Trafalgar night - update
Published 11:34 on 21 Oct 2025
Jamie Doble writes;
The Club Trafalgar Night last Saturday was a great success, with 70 guests enjoying Ollie's superb Beef Wellington!
Trafalgar Night is the traditional Naval celebration of Nelson's remarkable victory over the French and Spanish fleets in 1805 and involves eating, drinking and singing, all of which were on the menu on Saturday!
Honorary Captain Jeremy Greaves, a Club member, gave a brilliantly entertaining speech including his research which showed which guests had relatives (or namesakes at least) on Nelson's ships! He also reminded us of the impact the Nelson personally and his victory had the whole of 19th century Europe and beyond.
To cap the evening off the Club's Shanty Singers led the guests several sea shanties, with Drunken Sailor raising the roof! Thanks to Becky White for taking charge of them!
Special mention for Louise Elliott and Jac Hepworth for the lovely flowers. Final thanks to Ollie and his team who cooked and served such an excellent meal. A brilliant evening all round!
TRAFALGAR NIGHT SPEECH AT EMSWORTH SAILING CLUB
18 OCTOBER 2025
Honorary Captain Jeremy Greaves
"A Gen Z take on the battle: Facts, feelings and fake news"
Commodore, committee members, honoured guests, fellow members.
It is with considerable trepidation that I stand here in front of you attempting to give a new perspective on this, the 220th anniversary of the most famous victory in British naval history.
How does one put a new perspective, burnish the credentials or enhance the understanding on a victory that has defined the Royal Navy, passed into folklore and turned into legend, if not national mythology that has been 219 years in the making.
For all I know this is the 106th time Emsworth Sailing Club has hosted a Trafalgar night dinner and I hope this is indeed the case; that a bunch of exhausted cavalry and guards officers, scarred by war, couldn't be bothered with the faff of going to the Royal Yacht Squadron and decided to found this - undoubtedly the finest sailing club on the South Coast of England - as a bolt hole of relief and sanity after the war to end all wars.
And if I was to take this back to October 1805, I wonder how Nelson's officers or men dealt with the aftermath of the savagery they had just witnessed? Does anyone really understand the impact of a triple shotted raking broadside on human minds and bodies?
In those days sailors were hard as nails and didn't have time to mourn, as nature's own brutality rained unrelenting misery on ships and crews with a terrifying Force 10 storm shattering what remained of the combined fleets after the battle.
And it is worth remembering that far more British sailors and Fr and Sp ships were lost in the storm after Trafalgar than were lost in the battle itself.
So let me try and contemporise things. And I want to address Trafalgar through three very Gen Z perspectives, or the three 'Fs': Facts; Feelings and Fake News.
So I think the first incontrovertible fact that we can all agree on is this:
Trump won Trafalgar!
But I do want to outline what I think are some interesting and quirky facts because the passage of time has, for many, obscured even a basic knowledge of this battle.
In 2005, on the 200th anniversary of the battle, the RN Museum did a survey of visitors and offered a multiple choice questionnaire on the battle. 55% of visitors thought the battle of Trafalgar had been fought somewhere in the Channel.
So let's do a quick survey ourselves with a question. Let's assume we all know the battle was actually fought off the Iberian peninsula. So what's the etymology of Trafalgar and what does it mean?
-Spanish
-Latin
-Arabic (Taraf - al - ghar) Taraf - means edge or cape; ghar - of the caves. So Cape of the Caves.
What's the nearest port to where Trafalgar was fought?
-Gibraltar
-Cadiz (>)
-Algeciras?
Another glorious dinner party fact: did you know that Nelson invented the in-tray and out tray as a way to deal efficiently with his workload with only one arm? You could therefore say that it was Nelson who, single-handedly, invented modern bureaucracy! (Groan).
So with that dreadful gag out of the way, let's just examine the context of the battle and some interesting facts.
Facts and context
By the late 18th century the Royal Navy was probably the worlds most efficient military force. It had not got there by accident; it had been honed into a formidable killing machine for a number of generations but the difference between then and the 21st century is stark.
We struggle to meet our defence commitments with about 2.5% of national GDP. By the time of the Napoleonic wars more than 30% of government expenditure was directed to the Navy. That is an astonishing figure.
Another thought that comes to mind is the age of the various ships at the battle. They were no spring chickens. Victory was laid down in 1759, floated out in 1765 and only commissioned in 1778 19 years later - and we think defence delays now are bad!
Victory was 40 years old at Trafalgar. In fact her captain at Trafalgar, Thomas Masterman Hardy was considerably younger than his ship; he was only born in 1769 so it gives you an idea of how long ships lasted.
Nowadays our frigates are on their knees by 30, although it's worth saying the new aircraft carriers are designed for a 50 year life.
And I've always been fascinated by the the size of the beast. Go down to the dockyard and Victory looks huge, but her length overall is less than an Airbus A380.
In fact Nigel, the bosun, and I measured out Victory's dimensions against the footprint of our Club. In length her main gun deck is only 20 ft longer than the dining room wall to the far boundary wall by the pool and her overall beam is less then the width of the clubhouse. And they put 820 men in her for years.
