It's getting closer so I have to post again.
This friday it is 200 years since IMO the greatest Englishman that ever lived routed the combined Franco-Spanish fleet in the battle of Trafalgar. I am at present looking for any french in my vicinity so I can be near them on the day and remind them of this defeat and see how many of those maddening Gallic shrugs I can elicit:D
A great quote from Nelson :
Let me alone: I have yet my legs and one arm. Tell the surgeon to make haste and his his instruments. I know I must lose my right arm, so the sooner it's off the better.
Trafalgar
Trafalgar
"I have done my duty. I thank God for it!"
Trafalgar
I am a regular visitor to the Historic Dockyard at Portsmouth as it only takes me 45 minutes to get to. I have taken all my grandchildren there over the years (grandchildren are a wonderful excuse for going to interesting places) . HMS Victory is a delight to the kids and educational of course. There are so many other things to do and the Naval museums have been modernised with inter-active things for the kids to do....the Trafalgar Experience is awesome....
A smile is a window on your face to show your heart is home
Trafalgar
....
Detail from HMS VICTORY
In The Storm After The Battle Of Trafalgar
Detail from HMS VICTORY
In The Storm After The Battle Of Trafalgar
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chonsigirl
- Posts: 33633
- Joined: Mon Mar 07, 2005 8:28 am
Trafalgar
Both, tells us about those smirks when you see them.....
Great naval victory, still studied at the Naval Academy here.........
Great naval victory, still studied at the Naval Academy here.........
Trafalgar
last Trafalgar day was very special for me since Bothwell was here, we went to a very authentic British pub to celebrate.....i shall be wearing my union jack hat friday in honor of all the Britons here! 
Attached files
Attached files
Trafalgar
Arnold, thanks, the White Ensign is beautiful!
Trafalgar
Ahh so here we are.
ENGLAND EXPECTS THAT EVERY MAN WILL DO HIS DUTY.
The first shot was fired at the English ship Royal Sovereign at noon. This salute of iron was received in silence by the Royal Sovereign, who waited until she had drawn astern of the Spanish three-decket, Santa Anna, then raked her decks with a murderous fire that killed or wounded 400 of her crew.
In the meantime, Nelson´s ship was moving on, silent and intent, searching for the French admiral´s ship. Eventually, right in front of her, lay the huge Spanish four-decker, Santissima Trinidad. Guessing correctly that the French admiral´s ship must be nearby, Nelson bore down on her. As he did so, the Bucentaure, Villeneuve´s ship, and seven or eight other enemy ships, opened fire on the Victory. Still she advanced without firing. By the time she had come close enough to rake the Santissima Trinidad with her larboard guns, 50 of her men were dead and 30 wounded.
It was at this point that the Victory came into collision with the French Redoubtable. Locked together, and wrapped in sheets of flame, the two ships drifted slowly through the smoke of battle. Gradually, although the fighting had continued unabated, the smoke cleared a little from the decks of the Victory, enough for the marksmen to see the epaulets of the English officers. A marksman kneeling in the mizzen-top aimed his musket at Nelson.
On the quarterdeck of the Victory, Captain Hardy had turned to leave Nelson´s side to give an order when Nelson fell, mortally wounded. Immediately, Hardy, a sergeant of the marines and two privates, rushed forward to lift him up. Nelson was then carried down to the cockpit, where he ordered that his face should be covered with a handkerchief so that he might not be recognized.
In the meantime, the Redoubtable´s top marksmen had shot down 40 officers and men, destroying so many that the French, seeing the upper deck clear of all but dead or wounded, tried to board her. It was an enterprise which was to cost them dear. A botswain´s whistle piped, „Boarders; repel Boarders", and the order immediately summoned swarms of smoke-begrimed blue-jackets to the deck, where they killed every man who had managed to board the Victory.
ENGLAND EXPECTS THAT EVERY MAN WILL DO HIS DUTY.
The first shot was fired at the English ship Royal Sovereign at noon. This salute of iron was received in silence by the Royal Sovereign, who waited until she had drawn astern of the Spanish three-decket, Santa Anna, then raked her decks with a murderous fire that killed or wounded 400 of her crew.
