Nelson & Trafalgar

A pilgrimage to all things Nelson.

So much has been written about Horatio Nelson and his great naval victories at the Battle of Cape St. Vincent, the Battle of the Nile, the Battle of Copenhagen and (most famously) Trafalgar, that any summary of his career that I might provide here would be small beer indeed. If you're interested in reading more about Nelson, his entry in the Wikipedia is a good place to start.

Nelson's Tomb

As I mentioned in the introduction to this section, one of my main motivations for visiting the UK was to make a "pilgrimage" to the famous Nelson sites and artifacts. The first stop we made was his tomb in the Crypt of St. Paul's Cathedral in London. Here the timing of my visit backfired. I came in late September, some three weeks before the long planned celebration of the aforementioned anniversary, and when I got to the tomb, I found it closed for cleaning and rennovation in anticipaton of the big event!

I was able to visit the nearby tomb of another of my heros, the Duke of Wellington, but to say I was disappointed is putting it mildy. Here's a picture of what I would have seen had the crypt been open:

It is not, perhaps, as impressive as Napolean's tomb (which I have also visited), but guess which military leader admired the other man so much as to keep a bust of him in his study? That's right: Napolean kept a bust of Nelson, but it may have been only to shame the admirals of the French navy into fighting Nelson with more vigor.

In fact, a not-so-close reading of the history of the battle of Trafalgar tells you that the French admiral Villeneuve could have easily avoided his ignoble defeat, but after dodging Nelson for many months by alternately running or hiding in safe harbor, he rushed out from Gilbraltar to avoid being sacked by a new admiral Napolean had sent to replace him.

HMS Victory

We had better luck with our visit to HMS Victory, Nelson's flagship at the Battle of Trafalgar. Located at Portsmouth Harbour on the south coast of England, it is the world's oldest commissioned warship. It has, of course, undergone numerous restorations since it was launched in 1765, and as you'll see below, I'm lucky enough to have a souvenir made of oak taken from the ship during some of the restoration work.

Here is a photograph of the prow of the ship:

Here's one of the ship's cannons:

And here is a picture of my half scale quoin made from oak wood taken from the ship. Quoins were placed under the wheels of cannon to change the angle of elevation and thereby control their range.

The craftsman who made the quoin, Paul Bignall, was kind enough to send me an article from his local paper profiling him and his work. It turns out the quoin he's holding in the picture is the one I purchased!

Nelson Museum

While we were at Portsmouth, we also visited the Royal Naval Museum, which has many of Nelson's former posessions and artifacts associated with him and his career. They also have on display the actual foretopsail that was rigged on the Victory during the battle. As you might expect, it is shot through with numerous cannon and bullet holes.

They also have a modern wax figure based on all the very latest research into what Nelson looked like, which has resulted in what most Nelson experts agree to be a very close likeness. My wife thought this was a little creepy, but I insisted on her taking my picture beside the figure. As you can see, we are about the same height and are similiarly complected. But I've definitely got the bigger, crookeder nose!

Trafalgar Square

No Nelson pilgrimage would be complete without a visit to Trafalgar Square in London. London's most famous square was laid out from 1829 to 1841 to commemorate Nelson's victory. Dominating the square, on a column that is 185 feet high, is a 17 foot high statue of Nelson himself. I'm afraid all you get in this pic is base of the column and a partial view of two of the four giant bronze lions that ring the monument.

Here's an interesting bit a trivia about the square: Hilter so admired it that he directed the German air force not to bomb it during the Blitz so that he might disassemble it and ship it back to Berlin for display after he conquered Britian. See my entry on Spitfires for why those plans didn't work out.

John Lennon Has the Last Word

Finally, lest you think I've taken hero worship of Nelson too far, let me quote this anecdote from Bob Spitz's new biography of The Beatles:

[One of Lennon's art teachers] held court [in a room at a local bar], below a panorama of The Death of Nelson in which Hardy is depicted holding Nelson in his arms, oblivious to hundreds of anguished onlookers with their heads turned away--and which John Lennon retitled Who Farted?