Getting to know Lord Nelson...
St Vincent - a street with a big name!
The Nelson bi-centenary commemorations have already begun with some of the Admiral's earlier battles.
14 February 1997 marked the bicentenary of the Battle of Cape St Vincent, where Nelson's dramatic action secured victory for the British and began his rise to fame.
At the battle Admiral Sir John Jervis (later Earl St. Vincent) led a squadron of 15 sailing ships against a numerically far superior Spanish fleet. He fell on them off the southern coast of Portugal as they were running for Cadiz and divided their line into two parts.
From his flagship, HMS Victory, he ordered his ships to tack in succession and prevent the gap from being closed. Nelson, last but two in the line, saw that this manoeuvre would not be completed in time and made a quick decision to turn his ship, HMS Captain into the gap. He took on seven Spanish ships, including the Santissima Trinidad, the largest ship in the world and two other ships, the San Nicolas and San Josef.
Through a hail of pistol and musket fire, he led boarding parties to capture both the San Nicolas and San Josef. By nightfall, four ships had been taken and ten others crippled. Admiral Jervis was generous in his praise of Nelson who was knighted (KB).
The battle for Corsica
In 1794, the British were at war with the French revolutionary government. They needed a base to fight and the obvious place was Corsica - already in revolt against the French. The keys to Corsica were the two fortress-cities of Bastia and Calvi on the east and west coasts.
The English dragged their guns ashore and heavily bombarded Calvi for several days in July 1794. On 12 July, Nelson was wounded. He had been watching the bombardment from a vantage point with a view of the battlefield and besieged city, when a shell burst on the rampart of sandbags, sending up a shower of stones and sand. Nelson's face was cut, the worst wound on his right brow.
Nelson wrote to his commander Lord Hood: "I got a little hurt this morning: not much, as you may judge by my writing."
Hood replied: "I am truly sorry to hear you have received a hurt, and hope you tell the truth in saying it is not much."
A few days later Nelson wrote to his brother William: "You will be surprised when I say I was wounded in the head by stones from the merlon of our battery. My right eye is cut entirely down, but the Surgeons flatter me that I shall not entirely lose my sight of that eye. At present I can distinguish light from dark, but no object . . . . Such is the chance of War, it was within a hair's breadth of taking off my head."
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French surrender
It took until 10 August 1794 for the French to surrender. Nelson had lost his eye but Corsica was now a British possession. Incidentally the famous image of Lord Nelson wearing a patch is not accurate. He lost his sight but the eye was not disfigured and his letters show his relief that his appearance would not be marred.
Two Names
Nelson resident Jim Sargent of Bronte Street asks: "Why was Horatio, Viscount Nelson, Admiral of the British Navy, given the title 'Duke of Bronte', when Bronte is a town on the slopes of Mt Etna in eastern Sicily?"
The answer: Nelson was indeed Viscount Nelson. He was also Duke of Bronte. This came about after the massive defeat he inflicted on the French fleet in 1798 at the Battle of the Nile, off Aboukir Bay. Nelson returned in triumph to Naples in his ship HMS VANGUARD to a hero's welcome from Emma Hamilton. He was raised to the peerage as Baron Nelson of the Nile, Parliament voted him a pension of 2000 pounds sterling a year, the East India Company awarded him 10,000 pounds sterling and the King of Naples conferred on him the title of Duke of Bronte, in Sicily. But why did the King want to favour Lord Nelson with a title?
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Nelson in the Mediterranean
Horatio was on continuous active service in the Mediterranean for most of the 1790s. He lingered for a year in Naples, which is where he fell in love with Lady Emma Hamilton. During his time in Naples, Nelson evacuated its Royal Family to Sicily and helped to crush an uprising and presumably it was that deed that brought him the gratitude of the King.
Nelson to Nelson
This story makes another Nelson connection for us:
Vanguard Street is named after Lord Nelson's flagship at the Battle of the Nile . Shame about Lady Emma, though. Since the Hotel Nelson closed in the mid '80s we haven't had a memorial to her. The old 'Nellie' used to have a small lounge bar called the Lady Hamilton Bar, wood panelled and decorated with paintings of one of the most famous heroines in romantic history.
Update: Collingwood in Golden Bay is named after the admiral who was second in command at the Battle of Trafalgar, Cuthbert Collingwood from Newcastle-upon-Tyne , who is buried in St Paul 's Cathedral next to Lord Nelson. Collingwood, the town, is keen to be part of the celebrations, and is currently working on a walking track named the 'Battle of Trafalgar Track' that will be opened officially at the time of the commemoration.
In Nelson’s day...
When a sailing ship spent six months at sea, there had to be plenty of stores to last the distance. HMS Victory would set sail with up to 300 tons of water, 30 tons of beef, 15 tons of peas, 4 tons of oatmeal and 45 tons of bread and biscuits. There were also vegetables, dried fish and livestock, including chooks and a milking cow. When fodder ran out, the animals became food for the crew. Cats were kept on board to deal with the mice and rats and it was not unusual for an officer to take his favourite dog on board. Fresh meat was kept cool in a 'nautical meat safe', a wooden disc with hooks to hang the meat from, that was slung from the overhang of the ship’s stern in the fresh salt air.
Would you like to see the menu?
Breakfast was a cold oatmeal porridge called Burgoo, served with Scots coffee - ships’ biscuits dropped into the galley fire until they were burnt to charcoal, then crushed up and mixed with hot water.
Lunch was some sort of soup or stew with salt beef, pork or fish and dried vegetables; and the evening meal was ships’ biscuits with butter or cheese and often weevils!
A ten year-old boy who served at Trafalgar wrote this letter home about the food:
"We live on beef which has been ten to eleven years in the cask and on biscuit which makes your throat cold in eating owing to the maggots which are very cold when you eat them, like calvesfoot jelly."
Getting to know Lord Nelson continued |
