Milford Haven- based vessel called
the James, which was manned by the local press gang.

It's possible that Davis and Owens were taken to sea against their
will, and then chose to register as volunteers in order to receive the
bounty. The Royal Navy was always chronically short of manpower and it
was only by forcibly taking men (by use of the press gang) that the
ships had enough sailors to put to sea.

"It is a striking irony that the Royal Navy, which was entrusted to
defend the freedom of the country, could only do so by forcing men to
serve against their will", says Dr Davies.

At least the Admiralty tried to compensate the sailors who were
incapacitated in the battle. In 1806 James Davis was awarded a life
pension of £6-13s-4d per annum. Other Welsh recipients of compensation
included Ebenezer Jones of Carmarthen (right shoulder shattered),
James Merrick of Cardigan (lost his right arm above the elbow) and
George Morris of Carmarthen (left hand disabled).

Dozens more of the Welsh at Trafalgar were seriously wounded and
around 25 were killed at the battle or died of their wounds before
reaching home, including three who served on the Victory.

The survivors, and the next-of- kin of the deceased, received prize
money from a grateful Government. The ordinary sailors received £6
10s; the officers received more: Lieutenant Roteley received more than
£150. All in all, it was a very small price to pay for the gains that
would come from the victory.

In the short term the Battle of Trafalgar ensured that Britain would
be safe from invasion by the French, and that the Royal Navy could
strike at Napoleon's European empire and support the Army's
endeavours. In the long term, the victory ensured that British naval
supremacy that would remain unchallenged for well over a century,
making possible the expansion of the British Empire all over the
globe.

Everyone knows of the famous signal sent up before the battle:
"England expects every man to do his duty". On the 200th anniversary
of the battle it is worth remembering that hundreds of sailors did
their duty for Wales.

Dr Reg Davies, with Nigel Callaghan from Taliesin, runs a website of
Welsh merchant seamen, master mariners, mates and engineers, at
www.welshmariners.org.uk. The information about the Welsh sailors at
Trafalgar will shortly become available on this website.

The National Archives has a detailed Trafalgar website, including a
database of all the Royal Navy sailors involved -
www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/trafalgarancestors

Home town honours Scots hero of Trafalgar
http://news.scotsman.com/print.cfm?id=2121712005

The Scotsman
Fri 21 Oct 2005
Home town honours Scots hero of Trafalgar
FRANCIS COCKER

A MEMORIAL to a Scottish hero of the Battle of Trafalgar is to be
unveiled today in his home town - 200 years after he died in Britain's
greatest naval victory.

Captain George Duff, from Banff, was one of Nelson's most trusted
colleagues and the highest-ranked Scottish officer at Trafalgar. He
and Nelson died within 20 minutes of each other, Duff being
decapitated by cannon fire.

The men under his command on the 74-gun HMS Mars, one of the lead
vessels of the British fleet, raised his headless body in the air in a
defiant gesture before placing it on the deck and covering it with a
Union flag.

Now, 200 years to the day after the battle that changed the course of
European history, Captain Duff's heroics are to be remembered in
Banff, where his passion for the sea developed.

"The site of the memorial is fitting not only because it overlooks the
sea but also the house where George Duff was born and spent his
youth," said James McPherson, former Lord Lieutenant of Banffshire.

The monument will be unveiled today by Commodore Charles Stevenson,
the Naval Regional Officer for Scotland and Northern Ireland.

Peter Johnston, of Banff Rotary Club, said: "Hardly anyone in Banff
had ever heard of George Duff until this year. It is something that
will give us pride."

Captain Duff, the son of the local sheriff-clerk, was born in 1764. He
joined the Royal Navy at the age of 13, becoming a commander at 26.

His son, Norwich, was on HMS Mars with him and was below decks when
Duff was killed. The 13-year-old boy wrote to his mother to say his
father had "died like a hero".

BATTLE OF TRAFALGAR 200TH ANNIVERSARY: NELSON'S LADY OF THE NIGHT
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/tm_objectid=16275315&method=full&siteid=94762&headline=battle-of-trafalgar-200th-anniversary--nelson-s-lady-of-the-night--name_page.html

21 October 2005
How this teenage hooker became the lover who led England's greatest
admiral to leave his wife
By Jane Simon

THE day before he set sail for what was to be his last great battle,
Horatio Nelson knelt at the altar of his parish church.

Solemnly, Britain's greatest naval hero placed a gold ring on Lady
Emma Hamilton's finger to symbolise their undying bond.

This was no wedding ceremony. The Vice Admiral was still legally
married to Frances, Lady Nelson.

But when he lay dying on the deck of HMS Victory, his thoughts were
not of his wife, but his mistress.

"Remember that I leave Lady Hamilton and my daughter as a legacy to my
country," were his final words.

Nelson's death in the Battle of Trafalgar exactly 200 years ago lifted
him to glory - but the fate of his beloved and beautiful mistress was
far less glorious.

Lady Emma Hamilton died 10 years later, a destitute alcoholic in
France - the very country with which Nelson had been at war.

It was a desolate end to a passionate love affair which lasted six
years, scandalised the country and produced a daughter, Horatia.

It caused Nelson to cruelly abandon his wife Frances but, most
sensationally of all, it had been carried on with the blessing of
Emma's husband Sir William Hamilton with whom Nelson lived in an
extraordinary arrangement.

It's now believed that Sir William would have opened the letters that
Nelson wrote to Emma almost daily so that he could pass details from
them to the aptly-titled Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs.

If so, he couldn't have failed to notice passages such as this - in
which Nelson tells Emma of his dream of two women: "The first wanted
to take those liberties with me which no woman in this world but
yourself ever did.

"I knocked her down and in the moment of bustle you came in and,
taking me in your embrace, whispered: 'I love nothing but you, my
Nelson.'

"I kissed you fervently and we enjoyed the height of love. Ah, Emma, I
pour out my soul to you."

But if Sir William was prepared to condone his wife's affair, the rest
of society wasn't.

E MMA and Horatia were not even invited to the great admiral's state
funeral and burial at St Paul's Cathedral. The snub could not have
been more hurtful.

Nelson had begged the nation he had served so well to take care of his
precious Emma.

