Historical Figure
Horatio Nelson
1758–1805
British Royal Navy officer (1758–1805)
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Biography
Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson, 1st Duke of Bronte was a British Royal Navy officer whose leadership, grasp of strategy and unconventional tactics led to multiple decisive British naval victories during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. Trafalgar Square is dedicated to him. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest admirals in history; many historians consider him the greatest.
Timeline
The story of Horatio Nelson, told in moments.
At the Battle of Cape St. Vincent, disobeys orders and breaks formation to intercept the Spanish fleet. Boards two enemy ships personally. He's 38, already missing the sight in one eye from a previous action in Corsica.
A musket ball shatters his right elbow at the Battle of Santa Cruz de Tenerife. The surgeon amputates within 30 minutes. No anesthetic. He asks for the knife to be heated first. He's back giving orders within an hour.
Attacks the French fleet at Aboukir Bay at night. Nobody does this. He splits his force and sends ships inside the anchored French line, hitting them from both sides. Destroys 11 of 13 French ships. Napoleon's army is stranded in Egypt.
Shot by a French musketeer at the Battle of Trafalgar. The ball enters his left shoulder and lodges in his spine. He lives three hours. 'Thank God I have done my duty.' His fleet destroys 22 French and Spanish ships without losing one. His body is preserved in brandy for the voyage home.
State funeral at St Paul's Cathedral. Thirty thousand line the route. Sailors from HMS Victory carry the coffin. They're supposed to fold the ship's ensign and place it on the casket. Instead they tear it apart, each man keeping a piece.
In Their Own Words (20)
Fear? I never saw fear. What is it? It never came near me.
Said by Nelson after getting lost on a bird-nesting exhibition and being asked by his grandmother why fear did not drive him home, as quoted in Nelson: A personal history (1994), Hibbert, C., p. 6, 1994
Those gobblers [the French]?- I detest them.
Said by Nelson during a conversation with his uncle Maurice Suckling, as quoted in Nelson: A personal history (1994), Hibbert, C., p. 73, 1994
There is in the handling of these Transatlantic ships a nucleus of trouble for the Navy of Great Britain.
On American ships sighted sometime between 1801 and 1803, as quoted in The Royal Navy: Its Influence in English History and in the Growth of Empire (1914) by John Leyland, 1914
If I had been censured every time I have run my ship, or fleets under my command, into great danger, I should have long ago been out of the Service and never in the House of Peers.
Statement (March 1805); Dispatches and Letters of Horatio Nelson, Vol. 6: May 1804 to July 1805 (1846), p. 353, 1846
Success, I trust — indeed have little doubt — will crown our zealous and well-meant endeavours: if not, our Country will, I believe, sooner forgive an Officer for attacking his Enemy than for letting it alone.
Statement regarding the attack on Bastia, Corsica (3 May 1794), as published in The Dispatches and Letters of Vice Admiral Lord Viscount Nelson with Notes (1845) edited by Sir Nicholas Harris Nicolas, Vol. I: 1777-1794, p. 393, 1845
Artifacts (15)
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