I've always considered it something of a miracle that Victory made it to the battle at all; she was always described as 'sitting heavy' in the water and her lower gunports were only 4 ft 6in above the waterline. so Victory's sailing instructions noted that during rough weather the gunports should remain closed. You can't help but think Mary Rose
Nelson was considered a lucky commander and the sea conditions for Trafalgar worked in his favour. Under a decent breeze with full sails set, Victory would practically fly along at a spanking 12kt.
However at the battle of Trafalgar, Nelson would have been thrashing it out with the Oppies on the millpond. The fleets closed at literally walking pace. In fact those light airs at just after dawn on the morning of 21st Oct continued during much of the day, but it was probably less the wind speed than the direction - and the direction of the swell - that made the bigger difference.
Why was the swell important? Because the British fleet was sailing with the waves whereas the combined Fr and Sp fleets were broadside across the waves and thus rolled heavily. This impacted the Fr and Sp gunlaying accuracy meaning many of their shots at first flew overhead or impacted the water.
And with the fleets approaching, and battle about to commence, this bring me nicely onto my second 'F' or Feelings.
Feelings
Nelson had this incredible aura about him that created an air of near invincibility; and it may sound implausible in our era of cynicism, but that was a battle winning edge for the Brits. Physically Nelson was slight, he was scarred, he wasn't exactly Tom Cruise (except perhaps in height), but by the time of Trafalgar he was probably the most famous individual in Britain.
The public feted him; the government believed in him; but it was his Captains and sailors who worshipped him. Naval warfare was bloody and brutal and sailors knew what might happen to them
But if you were in the Navy, Nelson was your talisman of success. This was the Nelson Touch. He was battle proven, he was brilliant, he was bold, Byron called him: "Britannia's god of war." In sailors' minds if you were with Nelson you had a better chance than most of seeing it through.
His Captains at Trafalgar - his Band of Brothers - were cobbled together at the rush; he only knew 6 of the 24 or so, but his approach to them, gathering them at two dinners to gain their trust and confidence, while explaining his battle plan, makes him an incredibly modern figure. He believed in what we call today "mission command". He wasn't distant or particularly hierarchical: In an era of deference his approachability was unique.
He had a hands-on management and leadership style we would recognise today. Officers would knock on his door. 'My door is always open' has become a management cliche now, but in those days it was highly unusual.
But can you imagine what it must have been like to be a sailor in either fleet, up the mast as a lookout, as the sails of the enemy hove into view. 27 ships of the line for the British, and a huge 33 ships of the line for the combined Fr and Sp. The feeling in the pit of your stomach
It took those fleets nearly six hours to get close enough to engage in battle. I thus ask the rhetorical question: As Captain, when do you give your 'out of the trenches and over the top' speech to the crew? How do you keep them motivated and focused for that long? And yet morale was apparently incredibly high in the British Fleet.
And this brings me onto a temporary fourth 'F' - Farage! He would be spluttering at the thought that Britain's most famous naval battle was very much an international affair.
Do you know how many nationalities there were in the British fleet outside the English themselves? Have a guess.some 22 separate nationalities.
There were 59 Frenchmen in our fleet; there were 383 US born sailors (and remember we had only just finished fighting them relatively recently); there were many from the Caribbean; there was even a Cantonese Chinese, Hampoo Hang, who served in the Royal Sovereign.
Bringing things closer to home there were 482 Hampshire men in the fleet, and 2 sailors from Emsworth: Reuben Ward, 32, onboard Belleisle; and George King, 25, aboard Euryalus.
In fact, in honour of the presence of the current Commodore, and a number of his predecessors, as well as thanking Jamie Doble for organising these splendid evenings for more years than we can remember, I went to the Dockyard and asked the Director General of the RN Museum to pull up his wonderful Ayshford Trafalgar Roll, with details of every British sailor at the battle, and did a bit of digging.
I checked a few of the senior members and guest names against the crew lists from the battlenot that I'm implying any of you were old enough to be there!
I'm afraid there were no Keepings, Bleasbys, Hepworths, Hodkinsons or Murrisons at the battle. But would you believe it there were more then 50 Jones, 18 Palmers, 3 Dobles - all aged 24; 4 Gearys, 2 Rigbys, 1 McIntyre, 1 March and no less than 12 Summers - one of whom was even from Sweden!
So back to the battle itself. Effectively Nelson's plan was radical and to go head on in two columns to break the line of Fr and Sp ships in two places.
This was hugely risky, unconventional for the times, but a calculated gamble that Nelson believed he could pull off. And as you know he had briefed his Captains on it, and they were behind him.
It's this morale, this unshakeable belief in British naval superiority, abetted by a rate of fire some three times greater than the French could achieve, that gave Nelson the edge.
But even so, as the two fleets drew ever closer, anxiety began to build amongst officers and men, with one British officer saying:
"During this momentous preparation, the human mind had ample time for meditation, for it was evident that the fate of England rested on this battle"
You all know the narrative and I don't intend to go over it, but just to remind you that the British ships were sitting ducks as they closed on the French, before they could respond with their own cannon.
