HMS VICTORY
DATE: 1805.
WHAT IT IS: Vice Admiral Horatio Nelson’s flagship at the Battle of Trafalgar.
WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE: The first-rate ship of the line* is 226 feet long and more than 51 feet wide. It has 104 guns and three decks.
Napoleon was on a militaristic rampage bent on devouring every country in sight. England set out to stop him or at least maintain its supremacy on the seas, lest Napoleon storm its shores with an enormous and confident invading army. The British were determined to oust Napoleon from power as a grave threat to its—and other European countries’—sovereignty. By 1802, after several French victories, a temporary calm had settled on Europe, but beneath the surface the situation remained tense and volatile. These circumstances set the stage for what is considered the greatest naval battle in history.
By 1803 war was imminent. The English blockaded the French fleet at Toulon, keeping England safe, but in 1805 Napoleon devised a plan for the French fleet to unite with the Spanish fleet in the West Indies, from where the combined naval forces could storm across the Atlantic, defeat the English navy, and conquer England.
The commander of the French fleet at Toulon, Admiral Pierre de Villeneuve, managed to elude the British blockading fleet, escape into the Atlantic, and head for Martinique. This ruse was intended to shake off the British and disguise his real intentions. The English fleet commander, Vice Admiral Lord Nelson, however, followed Villeneuve across the Atlantic and hounded him back to Cádiz. Here the French sought safety in the harbor with the Spanish fleet, which was then ready to join forces for the invasion. The English fleet assembled off Cádiz, determined to prevent the combined enemy forces’ escape, and so after two years it seemed there would finally be a showdown.
The combined French and Spanish fleet did indeed leave Cádiz, heading south for the Mediterranean, with Nelson a dozen miles west. During the hours of darkness, Nelson ordered his vessels to make a southward approach; by daybreak the enemies—some nine miles apart—were able to spot each other. The engagement was now inevitable.
The location: off the coast of Cape Trafalgar in southwestern Spain. The date: the twenty-first of October, 1805. With thirty-three ships of the line, the French and Spanish fleet’s sturdy double- and triple-deckers were filled with dozens of cannons and thousands of soldiers ready to destroy the British, with twenty-seven ships of the line.
About noon the British navy began to make its battle approach. In the morning the French fleet had changed its formation from a basically straight line to a crescent and was now heading north. Instead of closing in parallel—ship-to-ship—formation, Nelson, having previously decided his battle tactics, ordered his men-of-war to approach in two columns and cut the enemy fleet at the center and at the rear. In this way, he could wreak much destruction before the van could come around to join the fighting.
The Battle of Trafalgar by Wyllie. Some sixty warships fought in this epic battle, in which Horatio Nelson's vessel the Victory engaged in combat with the Redoubtable.
As the wind carried the Royal Navy closer and closer to the French and Spanish fleet, the situation was tense. Both fleets were strong and well armed, and there would be great losses on each side. Leading the northerly British column was the one-armed, half-blind Lord Nelson in the flagship, HMS Victory; the southerly squadron, headed by Admiral Sir Cuthbert Collingwood in the Royal Sovereign, charged in first.
Behind the Victory were the Teméraire, Neptune, Leviathan, Conqueror, Britannia, Ajax, Agamemnon, Orion, Prince, Minotaur, and Spartiate. They broke through the line at the center, Collingwood’s squadron at the rear. Ships pulled up broadside to one another, and the raging combat commenced.
After firing upon and killing or wounding approximately half of the 800 seamen on board the Bucentaure, and incapacitating 20 of its 80 guns, the Victory, carrying more than 850 men and 100 guns, was engaged by the 74-gun Redoubtable. Fighting between the two ships, which now lay alongside each other, was furious. The Victory suffered heavy casualties and Nelson, while commanding the fleet from the quarterdeck, was shot by an enemy sniper and died three hours later in the cockpit of the Victory.
The Teméraire cut through to aid the Victory but was fired on by a French ship also called Neptune. Another French ship came up to finish her off, but the Victory’s starboard guns were now manned again to repel her attack. Then the Teméraire, whose crew did not yet know their admiral was dying, came broadside on the Redoubtable and assaulted her with gunfire, killing almost half her crew of over 630.
