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National NewsConservative News
Nelson at Trafalgar: 'Thank God I Have Done My Duty'
By Gary Palmer
Posted on: October 23, 2005
October 21st marked the 200th anniversary of a battle that has been largely unappreciated by Americans.
Trafalgar, the last major pitched battle of sail powered warships, pitted the combined fleets of France and Spain in service to Napoleon against a smaller, but better manned and equipped British force under the command of Admiral Horatio Lord Nelson.
Outnumbered and outgunned, Nelson split his fleet into two columns and instead of pulling up along side the French and Spanish in the more traditional line of battle and exchanging broadsides, he sailed his columns into the line of enemy ships at a right angle. In the hours that followed, the British sank or captured 17 French and Spanish ships including the huge 140 gun Spanish battleship, Santěsima Trinidad, without a single British ship sunk or captured.
Nelson was the epitome of what made the British navy so successful. Nelson was a commoner, the son of a Norfolk parson. At the age of 12 his father sent him into navy. His genius for naval service was made evident when he passed the arduous lieutenant's exam at the age of 18 and later, at age 20, became the youngest captain in the history of the Royal Navy. By the time of Trafalgar, Nelson had lost an arm and an eye in service to his country.
While the ships of France and Spain were under the command of men that were officers by virtue of their social class, the British chose their officers by merit. That is, promotion by virtue of demonstrated skill, intelligence and competence in carrying out assigned duties. And the merits were rewarded in a very capitalistic manner that made both officers and seaman anxious to seek battle with their foes. Enemy vessels and their cargo became the property, or bounty, of the British crews that would be sold and shared among all. A British seaman of very low estate, if a member of a successful warship, could leave his service in the British navy quite well off.
In other words, British capitalism played a prominent role in making Britain the world's foremost naval power. They had rigorously trained sailors who could reload and fire a round every 90 seconds compared to the poorly trained French and Spaniards that took five minutes. The British had also developed an administrative system that made the equipping, supply and maintenance of their navy an almost seamless operation. This combination of being well-equipped, well-trained, well-disciplined, highly motivated, and well-lead was the key to the victory at Trafalgar.
While Nelson had no peers as a naval commander, his personal life was scandalous. Nelson left his own wife and fathered a daughter with Emma Hamilton, the wife of the British ambassador to Naples. When the couple returned to England, Nelson moved them into his home and continued the affair. Despite these public moral failings, Nelson possessed a firm belief that he was called by God and his country as England's defender. Five weeks before the battle Nelson wrote in his diary, "May the great God whom I adore enable me to meet the expectations of my country."
Others apparently believed God had a special calling on Nelson as well. William Wilberforce, Britain's devout leader of the effort to abolish slavery throughout the British Empire, prayed regularly for Nelson and shared the sentiments of others that gave thanks for having "…one efficient statesman who fervently prayed for every measure he engaged in, and who committed the event to divine superintendence…."
On the morning of the battle Nelson wrote in his diary his famous battle prayer, the prayer that was read 139 years later to British soldiers before they landed on the beaches of Normandy. Nelson prayed, "May the great God whom I worship Grant to my Country and for the benefit of Europe in General a great and Glorious Victory, and may no misconduct in any one tarnish it, and May humanity after Victory be the predominant feature in the British fleet. For myself individually I commit my life to Him who made me, and may His blessing light upon my endeavours for serving my Country faithfully, to Him I resign myself and the just cause which is entrusted to me to Defence - Amen, Amen, Amen."
Trafalgar gave Nelson the opportunity to live up to the expectations of his country, the opportunity to annihilate his country's enemies in a decisive battle and thus save England from tyranny. As he led his fleet into battle, he had a message signaled out to the rest of the ships, "England expects that every man will do his duty."
Before the day was done, Nelson would himself live up to that expectation. About two hours into the battle Nelson was mortally wounded by a French sniper whose musket ball lodged into his spine. Nelson gasped to Captain Thomas Masterman Hardy, "They have done for me at last, Hardy."
About three hours later, having been assured by Hardy of a complete victory, Nelson died. His last words were, "Thank God I have done my duty."
The ramifications of the victory were enormous. The destruction of Napoleon's sea power sealed the doom of his attempts to make France the dominant world power. Nelson's victory established British naval dominance until World War II and made Britain the world's dominant international power well into the 20th Century.
Trafalgar stands as the most spectacular victory in the storied history of the British navy. But in the victory, they lost Nelson, their greatest naval commander, whose stature and significance has not been diminished after 200 years.
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