Nelson at 250
A nod to Nelson on his 250th, via Blair. Melbourne University’s Daniel Mandel on why Nelson’s great victory, Trafalagar, is relevant today:
The battle, fought between the Royal Navy’s 27 ships commanded by Nelson and the combined Franco-Spanish fleet of 33 ships under Admiral Pierre Villeneuve, led to the capture of 17 of Villeneuve’s fleet and an 18th blown up, without loss of a single British ship. It was the greatest naval victory in the annals and was additionally touched with pathos — Nelson was mortally wounded by a French sniper at the height of the battle. But why is a faraway sea battle fought by Europeans two centuries ago of any interest today?
First, a resonant historical context: Trafalgar came at the end of a two-year invasion threat to England posed by a Napoleonic France busy subduing the European continent. British Prime Minister William Pitt, like Winston Churchill 135 years later, had the Herculean labor of keeping Britain secure and working assiduously to open new fronts against the Continental dictator even as allies succumbed to his onslaught. A somewhat different but equally daunting challenge, in a world rendered vastly more imperiled by the advances of technology, will soon devolve upon the next incumbent of the White House. Like Pitt and Churchill, the next president will also have to deploy forces around the world to meet a transnational Islamist challenge, often without the benefit of stable or reliable allies.
Second, brilliant, unorthodox tactics: With Nelson, the age of fleets massing in parallel columns and exchanging broadsides gave way to riskier yet more rewarding tactics. Nelson ordered a frontal attack by his fleet in two columns to break the Franco-Spanish battle line. The aim was to overwhelm Villeneuve’s center and rear before his vanguard ships could turn and come to his aid. It was classic instance of deploying scarce resources in concentration at the point where they can be devastatingly effective. Today, when conventional mass clashes are becoming the exception rather than the rule in warfare, numbers count (witness the surge in Iraq) but important above all are bold, unconventional strategies (General Petraeus’ innovative use of counter-insurgency doctrine, for example) for atomizing, disorienting, and defeating opponents.
Third, the power of a magnetic commander who is neither a dictator nor acting on behalf of one: Courage, devotion to duty, and tenacity aside, Nelson did not fit the traditional mould. He never overcame seasickness and was almost feminine in his emotions, and his tactical brilliance was matched by utter devotion to his officers and men, who returned an exceptional affection. But Nelsons come but once in a run of centuries and it is no disparagement of today’s intrepid officers to say that we must make do without one.
Fourth, the most vital factor — values: Britain’s victory at Trafalgar is the expression of a motif that resonates today — to commit forces to the containment and defeat of transnational threats. Once it was the job of the Royal Navy to keep the sea lanes free, extirpate piracy on the high seas, end the slave trade on water, and contain dictators. Today keeping the peace and eliminating global threats falls heavily upon the U.S. armed forces. It must, however, also fall increasingly on a network of like-minded allies.
Well put.
In time of war, the clarity of thought under fire, and innovation and courage in the face of great odds by themselves would be enough to keep this man relevant and make him an inspiration. Britain’s great naval hero reportedly was like a rock star in his time, met by cheering crowds when he came ashore. Missing an eye and an arm, but never lacking in boldness. His basic philosophy was pretty simple. Attack, attack, attack. The doing could be exquisite, as at Trafalagar, as Mandel notes above, when Nelson broke with convention by dividing the French and Spanish fleet.
If exquisite can be applied to what ensued and the kind of splintery, fiery, bludgeoning death and maiming those Frenchmen, Spaniards and Englishmen met when, as England expected, Nelson’s sailors did their duty.
Dean King’s “Every Man Will Do His Duty” is an excellent anthology of firsthand accounts of life and battle in the Royal Navy during the Napoleonic Wars that includes accounts of Trafalgar and describes the expectations of Royal Navy officers’ conduct in battle, when they were expected to stand unflinching on the quarterdeck, without taking cover, thinking and acting clearly no matter how much lead, fire and wood was flying around.
Here’s Dr. William Beatty’s eyewitness account of the Death of Nelson:
“Lord Nelson and Captain Hardy walked the quarter-deck in conversation for some time after this, while the enemy kept up an incessant raking fire. A double-headed shot struck one of the parties of Marines drawn up on the poop, and killed eight of them; when his lordship, perceiving this, ordered Captain Adair, to disperse his men round the ship, that they might not suffer so much from being together. In a few minutes afterwards a shot struck the fore-brace-bits on the quarter-deck, and passed between Lord Nelson and Captain Hardy; a splinter from the bits bruising Captain Hardy’s foot, and tearing the buckle from his shoe. They both instantly stopped; and were observed by the Officers on deck to survey each other with inquiring looks, each supposing the other to be wounded. His lordship then smiled, and said: ‘This is too warm work, Hardy, to last long;’ and declared that ‘through all the battles he had been in, he had never witnessed more cool courage than was displayed by the Victory’s crew on this occasion.’
. . . About fifteen minutes past one o’clock, which was in the heat of the engagement, he was walking the middle of the quarter-deck with Captain Hardy, and in the act of turning near the hatchway with his face towards the stern of the Victory, when the fatal ball was fired from the enemy’s mizzen-top. . .
The ball struck the epaulette on his left shoulder, and penetrated his chest. He fell with his face on the deck. Captain Hardy, who was on his right (the side furthest from the enemy) and advanced some steps before his lordship, on turning round, saw the Sergeant Major of Marines with two seamen raising him from the deck; where he had fallen on the same spot on which, a little before, his secretary had breathed his last, with whose blood his lordship’s clothes were much soiled. Captain Hardy expressed a hope that he was not severely wounded; to which the gallant Chief replied: ‘They have done for me at last, Hardy.’ - ‘I hope not,’ answered Captain Hardy. ‘Yes,’ replied his lordship; ‘my backbone is shot through.’