In the meantime, Nelson´s ship was moving on, silent and intent, searching for the French admiral´s ship. Eventually, right in front of her, lay the huge Spanish four-decker, Santissima Trinidad. Guessing correctly that the French admiral´s ship must be nearby, Nelson bore down on her. As he did so, the Bucentaure, Villeneuve´s ship, and seven or eight other enemy ships, opened fire on the Victory. Still she advanced without firing. By the time she had come close enough to rake the Santissima Trinidad with her larboard guns, 50 of her men were dead and 30 wounded.
It was at this point that the Victory came into collision with the French Redoubtable. Locked together, and wrapped in sheets of flame, the two ships drifted slowly through the smoke of battle. Gradually, although the fighting had continued unabated, the smoke cleared a little from the decks of the Victory, enough for the marksmen to see the epaulets of the English officers. A marksman kneeling in the mizzen-top aimed his musket at Nelson.
On the quarterdeck of the Victory, Captain Hardy had turned to leave Nelson´s side to give an order when Nelson fell, mortally wounded. Immediately, Hardy, a sergeant of the marines and two privates, rushed forward to lift him up. Nelson was then carried down to the cockpit, where he ordered that his face should be covered with a handkerchief so that he might not be recognized.
In the meantime, the Redoubtable´s top marksmen had shot down 40 officers and men, destroying so many that the French, seeing the upper deck clear of all but dead or wounded, tried to board her. It was an enterprise which was to cost them dear. A botswain´s whistle piped, „Boarders; repel Boarders", and the order immediately summoned swarms of smoke-begrimed blue-jackets to the deck, where they killed every man who had managed to board the Victory.
"I have done my duty. I thank God for it!"
Trafalgar
:-6
Ooops, the spelling correction symbol has appeared again on this post?????
Anyway, randall here to blether again,
I read a life of Nelson (sorry, I can't remember the author's name) during one of my own voyages - one remarkable thing it stated was that he went for three years on one ship without ever putting a foot on dry land - I have managed 100 days but no more. The older you get the easier it gets.
From that book I took a great dislike to Nelson and way he treated his wife - one incident was whilst a dinner at a friend's house his wife broke the shells of a lot of nuts so that he could eat them and he violently swept them off the table with his one arm.
BUT, I think, now, that I had read that book when I was too young.
Churchill says in one book, (not an accurate quotation) "I feel so sorry and even pitiful for those who read far too many good books when they are young as they deprive themselves of great discoveries in reading books when they are older and more mature."
I, now, feel the same. Many books I have read in the last half of my life made me glad that I had not read them sooner.
I did not read "Parra Handy" until I was in my forties and by then I had enough experience of real life to enjoy and see the humour that was so well written into it.
Now I feel the same about Nelson.
One of our church's ministers (about forty years ago) did a sermon on Collingwood, Nelson's second in command, and used it to show how a gifted and talented person could be born at the same time as an equally talented person and thus remain in their shadow throughout their life. Totally unrecognised and rewarded.
Such was Collingwood. Ten years earlier or later and we would remember him as another Anson, Drake, Nelson, Rodney or Jellico but, alas, he was born at the wrong time.
A recent historical BBC (I think) - (probably channel 4 or 5) archaeological programme revealed an ironworks in the west of Scotland which apparently provided most of the cannon balls for Nelson's fleet.
They had a great celebration at the news of the victory at Trafalgar.
There was also a Buchan from Buchan onboard as a crew member according to the crew list at the foot of the present day HMS "Victory" gangplank.
Of course the famous "Carronade" came from Carron in Scotland and ended up with its inventor becoming Lord Carron - always a workman at heart, he is reputed to have died because, upon burning himself slightly in his factory he did, as most engineers used to do, simple dab a liberal amount of oil on it. This in turn resulted in septicaemia of which he died - I am lucky, it always healed my burns. But there were no antibiotics in those days.
