Engage the Enemy More Closely

Nelson’s final signal to the fleet sent at 12.15 pm.

At 11.50 am on October 21, 1805, the first cannon shot of the Battle of Trafalgar was fired. By 5.30 pm Admiral Lord Nelson was dead, as were 450 British and 4000 Franco-Spanish seamen.

The flags on HMS Victory shown in the composite picture to the right say of major events in the battle say ‘England expects that every man will do his duty.’ They went up at about 11.45 am. The foremast is falling, which happened at about 1 o’clock. The Achille (French) is on fire in the background, which happened mid-afternoon and, in the foreground, the Redoubtable (French) is sinking, which happened the next day.

The victory was celebrated throughout the country with parades and dinners in public squares, special performances in theatres and lavish street parties. However, over the years, the celebrations faded away and now largely consist of private dinners within the Royal Navy on Trafalgar Day. However, the battle does still resonate, and if you fancy a more direct connection just go to 2 Brunswick Square in Hove and read the blue plaque. You might have got there via Churchill Square. George got there via the Battle of Trafalgar.

His journey started in 1798 when, as a thirteen-year-old, he joined the Royal Navy as a First-Class Volunteer and got a berth on the frigate Porcupine.

He would have looked something like this. It was a much sought-after position. You had to pay for the privilege and know someone with influence. George’s dad had enough money and knew the Duke of Kent. The result was a berth and the beginning of a career as an officer in the Royal Navy.

It was no cushy number though. It was a traumatic and dangerous departure for a thirteen-year-old from a sheltered and wealthy background.

The living conditions on board were atrocious: breeding grounds for typhus, dysentery, smallpox, tuberculosis and fevers, as well as lice, rats and cockroaches.

A Midshipman in 1806 described his berth as ‘a small hole under the deck, with an even smaller hole which let in a minimal amount of fresh air and light. A table covered with a food and wine -stained tablecloth took up most of the space. The space was also stuffed with casks, and cases, and chests, and bags, and hammocks. The stench of unwashed bodies; the stench of bilge-water, combining with the smoke of tobacco, the effluvia of gin and beer, the frying of beef-steaks and onions, and red herrings…’

You had to learn seamanship, navigation, mathematics, gunnery, medicine, survival, command and discipline.

Just watching a flogging was traumatic, let alone experiencing one, but it was nothing compared to the hand-to-hand fighting during boarding parties.

However, if you survived enemy action, illness and falling out of the rigging as well as the terrible food, you could be on the way to the magnificence of an Admiral’s stateroom, fame, and a sizeable personal fortune.

If you captured an enemy ship, it and its guns and cargo were sold by the Prize Court and the money split between the crew. The lion’s share went to the captain, of course. The commodore or admiral of the fleet would also get a share, even if they hadn’t fired a shot, provided they were in sight! In 1752, at the age of 47, Admiral Sir Peter Warren had managed to accumulate the equivalent of 25 million dollars in prize money. No wonder people like George fought for the opportunity.

George not only survived he was lucky. In 1803 he was a midshipman in HMS Amphion, when it carried Nelson to the Mediterranean. Then, when Nelson shifted his flag to HMS Victory, he was transferred too and into the heart of the action.

Naval battles then were like a game with set rules. Rival fleets lined up in two parallel lines and fired their cannons at each other until one side gave up.

Nelson broke that rule.

He divided his fleet into two columns and sailed them directly into the flank of the Franco-Spanish fleet breaking it into pieces, causing chaos, and allowing the better trained British to engage at close quarters.

At approximately 1.15pm Nelson was shot in the back by a French sniper. George was wounded in the head.

‘I was placed by the side of his lordship; and his coat was rolled up and put as the substitute for a pillow under my head, which was then bleeding very much from the wound I had received. When the battle was over, and an attempt was made to remove the coat, several of the bullions of the epaulet were found to be so firmly glued, unto my hair, by the coagulated blood from my wound, that the bullions four or five of them, were cut off and left in my hair; one of which I still have in my possession.’ (George Westphal, United service magazine 1842)

Nelson died at about 4.30 pm knowing the battle was won. George survived and thrived. He was made a lieutenant in 1806. He covered the globe from Mexico to Canada to India. He served with Commodore (later Admiral) Sir George Cockburn, ‘whose restless, aggressive operations suited him|’ and enabled him to acquire a small fortune in prize money. He was knighted in 1824, ‘in consideration of his gallant and distinguished services against the enemy.’ In 1834, he was invalided out of the navy and spent the last 39 years of his life in 2 Brunswick Square.

I wonder what his dreams were during that long retirement. Did the echoes of cannon fire from Trafalgar trouble his sleep? Perhaps if you stood outside No 2 Brunswick Square at 11.50 am on October 21 you might hear them as well.