Captain Hardy ordered the seamen to carry the Admiral to the cockpit. . .
His lordship was laid upon a bed, stripped of his clothes, and covered with a sheet. While this was effecting, he said to Doctor Scott, “Doctor, I told you so. Doctor, I am gone;” and after a short pause he added in a low voice, “I have to leave Lady Hamilton, and my adopted daughter Horatia, as a legacy to my country.” The surgeon then examined the wound, assuring his lordship that he would not put him to much pain in endeavoring to discover the course of the ball; which he soon found had penetrated deep into the chest, and had probably lodged in the spine. This being explained to his lordship, he replied, “he was confident his back was shot through.”
The back was then examined externally, but without any injury being perceived; on which his lordship was requested by the surgeon to make him acquainted with all his sensations. He replied, that “he felt a gush of blood every minute within his breast: that he had no feeling in the lower part of his body: and that his breathing was difficult, and attended with very severe pain about that part of the spine where he was confident that the ball had struck; for,” said he, “I felt it break my back.” These symptoms, but more particularly the gush of blood which his lordship complained of, together with the state of his pulse, indicated to the surgeon the hopeless situation of the case; but till after the victory was ascertained and announced to his lordship, the true nature of his wound was concealed by the surgeon from all on board except only Captain Hardy, Doctor Scott, Mr. Burke, and Messrs. Smith and Westemburg the assistant surgeons.
The Victory’s crew cheered whenever they observed an enemy’s ship surrender. On one of these occasions, Lord Nelson anxiously inquired what was the cause of it; when Lieutenant Pasco, who lay wounded at some distance from his lordship, raised himself up, and told him that another ship had struck, which appeared to give him much satisfaction. He now felt an ardent thirst; and frequently called for drink, and to be fanned with paper, making use of these words: ‘Fan, fan,’ and ‘Drink, drink.’
He evinced great solicitude for the event of the battle, and fears for the safety of his friend Captain Hardy. Doctor Scott and Mr. Burke used every argument they could suggest, to relieve his anxiety. Mr. Burke told him ‘the enemy were decisively defeated, and that he hoped His lordship would still live to be himself the bearer of the joyful tidings to his country.’ He replied, ‘It is nonsense, Mr. Burke, to suppose I can live: my sufferings are great, but they will all be soon over.’ Doctor Scott entreated his lordship ‘not to despair of living,’ and said ‘he trusted that Divine Providence would restore him once more to his dear country and friends.’ — ‘Ah, Doctor!’ replied lordship, ‘it is all over; it is all over.’
An hour and ten minutes however elapsed, from the time of his lordship’s being wounded, before Captain Hardy’s first subsequent interview with him. . . They shook hands affectionately, and Lord Nelson said: ‘Well, Hardy, how goes the battle? How goes the day with us?’- ‘Very well, my Lord,’ replied Captain Hardy. . . ‘I am a dead man, Hardy. I am going fast: it will be all over with me soon. Come nearer to me. Pray let my dear Lady Hamilton have my hair, and all other things belonging to me.’ . . .Captain Hardy observed, that ‘he hoped Mr. Beatty could yet hold out some prospect of life.’ – ‘Oh! no,’ answered his lordship; ‘it is impossible. My back is shot through. Beatty will tell you so.’ Captain Hardy then returned on deck, and at parting shook hands again with his revered friend and commander.
His Lordship became speechless in about fifteen minutes after Captain Hardy left him. . . and when he had remained speechless about five minutes, his Lordship’s steward went to the surgeon, who had been a short time occupied with the wounded in another part of the cockpit, and stated his apprehensions that his Lordship was dying. The surgeon immediately repaired to him, and found him on the verge of dissolution. He knelt down by his side, and took up his hand; which was cold, and the pulse gone from the wrist. On the surgeon’s feeling his forehead, which was likewise cold, his Lordship opened his eyes, looked up, and shut them again. The surgeon again left him, and returned to the wounded who required his assistance; but was not absent five minutes before the Steward announced to him that ‘he believed his Lordship had expired.’ The surgeon returned, and found that the report was but too well founded: his Lordship had breathed his last, at thirty minutes past four o’clock; at which period Doctor Scott was in the act of rubbing his Lordship’s breast, and Mr. Burke supporting the bed under his shoulders.
Doesn’t include the famous, final “Kiss Me, Hardy” or “Kismet, Hardy.”
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 11:40 pm on Wednesday, October 1, 2008
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October 2nd, 2008 at 4:28 pm
Herewith my report to the legions of loyal Jules Crittenden devotees:
We will each rue the day, utterly so, when the United States Navy, the only Blue Water Sea Power left roaming the Globe, no longer has the singular capacity to pull up to any ‘shore-step’, and release her potential; and for her War-Ships to patrol the Globe’s Blue Waters; without so much as a by-your-leave.
JNelsonF aka Splash
Former United States Naval Officer, a Horatio Wellington Nelson derivative; and esteemed member of “The 1805 Club”; A venerable fraternity of seafaring men, all gentlemen of probity, whom regard as sacred, the “Immortal Memory” of Vice Admiral Lord Viscount Horatio Nelson KB, Duke of Bronte and Commander-in-Chief of His Majesty’s ships and vessels. This, a society of esteemed seafaring officers and gentlemen, honor and commemorate “Trafalgar Night”; October Twenty First of the Year One Thousand Eight Hundred Aught Five, that date, which celebrates the Battle of Trafalgar, and the ever to be lamented death of Vice Admiral Lord Viscount Horatio Nelson.
OUT