Although there was still the Battle of Waterloo to be fought, Trafalgar began what was one of the longest periods in history of relative peace not counting the Crimea War, The Ashanti War, The Opium Wars, The American Civil War and the Boer War.
It is good to know that a Great Man is recognised across intercontinental divides and all those lines drawn on maps.
God bless all.
randall
:)
Ooops, the spelling correction symbol has appeared again on this post?????
Anyway, randall here to blether again,
I read a life of Nelson (sorry, I can't remember the author's name) during one of my own voyages - one remarkable thing it stated was that he went for three years on one ship without ever putting a foot on dry land - I have managed 100 days but no more. The older you get the easier it gets.
From that book I took a great dislike to Nelson and way he treated his wife - one incident was whilst a dinner at a friend's house his wife broke the shells of a lot of nuts so that he could eat them and he violently swept them off the table with his one arm.
BUT, I think, now, that I had read that book when I was too young.
Churchill says in one book, (not an accurate quotation) "I feel so sorry and even pitiful for those who read far too many good books when they are young as they deprive themselves of great discoveries in reading books when they are older and more mature."
I, now, feel the same. Many books I have read in the last half of my life made me glad that I had not read them sooner.
I did not read "Parra Handy" until I was in my forties and by then I had enough experience of real life to enjoy and see the humour that was so well written into it.
Now I feel the same about Nelson.
One of our church's ministers (about forty years ago) did a sermon on Collingwood, Nelson's second in command, and used it to show how a gifted and talented person could be born at the same time as an equally talented person and thus remain in their shadow throughout their life. Totally unrecognised and rewarded.
Such was Collingwood. Ten years earlier or later and we would remember him as another Anson, Drake, Nelson, Rodney or Jellico but, alas, he was born at the wrong time.
A recent historical BBC (I think) - (probably channel 4 or 5) archaeological programme revealed an ironworks in the west of Scotland which apparently provided most of the cannon balls for Nelson's fleet.
They had a great celebration at the news of the victory at Trafalgar.
There was also a Buchan from Buchan onboard as a crew member according to the crew list at the foot of the present day HMS "Victory" gangplank.
Of course the famous "Carronade" came from Carron in Scotland and ended up with its inventor becoming Lord Carron - always a workman at heart, he is reputed to have died because, upon burning himself slightly in his factory he did, as most engineers used to do, simple dab a liberal amount of oil on it. This in turn resulted in septicaemia of which he died - I am lucky, it always healed my burns. But there were no antibiotics in those days.
Although there was still the Battle of Waterloo to be fought, Trafalgar began what was one of the longest periods in history of relative peace not counting the Crimea War, The Ashanti War, The Opium Wars, The American Civil War and the Boer War.
It is good to know that a Great Man is recognised across intercontinental divides and all those lines drawn on maps.
God bless all.
randall
:)
Trafalgar
:-6
randall here,
'evenin' all.
I know that subject has apparently exhausted itself but I thought an extra two bit could be added.
In the times of Nelson there were several British Naval Flags - I agree with Lady Cop that the White Ensign is a beautiful flag - but, apparently there was "an Admiral |Of The Red", "An Admiral Of The Blue" and an "Admiral of the White" depanding on what naval aquadron he commanded - there might have been more and I may stand corrected.
God bless all.
randall
:)
randall here,
'evenin' all.
I know that subject has apparently exhausted itself but I thought an extra two bit could be added.
In the times of Nelson there were several British Naval Flags - I agree with Lady Cop that the White Ensign is a beautiful flag - but, apparently there was "an Admiral |Of The Red", "An Admiral Of The Blue" and an "Admiral of the White" depanding on what naval aquadron he commanded - there might have been more and I may stand corrected.
God bless all.
randall
:)
Trafalgar
Sorry Bothwell but we don't have much time for British military heroes as they usually spent their retirement kicking the sh*t out of us. Though Nelson (for once) left us alone, possibly because we are not the worlds greatest sailors, I'm sure if we had found a couple of ships lying around we would have tried ramming them into the British rear just for the laugh,....gits. I will hand it to him about Trafalgar though, he did a nice job on that one.
