From the original painting for Sir Wm. Hamilton by Leonardo Guzzardi, and presented to the Admiralty by the Hon. Robt. Fulke Greville in 1848. Reproduced by permission of the Admiralty. Painted by Hoppner in 1788. Reproduced by permission of the Earl of Camperdown from the original in his possession. From a painting by Charles Willson Peale. Reproduced by permission of Messrs. Charles Scribner's Sons. CHART OF MANOEUVRES OF 1906 326 For an explanation of the device on the cover of this volume see note on page 247. NELSON, AND OTHER NAVAL STUDIES PROEM THE ANNIVERSARY OF TRAFALGAR1 THE HE memory of Trafalgar can never fade so long as England remains a nation, nor even so long as the English tongue is spoken or the history of England is remembered in any part of the world. It was so transcendent an event, so far-reaching in its consequences, so heroic in its proportions, so dramatic in its incidents, so tragic in its catastrophe, that it is difficult to name any single event in all history which quite equals it in the opulent assemblage of all those elements and conditions which excite and sustain the abiding interest of mankind. It was the last and greatest fight of the greatest seaman of all time. It was consecrated by his death in the hour of victory. It delivered this nation once for all from the threatened thraldom of Napoleon. It changed the face of Europe, and set the world's stage for the successive acts of that tremendous drama which ended ten years later at Waterloo. It was, moreover, the last great fight of the sailing-ship period of naval warfare. It was at Trafalgar that the unique genius of Nelson, then at its ripest, put the last finishing touch-the Nelson touch -to those tactical methods which three centuries of 1 The Times, October 21, 1905. warfare had evolved, and witched the world with noble seamanship never to be seen on the field of naval battle again. But Trafalgar did even more than all this. When Gravelines, the first great battle of the sailing-ship period, was fought, England did not possess in effective occupation and sovereignty a single rood of territory beyond the narrow seas. It was, indeed, Drake and his comrades who laid at Gravelines the foundations of that vast Empire which sea power has since given us, but it was Trafalgar that countersigned its title-deeds with the blood of Nelson and of those who died with him, and ratified them beyond dispute. It is the thought of all these things, and of many others which the name and memory of Trafalgar suggest, that should inspire Englishmen whenever they celebrate the anniversary of the battle. We are then commemorating the most famous and the most decisive victory ever achieved by British arms on the seas. We are mourning, as our forefathers mourned now more than a hundred years ago, the death in the hour of victory of the greatest of all sea-captains, of the man whose surpassing gifts of head and heart, whose unparalleled achievements in the defence of his country and the overthrow of its enemies, have endeared him beyond all other sons of Britain to every son of Britain who lives and thinks to-day. We may study Nelson's personality and character, and still find more and more to engage and enthral our love. We may analyse his methods, and still find their depths unfathomable. We may appeal in his name as the Poet Laureate has appealed to our modern "Wardens of the Wave emulate his deeds and yet never to forget his generous and loving temper. May humanity in the hour of victory be the predominant feature of the British Fleet," was the prayer of his last unclouded hours. We may remember-as Mr. Henry Newbolt has bidden us remember-how" the soul of this man cherished Duty's name." But perhaps we may sum it all up best with Browning in those stirring " Home Thoughts from the Sea"; to THE SPIRIT OF THE OCCASION Nobly, nobly Cape Saint Vincent to the north-west died away; In the dimmest north-east distance, dawned Gibraltar grand and grey; " Here and here did England help me; how can I help England?" say Whoso turns as I, this evening, turn to God to praise and pray, While Jove's planet rises yonder, silent over Africa. 3 This is the true spirit in which Englishmen should approach the thought and memory of Trafalgar, in no "braggart vein " of martial triumph, but in one of solemn thanksgiving for mercies which it behoves us still to deserve. After more than a hundred years have passed -for nearly all of which we have happily been at peace with the great nation it took a Nelson to beat at Trafalgar -after the passions that engendered the conflict have long ago died down and passed away, above all now that the two nations are at length beginning to understand how necessary each is to the other, the last thing that we should think of in commemorating Trafalgar is the fact that France was worsted in that encounter of heroes. In truth it was not so much France that was worsted at Trafalgar as Napoleon that was overthrown, and even France-the valour of whose seamen was never more stoutly displayed than on that memorable day-may now feel that her true greatness lies in quite other directions than those in which Napoleon would have led her; in the peace and contentment of her sons, in her orderly emergence from the throes of a necessary revolution, in her sustained championship, now happily shared by her former foe, of those great ideas, begotten of her revolution and ours, which are to make more and more, as both nations hope and believe, for the peace, prosperity, and progress of mankind. It is not then, in any sense, the discomfiture of France that we celebrate on Trafalgar Day. Still less have we in mind the discomfiture of her gallant ally, Spain, the ancient mistress of the seas. Our long centuries of struggle with the valiant sons of Spain have taught us to value them as highly as friends as erstwhile we dreaded them as foes, and to the sincerity |