As Victory was sailing into battle, Nelson added a final note to his
will: "I leave Emma Lady Hamilton a Legacy to my King and Country,
that they will give her an ample provision to maintain her rank in
life. I also leave to the beneficence of my country my adopted
daughter, Horatia. These are the only favours I ask of my King and
Country when I am going to fight their battle."

But while the government heaped money on Nelson's wife, Emma didn't
receive a single penny.

After Nelson death, her gambling and extravagance ran up massive debts
for millions of pounds and in 1813 she was imprisoned for debt.

On her release she fled with Horatia to Calais to escape her creditors
and died there on January 15, 1815.

Emma and Nelson first met in September 1793. He was a 35-year-old
captain and she was the beautiful and glamorous young wife of Sir
William Hamilton, the British envoy to Naples.

Nelson wrote to his wife: "She is a young woman of amiable manners who
does honour to the station to which she has been raised."

But he knew nothing then of Emma's chequered past, or that her
apparently respectable marriage was tinged with controversy.

Emma had used many names before her marriage, but she was born Amy
Lyon in Nesse, Cheshire.

Her father, a blacksmith, died when she was a baby and Emma and her
mother went to live with her grandmother in Hawarden in Wales.

She had no formal education and in 1778 moved to London where she
worked as a nursemaid, shopgirl, lady's maid and barmaid.

She also worked in a notorious London establishment known as The
Temple Of Health where she fell into a life of prostitution.

A child born in 1780 was sent back to Wales to be raised by her
grandmother while Emma went to live "under the protection" of Sir
Harry Fetherstonhaugh in a cottage next to his country house, Uppark,
in Sussex. Rumours spread of how she danced naked on the table there.

Still only 16, she became pregnant again - this time by Sir Harry -
but the child was probably still-born.

Dumped by her patron, she wrote to Sir Charles Greville, whom she had
met at Uppark.

Greville installed her in a house in London and introduced her to his
friend, the portrait painter George Romney. Captivated by Emma's
voluptuous beauty, the artist painted her more than 300 times.

Despite being the son of an earl, Greville was not well off and
effectively sold the young Emma to his uncle Sir William Hamilton in
exchange for the payment of his debts.

Emma was distraught at first, but despite the age difference - Sir
William was 60 and a widower and Emma about 24 - they married in 1791.

The blacksmith's daughter from the Wirral was now Lady Hamilton and
the scandalous queen of Naples society. She and Nelson had continued
to write to each other but their second meeting, five years later,
came after he had saved Naples from the French.

"Never has there been anything half so glorious," Emma wrote to him in
a gushing letter. "My dress from head to foot is alla Nelson... Even
my shawl is in blue with gold anchors."

When her hero finally stepped ashore, Emma collapsed into his arms...
but the Nelson who landed in Naples was not a pretty sight.

He had only recently recovered from losing an arm in Tenerife and had
been injured again. His hair was grey, his right eye half blind, his
cheeks sunken over missing teeth.

As Nelson was nursed back to health at Sir William's luxurious
palazzo, his two-week stay stretched to two years. And he and Emma
grew ever closer. When Nelson and the Hamiltons returned to Britain
together in 1800, gossip columnists and caricaturists sniggered at how
fat Emma, the great beauty had become. In fact, she was pregnant with
Nelson's child.

But what of poor childless Fanny, Nelson's wife? Reunited again,
friends noticed how Nelson avoided being left alone with her.

Nelson was at sea when Emma gave birth to his daughter. Although he
couldn't publicly claim the child as his own her name, Horatia, was
all the clue that was needed.

His thoughts were always for Emma. "Now, my own dear wife," he wrote
to her. "I love, I never did love, anyone else. My longing for you ...
you may readily imagine. What must be my sensations at the idea of
sleeping with you! It sets me on fire."

When his ship next touched port in England, he rushed to be with Emma
and his daughter. And before he set sail again, he wrote for the last
time to Fanny. "Living, I have done all in my power for you and if,
dead, you will find I have done the same; therefore my only wish is to
be left to myself".

Fanny called it: "Lord Nelson's letter of dismissal."

Now, instead of meeting in secret Nelson, Emma and Sir William lived
together in an extraordinary menage-a-trois and when Sir William died
in April 1803, Nelson was at his bedside, holding his hand.

On the night he sailed to war and his ultimate death, Nelson kissed
his sleeping daughter and prayed that her life would be happy. He
knelt at Emma's feet and asked God to bless and keep her before they
parted for the last time.

If God had heard those prayers, He chose to ignore them - Horatio's
whore died alone and beyond misery.

Opinion - Magnus Linklater Times Online
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,1062-1831948,00.html

The Times October 19, 2005
The very model of a modern hero
Magnus Linklater
Nelson's flaws have enhanced rather than eroded his reputation as a
supreme leader

EVERY HERO, wrote Ralph Waldo Emerson, becomes a bore at last. Not
Nelson. Not the hero of Trafalgar. If anything, his reputation has
grown with the years. Adored by the public in his own lifetime,
mourned extravagantly at his death, his status as national icon is
undiminished.

When, this Friday, the first of the beacons is lit at Portsmouth to
celebrate the 200th anniversary of his victory at Trafalgar, he will
be celebrated not just as a commander of genius but a model of
courage, leadership and humanity. A disciplinarian, loved by his
sailors. An egotist, respected by his officers. An adulterer, honoured
by his countrymen. Is there no end to the man's qualities?

Certainly. If ever a hero was asking to be cut down to size, it must
be Nelson. His faults yawn every bit as wide as his virtues. Vain,
self-seeking, silly, brazen, cruel, shameless -- those were some of
the kinder epithets hurled at him at various stages during his
lifetime. The political cartoonists of the day were merciless. They
poked fun at his love affair with Lady Hamilton, his social climbing,
his pompous habit of parading in public dressed in all his medals.
Arthur Wellesley, later Duke of Wellington, who met him only once,
thought his vanity absurd. His conversation, said Wellesley, "was
almost all on his side, and all about himself, and in . . . a style so
vain and silly as to surprise and almost disgust me".