Meanwhile, other British ships were pulverizing other enemy vessels, even where they were outnumbered in guns. Villeneuve’s flagship, the Bucentaure, was once again ravaged, first by the British Neptune, then by the Conqueror, and the French commander surrendered. By late afternoon almost half the French and Spanish fleet were captured. Their casualties were in the thousands.
The Royal Navy was victorious but lamented the death of its esteemed admiral. Collingwood did not bother to chase the fleeing enemy vessels but brought the fleet in with the captured warships in tow.
After Trafalgar, the Victory, which had been launched in 1765, was refitted at Chatham where she had been built. In 1808 she became involved in maneuvers in the Baltic under Rear Admiral James Saumarez, then continued to see action in other operations until her combat service was ended in 1812. Beginning in 1813, she underwent a major refit, during which time a plaque was placed on the quarterdeck where Nelson had fallen. During her career the Victory served as a flagship for several British admirals, including Augustus Keppel, Francis Geary, Richard Howe, Hyde Parker, Samuel Hood, and Joseph Yorke.
Today the Victory sits in dry dock, the only remaining ship of the line and now a shrine for the English. For it was on board this vessel that the country’s most masterful, loved, and enduring naval hero executed his brilliant plan of attack against the combined French and Spanish fleet. It was here that Lord Nelson and his men fought so valiantly to save England. It was on the Victory that the Royal Navy’s commander in chief charged into battle in a contest that probably decided, for a time, the fate of Europe.
LOCATION: H.M. Naval Base, Portsmouth, Hampshire, England.
Footnote
*A ship of the line was the largest of the warships in existence at that time.
VICE ADMIRAL LORD NELSON’S
UNIFORM COAT
DATE: 1805
WHAT IT IS: The undress coat* worn by Horatio Nelson when he was shot during the Battle of Trafalgar.
WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE: About 45 inches in length, the coat is made of dark blue wool cloth and has epaulets of gold lace with gold wire bullion. In the left shoulder is a hole made by the musket ball that penetrated Nelson’s body and killed him.
It was at once a day of exalted joy and overwhelming grief for England. With the defeat of the enemy naval forces at Trafalgar, a nation was saved, but its most beloved war hero, fervently adored by both his countrymen and -women and the sailors who served under him, was lost. Indeed the national outpouring of grief was so tremendous that “it seemed as if no man,” as Samuel Taylor Coleridge aptly put it, “was a stranger to another—for all were made acquaintances in the rights of a common anguish.” But despite a poignant funeral and ample state rewards for his immediate family, Nelson’s repeated dying wish—that his country provide for his beloved Lady Hamilton and their daughter, Horatia—was ignored. Lady Hamilton eventually became destitute and was forced to sell the very coat her cherished Nelson had been wearing when he was shot as he led the British navy to its most important victory ever.
As the British men-of-war sailed into battle against the combined French and Spanish fleet on the afternoon of October 21, 1805, Nelson, forty-seven years old, was aware of a fighter’s vulnerability in war. Just hours before the first carronades roared, Nelson, wearing his undress coat, wrote a bequest, which he had witnessed later by the ship’s captain, Thomas Masterman Hardy, in which he hoped that should he die, his homeland would giv
e Emma Hamilton “an ample provision to maintain her rank in life. . . . These are the only favours I ask of my King and country at this moment when I am going to fight their battle.”
Lady Emma Hamilton was the woman with whom Nelson had carried on a torrid—and sensational—love affair. It began while she was married to Sir William Hamilton, the British envoy at Naples, and he to Frances Nelson. The two never married. Although both publicly denied their intimacy, it was common knowledge. Many, including the king, disapproved. There was even an offspring of their illicit liaison, Horatia, in whom Nelson rejoiced. But Horatia never knew Nelson was her biological father, for this was not proved until after both of their deaths.