"We are never so happy, never so unhappy, as we imagine"
Le Rochefoucauld.
"A smack in the face settles all arguments, then you can move on kid."
My dad 1986.
Le Rochefoucauld.
"A smack in the face settles all arguments, then you can move on kid."
My dad 1986.
Trafalgar
:-6
randall here,
Come on Galbally - be honest for once - you are not selling horses - at least, not to me.
Among the greatest of British Generals were the Irish Bred so-called Anglos Irish - Montgomery, Wavell and so forth.
Never hide your candle under a bushel.
I, for one, hope to live to see a United Ireland because the English treated you abismally but some of your "ain folk" took advantage of that and showed the English how thihgs should be done.
Your have produced more than your fair share of great ENLISH writers and rememberGeneral O'Connel stopped the North African invasion of by the Axis dead ion its tracks until his driver took a wrong turning and allowed him to be captured by the Germans.
Then there were seven generals between him and Montgomery who would not have succeeded if it had not been for the massive amount of tanks the USA poured into North Africa at the cost of many British Merchant Seamens' lives.
I LIVED THROUGH IT ALL!
God Bless.
randall..
:)
randall here,
Come on Galbally - be honest for once - you are not selling horses - at least, not to me.
Among the greatest of British Generals were the Irish Bred so-called Anglos Irish - Montgomery, Wavell and so forth.
Never hide your candle under a bushel.
I, for one, hope to live to see a United Ireland because the English treated you abismally but some of your "ain folk" took advantage of that and showed the English how thihgs should be done.
Your have produced more than your fair share of great ENLISH writers and rememberGeneral O'Connel stopped the North African invasion of by the Axis dead ion its tracks until his driver took a wrong turning and allowed him to be captured by the Germans.
Then there were seven generals between him and Montgomery who would not have succeeded if it had not been for the massive amount of tanks the USA poured into North Africa at the cost of many British Merchant Seamens' lives.
I LIVED THROUGH IT ALL!
God Bless.
randall..
:)
Trafalgar
Of course you are right, but I'm just talking about popular perceptions here. Yes there were loads of Irish lads who were good soliders and all that, I suppose we didn't get a reputation for nothing. I'm just talking about the way people view history, which is always subjective to their own point of view. Anyway, thats being all very nice isn't it?, you've got to inject a bit of needle into these discussions sometimes, its more fun.
"We are never so happy, never so unhappy, as we imagine"
Le Rochefoucauld.
"A smack in the face settles all arguments, then you can move on kid."
My dad 1986.
Le Rochefoucauld.
"A smack in the face settles all arguments, then you can move on kid."
My dad 1986.
Trafalgar
:-6
You are dead right Galbally,
Sometimes I think that have done more than my fair share of "needling"
I did have an Irish skipper on one boat with the unsual name of "Rickard" - a very small famly I believe who lived "On the Pensinula South Of Dublin" I was really sorry when he left me. We were the only two British men in a crew of Filipinos (Yes he was British - and showed me his passport telling me that up to 1948 all Irish citizens had to have British passports - Westminster hanging on by the skin of it teeth - again!)
Anway, he told me another amusing thing - he didn't believe that there was actually a "Bally James Duff" until he saw it on the road signpost!
Have you read "The Charge of the Light Brigade" by ????????? well, anyway it looked like a man's name but it turned out to be a woman who was very famous away back in the 1950's/60's
She did so much in-depth research into the source of the horses for the cavalry and it turned out most of them were from Ireland.
After the great success of her book she found out that she had so much source material that she was able to write another best seller about the Irish Potato famine.and revealed the stupidity, greed and meaness which caused a famine where none existed.
We had a similar period in Buchan where they were exporting grain at a lower price than it cost the local and it ended up in a few battles between the locals, the sutoms and excisemen and boatowners - around Buckie, I believe. The locals burned quite a few wagons of grain.
Fascinating stuff.
Much like the Highland Clearances - and both gave a great gift to the world at large although it was not those who suffered that saw the gift come to fruition a hundred years later.
