Nelson has a lane named after him in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, I suppose it could be a bit of Spanish irony giving the great man a lane when he lost his arm trying to take Santa Cruz in 1797. In the end the Spanish & French fleet felt the wrath of Nelson in the battle of Trafalgar in 1805. Although he died in the battle his legacy remains and he is one of Britain’s national heroes. There was even a Nelson’s column in Dublin until 1966 when it got damaged badly from a bomb by the IRA, Dublin Corporation then decided to demolish what was left and called in the “experts” from the army who used too much explosive and broke every window on O’Connell Street when they pushed the plunger.
Back to Nelson, he joined the Navy at age 12, and by the time of the battle of Copenhagen in 1801 he had lost an arm and an eye, he was able to use his half blindness as an excuse for not seeing a signal to stop attacking. The Danes suffered a crippling defeat, one of their national disasters.
After his death he was preserved in a cask of rum, for the voyage back to Blighty and apparently rum rations were stopped, the cask was empty of liquid when it arrived in port giving birth to the phrase Nelson’s Blood for rum and various sea shanty’s like this one….a few verses of
Nelsons Blood
Oh, a drop of Nelson’s blood wouldn’t do us any harm
Oh, a drop of Nelson’s blood wouldn’t do us any harm
Oh, a drop of Nelson’s blood wouldn’t do us any harm
And we’ll all hang on behind.
So we’ll roll the old chariot along
An’ we’ll roll the golden chariot along.
So we’ll roll the old chariot along
An’ we’ll all hang on behind!
Oh, a plate of Irish stew wouldn’t do us any harm
Oh, a plate of Irish stew wouldn’t do us any harm
Oh, a plate of Irish stew wouldn’t do us any harm
And we’ll all hang on behind.
So we’ll roll the old chariot along
An’ we’ll roll the golden chariot along.
So we’ll roll the old chariot along
An’ we’ll all hang on behind!
Note that the second verse talks about Irish stew, no need to guess where a lot of the crew came from, in fact Ireland sent a lot of cannon fodder to the Napoleonic Wars fighting for King George and Napoleon some even having been press ganged into the Royal Navy were subsequently captured by the French and eventually fought as soldiers in the Regiment Irlandaise. (Which later was disbanded by the Bourbons and the remainder became the beginning of the first Foreign Legion)
The portrait of Nelson was done after the loss of the arm but before the loss of the eye, his own words can be found on the website http://www.admiralnelson.org/ he says about his hair going white after the shock of losing his arm.
Another interesting link describes his funeral a website called Portcities.
I imagine that Nelson had Scandinavian forefathers, his name and his birthplace in Norfolk would indicate so even though I don’t have any proof, maybe there are Nelson scholars among the readers of this blog who know more about the great man? Be my guest and leave a comment.
Facinating stuff, thank you.