As the Victory was about to enter battle, there was deep concern that Nelson would draw the enemy’s fire. “He was dressed as usual in his Admiral’s frock coat,” the ship’s surgeon, Dr. William Beatty, later remembered. The long blue coat had nine gilt buttons on each side of the front, three buttons and two stripes of gold lace on each cuff, and four resplendent stars of Nelson’s four orders of chivalry emblazoned across the left breast. But the men would not speak of their fears before battle. As Dr. Beatty wrote:
Several officers of the ship now communicated to each other their fears and anxiety for His Lordship’s personal safety, to which every other consideration seemed to give way. Indeed all were confident of gaining a glorious victory, but the apprehensions for His Lordship were great and general; and the Surgeon made known to Doctor Scott his fears that His Lordship would be made the object of the Enemy’s marksmen, and his desire that he might be entreated by somebody to cover the stars on his coat with a handkerchief. Doctor Scott and Mr. Scott (Public Secretary) both observed, however, that such a request would have no effect; and that they also knew His Lordship’s feelings on that subject so well, that they were sure he would be greatly displeased with whoever should take the liberty of recommending any change in his dress on this account: and when the Surgeon declared to Mr. Scott that he would avail himself of the opportunity of making his sick-report for the day, to submit his sentiments to the Admiral, Mr. Scott observed, “Take care, Doctor, what you are about; I would not be the man to mention such a matter to him.” The Surgeon notwithstanding persisted in his design, and remained on deck to find a proper opportunity for addressing His Lordship; but this never occurred.
In the Trafalgar battle, the Victory engaged the French warship Redoubtable. After fighting broke out, Captain Hardy did point out to Nelson that his stars might make him a conspicuous target, but the vice admiral curtly responded that it was too late to be changing a coat.
Just before 1:30 P.M., Nelson was standing on the quarterdeck with Captain Hardy. A sharpshooter perched on the mizzenmast of the Redoubtable took aim at Nelson and discharged a bullet that ripped through his upper left chest.
The one-armed Nelson—he had lost his right arm in 1797 in an attack on Santa Cruz de Tenerife—fell on his fingertips and knees, then crumpled onto the deck. Captain Hardy summoned some seamen, who carried Nelson below. Nelson covered his face with a handkerchief so the sailors wouldn’t lose their spirit by seeing their commander in chief seriously wounded. He was taken to the cockpit, where dozens of men who had been struck and mutilated in the battle lay fighting for their lives. The vice admiral was put on a bed, and his clothes were removed. He told the ship’s surgeon, William Beatty, to tend to the others since his condition was hopeless. “I am a dead man,” he told Hardy. “It will all be over with me soon.” Then he besought his close friend Hardy to look after his dear Emma.
Hardy returned to the deck while the ship’s chaplain tended to Nelson. As the battle raged above, Nelson’s thoughts dwelled on Emma and Horatia, now four years old. While the chaplain massaged his chest to alleviate the sharp pain and the ship’s purser held up the bed to support Nelson’s shoulders, the admiral repeated his legacy to Lady Hamilton and Horatia. Later, Hardy returned below and told Nelson that more than a dozen enemy ships had been captured, and when Nelson expired at 4:30 P.M. on the Victory, he knew his troops had defeated the French and Spanish and that England was safe from invasion.
After the battle the Victory’s casualties were buried in a cemetery at Cape Trafalgar, but Nelson’s corpse, embalmed in a cask of spirits, was kept on the ship for return to England and a state funeral. The country mourned its fallen leader, especially the devoted sailors who served with Nelson. One man who took part in the Trafalgar battle noted, “Chaps that fought like the devil sit down and cry like a wench.” Hardy brought to Emma the admiral’s last letter, his sword, pigtail, and the coat he was wearing when he was pierced by the fatal bullet. About a month after Nelson died, Lady Hamilton wrote, “My heart is broken. Life to me now is not worth having. I lived but for him . . . I am very, very ill.”
Horatio Nelson lies wounded on the deck of HMS Victory.
With inheritances from both her late husband, Sir William Hamilton, who died in 1803, and Nelson, Emma Hamilton had enough money to live comfortably. But inconsolable at her lover’s death, she embarked on a downward course, spending recklessly, gambling heavily, and landing in jail. Pensions, annuities, titles, and cash stipends had been awarded to Nelson’s siblings and widow for his heroic contributions to England, but the admiral’s request that the country provide for his lover and daughter was ignored.