The way he treated his wife, Fanny, was insensitive to the point of
outright cruelty and shocked even his friends. His behaviour in Italy,
where he first fell in love with Emma Hamilton, bordered on the
irresponsible -- the couple's illegitimate child was conceived on
board one of His Majesty's ships in the course of a Mediterranean
cruise which included her husband; if the tabloid press had been
around in 1800 to report it, the great admiral might not have survived
to fight the battle of Copenhagen, let alone Trafalgar.

All of this and more we have learned in the course of more than 1,300
full-scale biographies over the years, including two mammoth works
published recently, one by John Sugden, the other by Roger Knight,
which have laid bare the most unflattering aspects of Nelson's life:
the agony of his abandoned wife, his insane jealousy of Emma, his
petulance, the cruelty of life on board his ships and his own
overweening self-importance. Sir John Moore, who met him in Italy
after his great naval victory at the Battle of the Nile, could not
believe what a ridiculous figure he cut: "He is covered with stars,
ribbons and medals, more like the Prince of the Opera than the
conqueror of the Nile," he wrote. "[He is] a pitiful figure."

None of this impinged on the public at the time. Nor was it allowed
to. In the face of the Napoleonic threat, his reputation was too
important to be tarnished. The first biography came out in 1801, well
before his greatest victories. By the time of Trafalgar, his image as
great strategist, courageous fighter and resolute leader was too
deeply embedded to be dislodged, even by the cartoonists. "Never was a
commander so enthusiastically loved by men of all ranks, from the
captain of the fleet to the youngest ship-boy," wrote the poet
Coleridge, and that was reflected in the way he was worshipped by the
people. "Nelson was the only person I ever saw who excited real
enthusiasm in the English," said his friend, Lady Elizabeth Foster.
When news of his death at Trafalgar spread through Britain, the shock
was so intense that it eclipsed even the victory itself. As Sugden
writes: "The nation won its greatest naval victory and went into
mourning."

The books that followed airbrushed out his scandalous private life,
and focused on him as a model for the young, a patriotic cult-figure,
a symbol of imperial power. Today, the flaws are far better known but
they have, if anything, enhanced rather than eroded his reputation. A
man who abandons his family for the sake of a married woman, making a
fool of himself into the bargain, is not necessarily dismissed today
as a charlatan. In some ways his misdemeanours make him more real.
Nelson, unlike Wellington, is a rounded human being. We do not hold
his tantrums or his petty jealousies against him. We admire the way he
cocks a snook at society, turns a blind eye to the warning signals
about the enemy and sails straight into the French fleet to drive them
off the sea. When, in addition, he dies at the height of battle, in
the arms of Captain Hardy, asking for and receiving a farewell kiss,
why he is as modern a hero as any in our history.

Today we still recognise the magnitude of his achievements. He saved
the nation, challenged the might of France and Spain, welded the navy
into an unbeatable force and laid the basis for Britain's supremacy at
sea for the next 100 years. He did it not just by brilliant
seamanship, a clear strategic eye and a formidable understanding of
the enemy's dispositions, he did it by carrying the navy and the
country with him. Even Wellington finally realised that this was "a
very superior man", equipped with what Knight calls "effortless
leadership". He could win over what one contemporary called "the most
opposite of tempers"by conciliation not intimidation. He led by
example. He made swift decisions and executed them at once. He was
calm in the face of danger.

Not all of these are familiar currency among our leaders today. All
the more reason then to salute them when we see them. The fact that we
can celebrate Nelson with as much enthusiasm today as our forebears
did in 1805 suggests that there is more to his legacy than his
victories, however brilliant they were.

Trafalgar: battle for control
http://www.socialistworker.co.uk/print_article.php?article_id=7578

Socialist Worker 1973, 22 October 2005 (www.socialistworker.co.uk)

Trafalgar: battle for control

Britains rulers have reason to be grateful to Horatio Nelson for his
victory at the Battle of Trafalgar 200 years ago this week, a victory
that would be decisive for the creation of the British Empire.

France and Britain had been fighting a long war for control of the
world. This started when the French had their revolution in 1789 and
chopped off their kings head four years later.

When they did that, Britain went to war with them. It was a war
against revolution a war for kings and to preserve the old power.
Britain was allied with all the corrupt and repressive regimes of old
Europe. The war started in 1793 and lasted, with a small break, until
1815. Trafalgar took place in 1805 and was the decisive sea battle.

The French had one advantage. They had recently had a revolution in
which peasants had taken the land. They had the mass levy mass
conscription. It was the first time any government had the confidence
to call up all of its young men into the army.

The French men called up were overwhelmingly peasants. They were
fighting for the land that they had taken and they were willing to
die. That passion meant that the French army swept all before it.

But the British military had a decisive advantage sea power. This was
the product, not of passion, but of industry and technical knowledge.

The "man of war" sailing ship was the most complex and most incredible
of all the machines that human beings had yet built, with thousands of
moving parts. To work the sails and the guns required 300 to 600 men.
Along with naval shipyards, these ships were the big workplaces of
their day.

They were also extremely expensive. And a big imperial power might
have 60 to 80 "man of war" ships. These great naval warships, with
their tiers of cannon, were the cutting edge of military technology.
Each was like a floating factory.

War for empire

Britain was edging ahead to become the leading power because it was
the first industrial economy. But in 1793 it wasnt that far ahead of
the French empire in terms of naval power. British ships were badly
constructed in comparison to their French counterparts.

Shipping was the most important industry in Britain. Many more people
worked in merchant sailing and shipping than in textiles and mines.
The sheer number of sailors and sheer wealth from the slave trade gave
Britain a head start on France.

France had an army that could beat pretty much anyone. But Britain had
a navy that had to defend the homeland and the empire from invasion.
So Britains industrial power was directed into the navy they built
more and more ships at breakneck speed.

For the first seven or eight years of the war, Britain was hardly ever
directly involved in fighting in Europe. The decisive battles were all
in slave colonies in the West Indies and in India. This was a war for
empire.

The French Revolution had exploded like a fire in the minds of people
in the West Indies. It spoke over and over again of liberty and it
spoke of breaking chains. The slaves were the people who were kept in
chains and who desperately wanted freedom.

They heard the news that was coming from France, which also spoke to
the poor white people of the islands.

The most important place was Haiti, which rose up in 1791. The average
life expectancy of a slave there was around five years slave owners
quite literally worked these people to death.

