Abstract
On the morning of 21 October 1805, at about 8.00am, Vice-Admiral Lord Nelson went down to his cabin on the upper gun deck of HMS Victory. Most of his furniture and belongings had been packed up and stowed in the hold, earlier at daybreak, when the ship’s company had cleared for action, but canvas screens had been erected to give him a little privacy and some essential items left behind, such as his portable writing desk. Taking a small pocket notebook, in which he habitually made brief notes of each day’s events, he wrote:
Monday Octr: 21st 1805 at day Light saw the Enemys Combined fleet from East to ESE bore away made the Signal for Order of Sailing and to Prepare for Battle the Enemy with the heads to the Southward. At 7 the Enemy wearing in succession.
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Notes
For facsimiles of both versions of the prayer, together with a discussion of their provenance, see O. Warner, Nelson’s Last Diary (London: Seeley Service, 1971).
See, for example, T. Coleman, Nelson (London: Bloomsbury, 2001), p. 320. Hereafter cited as Coleman.
Nicholas Harris Nicolas, The Dispatches and Letters of Lord Nelson (London, 1844/6), vol. VII, p. 349. Hereafter cited as Nicolas.
T. Pocock, Horatio Nelson (London: Bodley Head, 1987), p. 242.
Dudley Pope, The Great Gamble (London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1972).
Nelson to Thomas Forsyth, 2 February 1802. Quoted in Richard Walker, The Nelson Portraits (Portsmouth, 1999), p. 248.
James Harrison, The Life of Horatio Lord Viscount Nelson of the Nile (London, 1806), vol. II, p. 458.
Marianne Czisnik, ‘Nelson and the Nile: The Creation of Admiral Nelson’s Public Image’, Mariners Mirror, 88 (2002).
For an examination of the reasons for Nelson’s appointment see my ‘The Public Order Book of Vice Admiral Lord Nelson’, in M. Duffy, The Naval Miscellany, vol. VI (Navy Records Society, 2003).
T. Jenks, ‘Contesting the Hero: The Funeral of Admiral Lord Nelson’, JBS, 39 (2000).
J.S. Clarke and J. M’Arthur, The Life of Admiral Lord Nelson, 2 vols (London, 1809).
The process was started by Coleman and has been ably continued, and greatly expanded, by John Sugden in Nelson: A Dream of Glory (London: Jonathan Cape, 2004).
For an excellent exposition on Southey’s shortcomings, and corrections of his main mistakes, see the edition edited by G. Callender (London, 1922). See also: D. Eastwood, ‘Patriotism Personified: Robert Southey’s Life of Nelson Reconsidered’, Mariners Mirror, 77 (1991).
C. Oman, Nelson (London, 1947), p. xv.
For example by E. Vincent, Nelson: Love & Fame (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2003) who lists Nicolas among the ‘Primary Sources’ in his bibliography.
For an examination of the development of the square as a centre for public events see, R. Mace, Trafalgar Square, Emblem of Empire (London: Lawrence and Wishart, 1976).
For an examination of the Victory’s transformation into a symbolic relic, see K. Fenwick, HMS Victory (London: Cassell, 1959)
and A. McGowan, HMS Victory — Her Construction, Career and Restoration (London: Chatham, 1999).
Quoted in Flora Fraser, Beloved Emma (London: John Murray, 2003), pp. 317–18.
Huw Lewis-Jones, ‘Displaying Nelson: Navalism and the Exhibition of 1891’, Trafalgar Chronicle, 14 (2004).
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© 2005 Colin White
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White, C. (2005). Nelson Apotheosised: The Creation of the Nelson Legend. In: Cannadine, D. (eds) Admiral Lord Nelson. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230508705_6
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