I would recommend another book to you - author fopgotten - it is out in my impenatrable shed - "The Desert Generals" and the author's greatest sorrow was that O'Connel was never in opposition to Rommel
One of the poor generals literally stepped out of his aeroplane into the bullets of a traffing German fighter on a desert airfield.- A very short career.
God bless.
randall
:)
You are dead right Galbally,
Sometimes I think that have done more than my fair share of "needling"
I did have an Irish skipper on one boat with the unsual name of "Rickard" - a very small famly I believe who lived "On the Pensinula South Of Dublin" I was really sorry when he left me. We were the only two British men in a crew of Filipinos (Yes he was British - and showed me his passport telling me that up to 1948 all Irish citizens had to have British passports - Westminster hanging on by the skin of it teeth - again!)
Anway, he told me another amusing thing - he didn't believe that there was actually a "Bally James Duff" until he saw it on the road signpost!
Have you read "The Charge of the Light Brigade" by ????????? well, anyway it looked like a man's name but it turned out to be a woman who was very famous away back in the 1950's/60's
She did so much in-depth research into the source of the horses for the cavalry and it turned out most of them were from Ireland.
After the great success of her book she found out that she had so much source material that she was able to write another best seller about the Irish Potato famine.and revealed the stupidity, greed and meaness which caused a famine where none existed.
We had a similar period in Buchan where they were exporting grain at a lower price than it cost the local and it ended up in a few battles between the locals, the sutoms and excisemen and boatowners - around Buckie, I believe. The locals burned quite a few wagons of grain.
Fascinating stuff.
Much like the Highland Clearances - and both gave a great gift to the world at large although it was not those who suffered that saw the gift come to fruition a hundred years later.
I would recommend another book to you - author fopgotten - it is out in my impenatrable shed - "The Desert Generals" and the author's greatest sorrow was that O'Connel was never in opposition to Rommel
One of the poor generals literally stepped out of his aeroplane into the bullets of a traffing German fighter on a desert airfield.- A very short career.
God bless.
randall
:)
Trafalgar
:-6
may randall digress a little after all that typing about Trafalgar.
What about Lady Cop starting a piece about your own great naval hero, John Paul Jones.
Tthe only man to get a "King's Ship" (The Royal Navy) to strike its colours (i.e. surrender) in over two hundred years, off the coast of Yorkshire in full sight of land.
I don't know much about his history but remember that as his own ship was sinking - on fire - I believe, he was asked to surrender and then replied with those memorable words, "Surrender! We have not yet begun to fight."
Have you not a John Paul Jones Day?????
You should have.
God bless.
randall.
:)
may randall digress a little after all that typing about Trafalgar.
What about Lady Cop starting a piece about your own great naval hero, John Paul Jones.
Tthe only man to get a "King's Ship" (The Royal Navy) to strike its colours (i.e. surrender) in over two hundred years, off the coast of Yorkshire in full sight of land.
I don't know much about his history but remember that as his own ship was sinking - on fire - I believe, he was asked to surrender and then replied with those memorable words, "Surrender! We have not yet begun to fight."
Have you not a John Paul Jones Day?????
You should have.
God bless.
randall.
:)
Trafalgar
:-6
My daughter, who had a house in Southsea for some years has just told me that there is a BUCHAN listed as a member of the crew of the HMS "VICTORY" at the Battle of Trafalgar.
Just thought that I should pop it in.
"Drummers Corner" in the centre of Peterhead is reputed to have been named after the Duke of Wellington's drummer boy at the Battle of Waterloo. His cottage had to be demolished to build the precinct.
God bless.
randall.
:)
My daughter, who had a house in Southsea for some years has just told me that there is a BUCHAN listed as a member of the crew of the HMS "VICTORY" at the Battle of Trafalgar.
Just thought that I should pop it in.
"Drummers Corner" in the centre of Peterhead is reputed to have been named after the Duke of Wellington's drummer boy at the Battle of Waterloo. His cottage had to be demolished to build the precinct.
God bless.
randall.
:)