The sugar plantations in the north of Haiti were set on fire as slaves
killed their masters. All through the islands slaves began to rise up
and fight.

From the point of view of the British two things were necessary.
First, they had to put down these risings. And second, this was an
ideal opportunity to seize those islands from the French.

But the British came up against the courage of the slave resistance.
The slaves were fighting for their freedom. And in Haiti, they won.

This was really the beginning of the end for slavery. So although
Britain had taken control of the West Indies from France, it could no
longer run the islands cheaply on slave labour.

Once the empire building was settled, the battle came back to Europe.
At first the naval war was concentrated in the Mediterranean. French
leader Napoleon and his generals were trying to seize lines of
communication to India, and Britain was trying to stop them.

Nelson had won the crucial Battle of the Nile in 1798, which secured
British control of the Mediterranean. This allowed the British navy to
keep French ships pinned down in French and Spanish sea ports for many
years. Spain was a reluctant ally of France at the time.

The French just couldnt get out.The British tacked up and down in
front of them endlessly, month after month keeping them penned in.

But the British were always fearful that the French might break
through. For if the French navy could get to the open sea, they could
bring an invading army that would surely conquer Britain.

Global network

In 1805 there finally was a confrontation. There were only six naval
battles of any size during the 22 year period of the war. If you were
a sailor, your chances of dying through warfare at sea were very small
disease, executions and floggings were a far greater danger.

If you look at accounts from the time everybody was "anti-war".
Captains of the "hang em and flog em" brigade said that battles were
terrible things. There was bravery but there wasnt any denial of the
cruelty of the war.

And people approached war with a much higher moral standard. During
the Battle of the Nile one of the French ships exploded. Both sides
stopped the fighting and sent out small boats to rescue everybody they
could who was floating in the water. Can you imagine anyone doing that
today?

Horatio Nelson was probably the single most creative imperial leader
that Britain had. He does not sit on that pillar in Trafalgar Square
for nothing he truly was a hero to the ruling class. But he was also a
truly horrible right wing man. This was the era of the French
Revolution. This was the era of mass insurrections in the British
navy. He hated all of it.

At Trafalgar the French and Spanish fleets escaped from port and the
British navy trapped them just off the Cape of Trafalgar in southern
Spain. Conventional naval strategy was that the opposing fleets
approached each other in parallel lines, blasting away at each other
as they passed.

At Trafalgar the British attacked side on, cutting the line and
splitting the French fleet in two.

Half the French fleet was isolated and Nelson concentrated his
firepower on destroying them, before doubling back and attacking the
other half. After the victory at Trafalgar Britain was poised to be
the major imperial power.

At the wars end Britain had secured a global network of naval bases
from which it could sally forth to crush any opposition. In a sense
this is not dissimilar to US strategy today, which rings the globe
with military bases.

Round those bases the British Empire expanded. But that also led to
resistance and rebellion. It is worth restating that by the time of
Trafalgar the former slaves of Haiti had defeated two empires to
secure its independence.

http://business.edp24.co.uk/story.aspx?brand=BIZOnline&category=Business&tBrand=BIZOnline&tCategory=homepage&itemid=NOED18%20Oct%202005%2018%3A41%3A53%3A783
Business Link Norfolk
Inspired by Lord Nelson
19 October 2005
IAN BULLOCK, ASSISTANT EDP BUSINESS EDITOR

The new book about Nelson's leadership skills.

Company managers are being urged to adopt the 'Nelson spirit' to help
them achieve victory in the world of business.
A new book says Norfolk-born hero Lord Nelson is an inspiring figure
whose life story can teach modern managers important lessons about
leadership, team management and success.
Nelson's Way - Leadership Lessons from the Great Commander - is
published today to coincide with Trafalgar bicentenary week and is
written by Stephanie Jones and Jonathan Gosling.
Both Nelson enthusiasts and leadership lecturers, they present an
up-to-date history of Nelson and use examples of his adventures and
bravery to show how he embodied the characteristics of the most
successful of leaders.
"In his early teens Horatio Nelson was commanding boats with up to 20
oarsmen. From the age of 18 he took charge of ships taken as prizes.
At 21 he was a captain, responsible for hundreds of men. By Trafalgar
he was responsible for the fate of 40 ships and tens of thousands of
men," said Mr Gosling, who is director of the Centre for Leadership
Studies at Exeter University.
"A manager as well as an inspiring leader, Nelson was concerned about
every ship and every seaman, as well as honour and glory. Always
visible, he bravely led from the front - sharing all the risks. A
participative rather than directive leader, he nevertheless bore final
responsibility and was a legend in his lifetime."
Nelson's Way includes contributions from business figures such as Sir
John Harvey-Jones and Greg Dyke.
Sir John, TV's original Trouble-shooter, said: "The lessons from
Nelson's leadership are even more appropriate today than they were two
centuries ago. The freely given support of all your people is the key
to competitive success."
Dr Jones, who has lectured at the London School of Economics, said:
"The book asks provocative leadership questions inspired by Nelson's
own approach to leading and guides the reader to answer them. Why be a
leader? Do you need to be an expert in your field? Should you be
visible and lead from the front or practise quiet leadership?"

Dave Stutchbury, managing partner at the new Clydesdale Bank near
Norwich, is a great admirer of Nelson. He has given the premises on
the Meridian Business Park at Thorpe St Andrew a Nelson theme,
including meeting rooms called Victory, Nelson and Trafalgar.
And to celebrate the bank's arrival in Norfolk, Clydesdale is holding
a themed dinner at the Assembly House, Norwich, replicating a
Trafalgar Ball held at the same venue in 1805.
"Nelson led from the front, went into battle with his team and treated
his people firmly but fairly. He also made his people practise so they
were ready to fight and were never complacent," said Mr Stutchbury.
"He was always prepared to act outside of traditional thinking of the
time to go with what he believed was the right way. His plan for
Trafalgar was different, brilliant, simple, aggressive and won the
day."
More than 600 people, including representatives from Norfolk's
business community, will attend a black-tie Trafalgar Night Dinner on
Friday at the Ocean Room, Gorleston.
Nelson's Way is published by Nicholas Brealey Publishing and
costs £12.99.