Just think of the mens' bravery, the training, not to mention the psychological resilience they needed - fortified as it was by copious amounts of wine for breakfast that day - as they crept achingly slowly towards an enemy that took potshot freebies at them for nearly an hour.
Victory took significant casualties and was so badly damaged that her main wheel was shot away before she herself had even fired a shot, so she had to be steered by tiller belowdecks. That is testament to resilience and seamanship.
And then the Victory and Royal Sovereign, the lead ships in either column broke through the Fr and Sp fleets, "broke the T" as it is known, and unleashed hell. The ranges were so close that the cannon muzzle blast scorched the timbers of the enemy ships.
The first double and treble shotted broadside from Victory - which was up against the French flagship Bucentaure - killed or wounded some 200-400 of Bucentaure's crew of 800. That is a 50% casualty rate in under one minute. Utterly devastating.
But while it was an astonishing victory for the British, the price in blood was high. Nelson, as you know, was shot at about 1.15 in the afternoon and died roughly three hours later at about 4.30. He was only 47 years old.
Fake News and mythology
And this brings me onto my third and final point: fake news and mythology.
There is a mythology around the shot that killed Nelson. Legend has it that it was a sharpshooter from Redoutable. However most of the French marksmen were equipped with early rifles.
In fact there were no rifling marks on the fatal bullet - which is now held in the Royal Collection at Windsor Castle - so it is more likely that Nelson was killed by a chance shot fired from a standard issue musket aimed from Redoutable's mizzen mast at the officers clustered on Victory's quarterdeck.
Captain Hodkinson has a great story about the Frenchman who fired the fatal shot and the cheeky link the French Navy made at the Trafalgar 200 commemorations, which I'm sure he'll be keen to share later at the bar.
Then you look at the stories behind his famous last words. These were box-office gold and you can imagine how the media would have picked up on these today: "Thank god I have done my duty," and: "God and my country."
These would have made front page headlines. It is just as likely that actually his final words, as recorded by the surgeon William Beatty and chaplain, Alexander Scott were "fan, fan, rub, rub, drink, drink," as it was so hot on the orlop deck, he was in incredible pain and he needed to slake his thirst. But those are not the final words of a hero
And then you dig into the story of how Trafalgar was reported by the French and the more fascinating it becomes. The very first report of the battle that claimed to come from France was not just fake news, arguably it was the mother of fake news!
The famous report in the French imperial gazette, 'Le Moniteur' apparently said: 'The English Fleet is annihilatedour loss was trifling'.
This story has been handed down by generations as fact. Recent studies have uncovered that this was, in fact, probably manufactured fiction, likely of British origin designed to ridicule the preening, self-aggrandising enemy and frustrate an impulse to seek peace with them, especially from the more progressive MPs in Westminster.
Apparently Napoleon didn't even hear of the defeat until 18 November and he didn't seem overly troubled by it, having just won a major victory at Ulm and preparing as he was for his most brilliant victory at the battle of Austerlitz in December of 1805. Nevertheless it is telling that apparently he never uttered the word Trafalgar again - or is that fake news?!
Conclusion
So to conclude
While we worship Nelson and celebrate here his Immortal Memory, there is a view from some, that as much as he was a hero, he was a precocious and insane narcissist.
And I therefore ask the question: how would he fare in today's society?
He was certainly incredibly pleased with himself, but he was also rather gauche.
Are we surprised? His formal education ended at 12 when he joined the Navy and by the time he was 17 he'd been round the Cape of Good Hope, he'd been to India, he'd caught malaria in the West Indies and he'd been on a Arctic Expedition.
Everyone acknowledged his bravery and skill, but he got himself into trouble with superiors and he seemed to get in a mess when he engaged upwards, but he was very good at managing downwards. As we all know he had a very public affair with Emma Hamilton which scandalised society.
He would have been a nightmare on social media.
Nowadays would the Navy and the UK be able to cope with this sort of swashbuckling, charismatic but imperfect individual: is it possible that such a vain man, so susceptible to flattery, would have made the highest echelons of today's Royal Navy?
I suspect the answer is no, and then I have to check myself because I realise that the US has elected this sort of individual as their commander in chief!!
So this brings me to a final three 'F's.' It's fame, flaws and Fisher.
When has there been another admiral so famous and would there be such a famous admiral now? I'm not sure, but we need heroes more than ever.
And despite his obvious flaws, in my mind that makes his heroism all the more remarkable.
I would suggest the last truly famous British admiral was probably Jackie Fisher. He captured the imagination of the public but in a different way. He wasn't conventional either but he was more rounded than Nelson.
While, in the world wars, Beattie, Cunningham, Ramsey or Pound were also remarkable individuals and wartime leaders, arguably they were too normal.
So I am proud to be wearing the uniform, proud to be standing in front of you; and proud to have the honour of talking about - and celebrating - the most charismatic misfit, maverick and outstanding hero ever to wear dark blue.
As Emsworth Sailing Club let us come together now and remember Nelson in all his glory: facts, feelings, fake news, flaws and fame. We will never see his like again.
Commodore, ladies and gentlemen please stand, raise your glasses and toast in silence:
"the Immortal Memory of Lord Nelson and all who fell with him."