In 1813 Lady Hamilton, now indigent, sold Nelson’s Battle of Trafalgar undress coat to Alderman Joshua Smith, who helped her flee to Calais to escape a prison sentence. Smith died in 1844, and his widow sold the uniform to Sir Nicholas Harris Nicolas, who in turn sold it to Queen Victoria’s husband, Prince Albert. In 1845 the prince presented Nelson’s coat to the Greenwich Royal Hospital for Naval Pensioners, the buildings of which later housed the Royal Naval College. In 1937 the trustees of Greenwich Hospital moved the coat—whose date of manufacture is not known; it could have been anytime after Nelson became a vice admiral in 1801 to just before he died—to a museum on loan, where it continues to be exhibited today.
Lady Hamilton became an alcoholic and died in 1815. Unable to recover from the emotional trauma she suffered as a result of Nelson’s death, she must have been truly heartbroken to sell the uniform Nelson had refused to shed on board the Victory. Nelson risked his life wearing the coat but donned it in the belief that it would inspire his men in one of England’s most decisive naval battles—one that the nation so gloriously won.
LOCATION: National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London, England.
Footnote
*An undress coat was meant for everyday wear, as opposed to a full dress uniform which was worn only for ceremonial occasions.
THE STAR-SPANGLED BANNER
DATE: 1814
WHAT IT IS: The flag that inspired Francis Scott Key to compose the words to the tune that in 1931 became the official national anthem of the United States.
WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE: It survives as a 34-by-30-foot flag (it was originally 42 feet by 30 feet), with fifteen red and white stripes and fifteen stars of five points arranged in five rows of three stars each. The stars and stripes were hand-sewn with English bunting, and an Irish linen backing was later applied for support. The original flag weighed approximately 85 pounds, but after the linen backing was applied in 1914 by Smithsonian textile workers, the flag’s weight increased to almost 300 pounds.
The night sky lit up with the fiery glow of rockets. The sounds of bombs exploding filled the air. Thick clouds of smoke billowed high. With great apprehension the three Americans aboard a small flag-of-truce vessel on the Patapsco River strained to see through the darkness and mist what havoc the fleet of British warships up ahead were wreaking upon Fort McHenry.
It was the early morning hours of September 14, 1814. Francis Scott Key, John S. Skinner, and Dr. William Beanes were being detained by the British until the attack ceased. The British, having recently torched Washington, were on a path of destruction. Their assault on Fort McHenry had begun almost a day before, and if they could neutralize this barrie
r to Baltimore, they just might be able to take the city.
British troops were spread all over North America. They were defending their country’s frontier fortifications in Canada and attacking important American cities and tidewater towns. England was at war with the United States.
It was a war that the United States had entered gradually and reluctantly. The country had a policy of neutrality, begun in the days of President John Adams. But as England and France struck at each other’s commerce, the United States got sucked up in the imbroglio. The two European powers had imposed upon each other—and countries doing business with them or their territories—blockades, trade prohibitions, and unfair cargo duties. Sanction after sanction hurt the United States, which had enjoyed healthy trade relations with Europe. England, with its omnipotent navy, even seized U.S. ships and impressed their crew members into service aboard British ships.
Outrage among Americans was growing. Under President Jefferson, the United States had made efforts to fight back without going to war, but the 1807 Embargo Act halting all foreign trade hurt too many merchants and the less austere Non-Intercourse Act in 1809 reinstating foreign trade to all countries but France and England simply wasn’t enough to mitigate the surging anger. John Calhoun, Henry Clay, and other expansion-minded congressmen who became known as the War Hawks resented the mercantile damage England had caused and pressed for war. President James Madison, inaugurated in 1809 and ever hopeful to continue a policy of neutrality, finally asked Congress on June 1, 1812, to declare war against Great Britain. It did so seventeen days later, on June 18, and Madison signed the declaration; thus began the War of 1812, which lasted for three years.
Lucy's Bones, Sacred Stones, & Einstein's Brain Page 19