New Flagship beer from Adnams celebrates the 200th Anniversary of The Battle of
Trafalgar
http://www.responsesource.com/releases/rel_display.php?relid=22991&hilite=
SourceWire The Independent Resource For all Journalists

* Submitter: Cow PR [View Response Source PR Company Listings]
* Release Date: 18-10-2005

What better way to commemorate Englands great victory at The Battle of
Trafalgar than a congratulatory toast with friends? New Flagship beer
has been brewed by the coast and combines the best of a hundred years
of coastal brewing heritage with modern cutting edge techniques.
Choose Flagship to celebrate the victories of the past and the joy of
the future in one glass!
Flagship is the new beer from Adnams; brewers of real beer from the
Suffolk coast. It has been specifically created to celebrate the 200th
Anniversary of The Battle of Trafalgar and to mark the great maritime
tradition of the East Anglian Coast.
Flagships aromas of hops and spices, with hints of banana, tantalise
the taste buds with an invigorating flavour. The palate is full but
not sweet, a clean bitterness derived from a brand new variety of hop,
called Boadicea, which balances a soft, chewy and complex malt
flavour. For the more refined palate, traces of pepper, dark fruits
and caramelised orange can be detected.
Adnams Flagship is named after Admiral Lord Nelsons flagship: HMS
Victory. A further tribute to Britains naval victory can be seen in
the new design for the Flagship logo, which uses the maritime colours
of blue and gold. Look closer at the Flags icon and you can see it
cleverly replicates the first two words of Nelsons famous signal,
England expects that everyman will do his duty, which is flown in
celebration every year from Victorys masts.
Flagship beer is served as a draft beer and is a seaworthy 4.3% ABV!
It is available nationally now until 11th November from all Adnams
pubs and licensers.
Visit www.beerfromthecoast.co.uk for more information.
About Adnams:
Adnams has been brewing beer in the Suffolk coastal town of Southwold
since 1872, and is now one of the UKs most successful brewers of cask
beer. Adnams top selling beers include Adnams Bitter, Broadside,
packaged Broadside Strong Original, Suffolk Strong Bitter and the
newly launched Explorer. Adnams beer is available in thousands of pubs
nationwide and in all good supermarkets.
Adnams is a values-driven business. Adnams believes that ethical
practices and a commitment to the environment, staff and customers
ultimately leads to better business results. In recognition of Adnams'
dedication to values based business development the company received
the 2005 Queen's Award for Enterprise: Sustainable Development.

The Malta Independent Online
http://217.145.4.56/ind/news2.asp?artid=23124

Napoleonic re-enactment
Friday, October 21, 2005
Valletta Waterfront was the idyllic setting for a Napoleonic
re-enactment last night, featuring patrols by French and Anglo-Maltese
troops. The highlight of the evening was the staging of the play The
Death of an Admiral. The planned series of events feature a
re-enactment of Napoleonic military camp life and battle, including an
amphibious landing. The event also marks the 200th anniversary of the
Battle of Trafalgar, which took place on 21 October 1805. The No Such
Players Group and the Historical Re-enactment Group of Malta staged
The Death of an Admiral. The one-hour play, written and directed by
Sue Bolton-Fletcher, honours the last years and death of Admiral
Horatio Lord Nelson. Proceeds from ticket sales go to Din l-Art Helwa.
About 100 re-enactors are taking part in the four-day event, which
ends on Sunday and which is being organised by the Historical
Re-Enactment Group of Malta. Other re-enactments will take place at
Valletta Waterfront tomorrow between 2pm and 5.45pm, while a
reconstruction of a sea and land battle will provide the main
highlight of the week on Sunday afternoon between 4pm and 5.30pm.

Tristan Stamps Celebrate Trafalgar 200
http://www.sartma.com/art.php?artid=2046&skip=1&PHPSESSID=0320fc5f08afaa5bb126413188dc4b12
Submitted by Tristan Times (Juanita Brock) 20.10.2005 (Current Article)

By J. Brock (SARTMA TdC)

It wont be long before tourist ships begin to visit Tristan da Cunha
and one of the items that keen stamp collectors will want are first
day covers about the 200^th anniversary of Lord Nelsons Victory at
Trafalgar.

There are many first day covers that depict Tristan life, livelihood
and heritage, so when you want that perfect gift for a keen stamp
collector, have a look in the Craft Shop or the Vicerage to see if
there are available stocks. You will be glad you did.

These stamps and other stamps from St Helena, Ascension Island and
Tristan da Cunha available online on the St Helena Post Office website
at http://www.postoffice.gov.sh/

RIA Novosti - Russia - Russian, British Navies set to mark Trafalgar
anniversary in St. Petersburg
Russian news & information agency "RIA Novosti"

Russian, British Navies set to mark Trafalgar anniversary in St. Petersburg

17:55 | 19/ 10/ 2005

ST. PETERSBURG, October 19 (RIA Novosti, Anna Novak) - Russian and
British naval officers will mark the 200th anniversary of the Battle
of Trafalgar in St. Petersburg Friday.

A spokesman for the British Consulate General in St. Petersburg said
events would start with a Trafalgar concert on October 19, with the
Admiralty Orchestra of the Leningrad Naval Base performing British
classical music. A new Web site dedicated to the Battle of Trafalgar,
designed by lecturers and students from the St. Petersburg University
State University of Information Technologies, Mechanics and Optics,
will be presented.

The British Consul General in St. Petersburg George Edgar and Naval
attache in Moscow Jonathan Holloway will host a Trafalgar dinner at
the Leningrad Military District officer's club Thursday.

Gibbons Stamp Monthly - Current industry news and reports
http://www.gibbonsstampmonthly.com/storyprint.asp?sc=2325

Trafalgar Covers of 1982
20 October 2005

To complete out feature devoted to the bicentenary of the Battle of
Trafalgar, we illustrate two handpainted covers created by Sonia
Stratton in 1982

Sonia's husband, Ken, is a regular reader of GSM, who earlier this
year, sent us some copies of covers she has created. Ken's letter read
as follows: `Please find enclosed copies of first day covers painted
by my wife Sonia. I am extremely pleased this year as we celebrate
Trafalgar, the reason being my wife was born in Nelson,
Lancashire-possibly you might be doing an article on Lord Nelson and
the significance of that battle. I have enclosed other copies to show
you the flair of her artwork. She has never been trained as an artist
but joined me in the fun and interest of our great hobby. Thanks for a
great magazine over the years with such interesting articles. `Kind
regards to you and your staff ' We were so impressed that we were
certain other readers would like to see some of Sonia's paintings and
reproduce them here. We illustrate her copies in oils (above) and
watercolours (below) of two well-known paintings held by the Royal
Naval Museum, Portsmouth.

