Soggy Moose Travels : PORTSMOUTH

Portsmouth:

We arrived in Portsmouth, docking near the ferry pier. This was a much more formal port of call, as we could not just walk off to visit the city. Here there were two choices of excursions one was a nature walk and the other was to the Royal Navy Yards for a private tour of the HMS Victory.

We opted for the Navy Yards and were not disappointed in the least. Well maybe disappointed we did not have more time there, as I feel one could spend at a minimum of one full day there. Here history for me became alive, as I have studied Admiral Nelson the decks of the HMS Victory held a special significance.

HMS Victory and The Battle of Trafalgar

Undoubtedly Victory’s most famous battle saw her as Vice-Admiral Horatio Nelson’s flagship at the Battle of Trafalgar, fought against a combined French and Spanish fleet. The allies were soundly defeated, total losses reaching 22 ships without the Royal Navy losing one. Nelson was shot at the height of the battle and died on Victory’s orlop deck after receiving news of victory.

It was to the cockpit, here on the orlop deck, that Nelson was carried by two seamen after being shot. The deck was already beginning to grow crowded with injured men requiring medical assistance – 40 seamen and several officers were patiently waiting to be seen by Victory’s Surgeon, William Beatty, when his attention was diverted by some of the wounding calling to him: ‘Mr Beatty, Lord Nelson is here: Mr Beatty, the Admiral is wounded.’ Nelson was certain of his own fate, exclaiming: ‘Ah, Mr Beatty! You can do nothing for me. I have but a short time to live: my back is shot through.’

Beatty laid Nelson upon a makeshift bed on the deck and examined the wound. He quickly found that the musket ball had penetrated deep into Nelson’s chest and broken his spine. Nelson explained to Beatty: ‘He felt a gush of blood every minute within his breast: that he had no feeling in the lower part of his body: and that his breathing was difficult, and attended with very severe pain about that part of the spine where he was confident that the ball had struck.’

Nelson spent the next three hours in great pain as the battle was fought around him. Slowly the noise of battle faded away until, at about 4.30, Lord Nelson died of blood loss, which had been exacerbated by spinal shock.

The shock and upset felt throughout the Britsh Fleet, the Royal Navy, and Britain as a whole is perhaps best described by Nelson’s friend Captain Henry Blackwood: ‘In my life I was never so shocked or completely upset as upon me flying to the Victory, even before the Action was over, to find Lord Nelson was then at the gasp of death…such an Admiral has the Country lost, and every officer and man so kind, so good, so obliging a friend as never was.’

Nelson’s body was placed in a cask filled with brandy on 22 October 1805 and was then transported to Gibraltar on HMS Victory, arriving there on 28 October 1805. In Gibraltar the brandy was replaced by spirits of wine to preserve the body. On 4 November HMS Victory set sail from Gibraltar, reaching England on 4 December 1805. On 11 December 1805 her surgeon William Beatty performed an autopsy on Nelson’s body, extracting the musket ball that had killed him. Nelson’s body was then placed in a lead coffin filled with brandy. On the 21 December the lead coffin was opened and the body was placed in another coffin made from L’Orient’s mainmast - a French ship that had been destroyed in the Battle of the Nile - a present given to Nelson in 1799 from Benjamin Hallowell, then captain of HMS Swiftsure. The coffin was then placed in another made of lead and then another of wood. The coffin was collected by the Sheerness dockyard commissioner George Grey’s official yacht Chatham on 23 December from HMS Victory moored in the River Medway and taken up the Thames to Greenwich Hospital. The coffin was collected on 25 December at Greenwich Hospital and placed in a private room until 4 January 1806.

For three days from 4 January 1806 Nelson’s body lay in state in Greenwich Hospital’s Painted Hall. It is estimated that nearly 100,000 people visited the Hall to pay their last respects. On 8 January 1806 the coffin was transported by the King’s Barge up the Thames - followed by a two-mile procession of boats - to Whitehall Steps and from there taken to the Admiralty in Whitehall. The day of Nelson’s funeral, 9 January 1806, was fine and bright. Thousands of people lined the streets, along with 30,000 troops, to watch the funeral procession march from Whitehall to St Paul’s Cathedral. The procession included royalty, nobles, ministers, high-ranking military officers and at least 10,000 soldiers. The funeral service itself was attended by 7,000 people including seven royal dukes, 16 earls, 32 admirals and over 100 captains together with 48 seamen and 12 marines from HMS Victory. The service, which commenced at 13:00, ended at 18:00 when Nelson’s coffin was lowered into a marble sarcophagus originally intended for Cardinal Wolsely in St Paul’s Cathedral’s crypt. The order of proceedings was interrupted when seamen from HMS Victory ripped the flag from their ship, which had been draped over the coffin, into pieces for personal mementos.

Our coach return to the ship took us for a short tour about the city. It was interesting to learn of the many well know authors who were from or had lived in this city. Among those were the likes of Charles Dickens (he was born in Portsmouth), Rudyard Kipling and Arthur Conan Doyle. Doyle was actually a doctor in Portsmouth who's practice was not doing very well and in his spare time he started to write books. Soon he realized he was making a rather nice living by writing and abandoned his medical practice.

Back on board we received our final briefing and the word we may not be able to make it all the way up the Thames and under the Tower Bridge.

Thoughts on cruising with Lindblad Nat Geo: I really enjoy the smaller ships, only about 90 guests on this ship. The open bridge policy of being able to visit the bridge and chat with the duty officer. On day one, we were exploring the ship and the Captain gave us a rather nice tour of the bridge. I simply can not speak highly enough about the great service from the staff. From deck crew, to stateroom hosts, to lounge staff and dining staff, the accessibility of the executive chef and his crew, all were above and beyond excellent. They provided excellent service, without the Disney Cruise Line excellent request speech.

Lest I forget, the quality of the Expedition Staff, world class historians, ornithologists, ethnomusicologist, and Nat Geo photographers adds to the quality of the expedition experience. This is a great learning experience beyond words.

Our journey into the English Channel has begun and it is a bit rough. This may hamper our progress to the Thames.