A painting of the Battle of Trafalgar, showing the fatal wounding of Lord Nelson on the deck of the HMS Victory. (Photo: Public Domain/WikiCommons)
In the middle of the Napoleonic War, Britain’s most famous naval hero is struck by a fatal musket ball at the very moment of his greatest strategic triumph. Rather than bury his body at sea, a quick-thinking Irish surgeon preserves it in a cask of brandy lashed to the deck of the ship. A hurricane is on the horizon and the mast has been shot off; there is no way to hang the sails that would get ship (and body) to England quickly.
The two words that stand out in this story? Brandy and surgeon.
The scenario described is the death of Vice-Admiral Horatio Nelson at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805, a moment so central to Britain’s story of itself that in a 2002 BBC poll, Nelson placed number eight on a list of 100 Greatest Britons—slightly behind Elizabeth I and ahead of Sir Isaac Newton and William Shakespeare. His monument in Trafalgar Square, a 169-foot-tall column surrounded by larger-than-life brass lions, is such a…
Source: The Scandalous Decision To Pickle Admiral Horatio Nelson In Brandy | Atlas Obscura
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A great story of the love and respect of a whole nation for a man seen as a saviour and hero. I doubt we will see his like again.
Best wishes, Pete.
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I’m sure we will and the only reason it will not be the same is because war has changed so much.
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