Latest Local News... - Peterborough Today: News, Sport, Jobs, Property, Cars,
Entertainments & More
http://www.peterboroughtoday.co.uk/ViewArticle2.aspx?SectionID=845&ArticleID=1224344

IN FOCUS: Robert Base went ...
HISTORY: Our forgotten hero
A FORGOTTEN hero who sailed into the Battle of Trafalgar with Admiral
Nelson is finally to be honoured in Peterborough.
Two hundred years ago city man Robert Base, who ran away to sea at the
age of 10, fought in the fiercest sea battle in history.
Today his newly discovered grave lies unremembered in a corner of
Broadway Cemetery. Now, however, this tiny plot with its crumbling
stone, worn by decades of weather, will be at the centre of a moving
ceremony.
The sailor, who fought on decks that ran with blood as Nelson took on
the might of the French and Spanish Armadas, will finally be
remembered for answering the admiral's call to do his duty.
England expected the boy seaman to fight, and perhaps die for his
country, but today, Robert's story can only be told because of a
remarkable piece of historical detective work by members of the
Friends of Broadway Cemetery.
On Friday, when the country marks the Battle of Trafalgar with the
lighting of beacons, tree-planting, solemn church services and
jubilant firework parties, the last resting place of our city's lost
hero will be marked with a new gravestone.
Bill Richardson and Audrey Griffiths spent more than a year digging
through archives in Peterborough and the Royal Naval Museum in
Portsmouth, slowly piecing together the details of Robert's life.
Bill said the trail began with the rumour of a Trafalgar hero called
Burt Babs, who slowly evolved into Robert Base.
Bill said: "It took us a while to find the grave, but when we did it
looked so sad, so insignificant and weather- worn."
All that could be seen of the inscription on the ancient stone were
Robert's name and the words "Trafalgar" and "Bellepheron", the name of
Robert's ship.
Bill said: "It's so important we remember men like Robert. If it
wasn't for Nelson and his men, we'd all be speaking French."
Audrey added: "This isn't just for Robert. It represents our respect
for all Trafalgar veterans."
When the new stone is unveiled at 10.30am on Friday, the people of
Peterborough will be carrying on the wishes of our forefathers, who
honoured Robert after his death in 1878.
As E Pinwell, curate of St John's Church in Cathedral Square wrote in
a copy of the Peterborough Advertiser that year: "The old Trafalgar
men have left us a noble legacy, and imprinted upon our memory a
glorious example of duty, bravely done.
"Should we not, then do something to show such honoured dead a tribute
of respect when they rest amongst us?"
Read the full story of Robert's life, by Bill Richardson in our In

Trafalgar stamps depict painting
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/uk_news/4353462.stm
Published: 2005/10/18 13:40:37 GMT

Six Royal Mail stamps commemorating the bicentenary of Nelson's
victory at Trafalgar have gone on sale.

The stamps depict details from a rarely-displayed painting by William
Heath showing the 1805 battle.

The two first class stamps show Nelson wounded and the British ships,
the cutter Entreprenante and Belleisle, which was left dismasted.

Heath's original watercolour, A Panorama Of The Battle Of Trafalgar,
was completed around 1825.

Decisive moment

The attempts by the Entreprenante to rescue the crew of French ship
Achille and the schooner Pickle are featured on two 42p stamps.

Two 68p stamps show the Royal Navy's two columns attack the combined
Franco-Spanish fleet.

The stamps were launched by First Sea Lord Sir Alan West at the
National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, where Heath's picture is
stored.

"I'm delighted that this rarely seen work of art will be viewed by
people again on millions of letters every day," said Julietta Edgar,
Royal Mail head of special stamps.

"The use of William Heath's amazing watercolour has produced a truly
first-class set of stamps and a fitting commemoration to this decisive
historical moment."

Scots ignorant of Trafalgar battle
http://news.scotsman.com/print.cfm?id=2094842005

The Press Association
Sat 15 Oct 2005
5:32pm (UK)

Many Scots are "woefully" ignorant of the Battle of Trafalgar, a
survey has said.

More than four out of five Scots - 83% - cannot name the location of
the naval victory.

One in five Scots does not know who fought in the battle - and 3%
think it was fought between Scotland and England.

And former prime minister Sir John Major was even named as the admiral
who masterminded the victory by 3% of those questioned.

The findings come from a survey carried out by Woodland Trust
Scotland, which is planting five woods in Scotland as part of a UK
project to plant a wood for each of the 33 ships in Nelson's battle
fleet.

About 3% thought the battle took place in 1980 - and 9% of people
thought the victor of Trafalgar was the Duke of Wellington.

"The findings suggest Scots need to reacquaint themselves with their
history books, as their historical and naval knowledge is far from
ship-shape," said a trust spokesman.

The survey also found that 45% of Scots did not know Nelson's ship was
called HMS Victory, and 15% did not know Nelson's fleet was made of
wood.

The Woodland Trust project is intended to celebrate the role played by
timber in Britain's naval heritage.

At least 15,000 children across the UK will help plant 250,000 trees
at the 33 sites.

Belfast Telegraph
http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/features/story.jsp?story=665234
The Ulster Log: Homebred hero of Trafalgar

By Eddie McIlwaine
emcil...@belfasttelegraph.co.uk
15 October 2005

SOMEBODY please fill me in about old seadog Captain Charles William
Kerr.

I know that he was killed on HMS Victory, alongside Admiral Nelson, at
the Battle of Trafalgar 1805.

And there's a plaque in his memory in Donegore Parish Church outside
Templepatrick, I'm told by Davy McCormick of Holywood.

"He lost his life on the same day as Nelson," McCormick informs me.

I can also tell you that Captain Kerr was born in 1776 but, beyond
that, my knowledge of the details of this homebred hero remains scant.
For example, how did Charles William get to serve on Victory alongside
the legend?

£250,000 record for Trafalgar gold medal
http://news.scotsman.com/print.cfm?id=2114652005

The Scotsman
Thu 20 Oct 2005
JOHN INNES

A GOLD medal awarded to Captain Thomas Hardy after the Battle of
Trafalgar was sold at auction yesterday for a world-record price of
almost £250,000.

Hardy was the captain of the Victory at Trafalgar and Admiral Nelson's
"right-hand man", to whom he purportedly uttered the immortal words
"kiss me Hardy" as he lay dying on the flagship.

A spokesman for Christie's in London said it was "arguably the most
important medal from British military history ever to be offered at
auction".

Following a five-minute bidding battle in the auction room, the medal
sold for £248,800, a record price for any medal at auction, to a
private client.

The original and prototype portrait of Nelson by Lemuel Francis
Abbott, the Kilgraston sketch, 1797, sold for £164,800.

Other items for sale were the quill recovered from Nelson's desk the
evening after the Battle of Trafalgar, found lying beside an
unfinished letter to his lover Emma Hamilton, which sold for £8,400
and a beaver skin bicorn hat worn by Napoleon Bonaparte, which went
for £66,000.

Horatio Nelson was a client and acquaintance of James Christie, the
founder of the auction house.

The sale was held to celebrate the Bicentenary of the Battle of
Trafalgar.

[Edward A. Cowan]

Thank you for that interesting post regarding the observances of the
bicentennial of the Battle of Trafalgar. I read the NY Times article
this morning. This afternoon, I listened to that Willcocks recording.
The performance is non-HIP but stirring.

I think I first heard that work in Philadelphia back in the 1960's when
Eugene Ormandy conducted it. (He did not record it, however.) I also
heard it in Vienna in June, 1995, on Pentecost Sunday in the
Stefansdom. --E.A.C.

[Peter T. Daniels]

I don't know what "it" may be, but I woke up in the middle of the night
and put on WQXR; they were playing some interminable suite for string
orchestra and wind soloists, which turned out to be Nielsen's *Aladdin*,
and then Haydn's Nelson Mass (by Tafelmusik), with endless excuses for
playing it even though it didn't commemorate Trafalgar. (The announcer
was that woman with the incredibly fruity super-RP voice that I can
barely understand. She out-Beebs the Beeb.)
--
Peter T. Daniels gram...@att.net

[Nightingale]

Peter T. Daniels wrote:
> I don't know what "it" may be, but I woke up in the middle of the night
> and put on WQXR; they were playing some interminable suite for string
> orchestra and wind soloists, which turned out to be Nielsen's *Aladdin*,
> and then Haydn's Nelson Mass (by Tafelmusik), with endless excuses for
> playing it even though it didn't commemorate Trafalgar. (The announcer
> was that woman with the incredibly fruity super-RP voice that I can
> barely understand. She out-Beebs the Beeb.)

What is a "super-RP voice"? I've never had trouble understanding
anything I heard on the Beeb, but some of the American accents are
difficult.

--
Blessed Cecilia, appear in visions
To all musicians, appear and inspire:
Translated Daughter, come down and startle
Composing mortals with immortal fire.

[Michael Haslam]

Peter T. Daniels <gram...@worldnet.att.net> wrote:
>
> I don't know what "it" may be, but I woke up in the middle of the night
> and put on WQXR; they were playing some interminable suite for string
> orchestra and wind soloists, which turned out to be Nielsen's *Aladdin*,
> and then Haydn's Nelson Mass (by Tafelmusik), with endless excuses for
> playing it even though it didn't commemorate Trafalgar. (The announcer
> was that woman with the incredibly fruity super-RP voice that I can
> barely understand. She out-Beebs the Beeb.)

There are plenty of non-RP accents to be heard on the BBC these days. In
fact RP is probably heard less than non-RP across all the networks,
radio and tv.
--
MJHaslam
Remove accidentals to obtain correct e-address
"Can't you show a little restraint?" - Dr. David Tholen

[Peter T. Daniels]

Michael Haslam wrote:
>
> Peter T. Daniels <gram...@worldnet.att.net> wrote:
> >
> > I don't know what "it" may be, but I woke up in the middle of the night
> > and put on WQXR; they were playing some interminable suite for string
> > orchestra and wind soloists, which turned out to be Nielsen's *Aladdin*,
> > and then Haydn's Nelson Mass (by Tafelmusik), with endless excuses for
> > playing it even though it didn't commemorate Trafalgar. (The announcer
> > was that woman with the incredibly fruity super-RP voice that I can
> > barely understand. She out-Beebs the Beeb.)
>
> There are plenty of non-RP accents to be heard on the BBC these days. In
> fact RP is probably heard less than non-RP across all the networks,
> radio and tv.

Quite a relief, innit.

[Peter T. Daniels]

Nightingale wrote:
>
> Peter T. Daniels wrote:
> > I don't know what "it" may be, but I woke up in the middle of the night
> > and put on WQXR; they were playing some interminable suite for string
> > orchestra and wind soloists, which turned out to be Nielsen's *Aladdin*,
> > and then Haydn's Nelson Mass (by Tafelmusik), with endless excuses for
> > playing it even though it didn't commemorate Trafalgar. (The announcer
> > was that woman with the incredibly fruity super-RP voice that I can
> > barely understand. She out-Beebs the Beeb.)
>
> What is a "super-RP voice"? I've never had trouble understanding
> anything I heard on the Beeb, but some of the American accents are
> difficult.

You can presumably hear her at their website. I don't know her name, but
she's a regular overnight person.

WNYC has one, too, but she's been sounding less and less pretentious
over the years.

I don't know who to suggest as a sample, other than (again) Hyacinth
Bucket in her more disapproving mode.

Or Mrs Thatcher!

[Matthew Fields]

In article <435A78...@worldnet.att.net>,

Just to answer the question:
Per http://www.putlearningfirst.com/language/08sounds/08sounds.html
RP stands for Received Pronunciation, a standardized (in the Henry
Higgins sense) pronunciation spoken by almost nobody but held up
in Britain as the one true correct pronunciation.

--
Matthew H. Fields http://www.umich.edu/~fields
Music: Splendor in Sound
To be great, do better and better. Don't wait for talent: no such thing.
Brights have a naturalistic world-view. http://www.the-brights.net/

[Michael Haslam]

The full effect of "innit" will become apparent to you if I use the
second person, innit?! They're all fighting, innit?! I'm bleeding,
innit?!

In other words, it is used analogously to Nicht Wahr? and n'est-ce-pas?

[Peter T. Daniels]

Matthew Fields wrote:
>
> In article <435A78...@worldnet.att.net>,
> Peter T. Daniels <gram...@worldnet.att.net> wrote:
> >Michael Haslam wrote:
> >>
> >> Peter T. Daniels <gram...@worldnet.att.net> wrote:
> >> >
> >> > I don't know what "it" may be, but I woke up in the middle of the night
> >> > and put on WQXR; they were playing some interminable suite for string
> >> > orchestra and wind soloists, which turned out to be Nielsen's *Aladdin*,
> >> > and then Haydn's Nelson Mass (by Tafelmusik), with endless excuses for
> >> > playing it even though it didn't commemorate Trafalgar. (The announcer
> >> > was that woman with the incredibly fruity super-RP voice that I can
> >> > barely understand. She out-Beebs the Beeb.)
> >>
> >> There are plenty of non-RP accents to be heard on the BBC these days. In
> >> fact RP is probably heard less than non-RP across all the networks,
> >> radio and tv.
> >
> >Quite a relief, innit.
> >--
> >Peter T. Daniels gram...@att.net
>
> Just to answer the question:
> Per http://www.putlearningfirst.com/language/08sounds/08sounds.html
> RP stands for Received Pronunciation, a standardized (in the Henry
> Higgins sense) pronunciation spoken by almost nobody but held up
> in Britain as the one true correct pronunciation.

The _native_ language of (almost) nobody; the _learned_ language of
everybody who wanted to be considered anybody until just a few decades
ago, and still respected.

[Paul Ilechko]

Peter T. Daniels wrote:

>
> The _native_ language of (almost) nobody; the _learned_ language of
> everybody who wanted to be considered anybody until just a few decades
> ago, and still respected.

You're a wanker, innit?

[Peter T. Daniels]

Michael Haslam wrote:
>
> Peter T. Daniels <gram...@worldnet.att.net> wrote:
>
> > Michael Haslam wrote:
> > >
> > > Peter T. Daniels <gram...@worldnet.att.net> wrote:
> > > >
> > > > I don't know what "it" may be, but I woke up in the middle of the night
> > > > and put on WQXR; they were playing some interminable suite for string
> > > > orchestra and wind soloists, which turned out to be Nielsen's *Aladdin*,
> > > > and then Haydn's Nelson Mass (by Tafelmusik), with endless excuses for
> > > > playing it even though it didn't commemorate Trafalgar. (The announcer
> > > > was that woman with the incredibly fruity super-RP voice that I can
> > > > barely understand. She out-Beebs the Beeb.)
> > >
> > > There are plenty of non-RP accents to be heard on the BBC these days. In
> > > fact RP is probably heard less than non-RP across all the networks,
> > > radio and tv.
> >
> > Quite a relief, innit.
>
> The full effect of "innit" will become apparent to you if I use the
> second person, innit?! They're all fighting, innit?! I'm bleeding,
> innit?!
>
> In other words, it is used analogously to Nicht Wahr? and n'est-ce-pas?

I believe I was keeping your adjurations in mind when I used it twice
today.

[Michael Haslam]

Peter T. Daniels <gram...@worldnet.att.net> wrote:

> Nightingale wrote:

> > What is a "super-RP voice"? I've never had trouble understanding
> > anything I heard on the Beeb, but some of the American accents are
> > difficult.
>
> You can presumably hear her at their website. I don't know her name, but
> she's a regular overnight person.
>
> WNYC has one, too, but she's been sounding less and less pretentious
> over the years.
>
> I don't know who to suggest as a sample, other than (again) Hyacinth
> Bucket in her more disapproving mode.

Hyacinth Bucket's accent is faux-RP, more akin to the great stars of
Music Hall in their "Burlington Bertie" roles.
>
> Or Mrs Thatcher!

Please don't bring her up. After she became leader of the Conservative
Party but before she fought the general election that made her Prime
Minister she underwent training to lower the general pitch of her
speaking voice. Ever afterwards she seemed to be acting.

[Nightingale]

Michael Haslam wrote:
>>Or Mrs Thatcher!
>
>
> Please don't bring her up. After she became leader of the Conservative
> Party but before she fought the general election that made her Prime
> Minister she underwent training to lower the general pitch of her
> speaking voice.

When I had a job in customer service, one of the training courses they
sent us on was telephone skills, and I had to learn to speak at a much
lower pitch. Now that I hardly ever talk on the phone anymore, I've
almost gone back to my old speaking voice - people said they liked my
old phone voice, but it never felt comfortable to me.

--
Io la Musica son, ch'ai dolci accenti
So far tranquillo ogni turbato core,
Et or di nobil ira et or d'amore
Poss'infiammar le più gelate menti.

[Peter T. Daniels]

Michael Haslam wrote:
>
> Peter T. Daniels <gram...@worldnet.att.net> wrote:
>
> > Nightingale wrote:
>
> > > What is a "super-RP voice"? I've never had trouble understanding
> > > anything I heard on the Beeb, but some of the American accents are
> > > difficult.
> >
> > You can presumably hear her at their website. I don't know her name, but
> > she's a regular overnight person.
> >
> > WNYC has one, too, but she's been sounding less and less pretentious
> > over the years.
> >
> > I don't know who to suggest as a sample, other than (again) Hyacinth
> > Bucket in her more disapproving mode.
>
> Hyacinth Bucket's accent is faux-RP, more akin to the great stars of
> Music Hall in their "Burlington Bertie" roles.

And that's what the 'QXR lady sounds like to me.

The 'NYC lady, I recall, is called Judith Kampfner, so you can poke
around their website (wnyc.org) to find samples.

> > Or Mrs Thatcher!
>
> Please don't bring her up. After she became leader of the Conservative
> Party but before she fought the general election that made her Prime
> Minister she underwent training to lower the general pitch of her
> speaking voice. Ever afterwards she seemed to be acting.

Probably before, too.