Trafalgar - After the Battle

[Curval]

A bit of history:

Britain and the Royal Navy yesterday celebrated the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Trafalgar.

Bermuda should also be celebrating its small but significant role in the battle which established British naval supremacy for more than a century.

At the end of the battle, HMS Pickle, one of the fastest vessels in the Royal Navy, raced back to England with news of the victory and the death of Admiral Lord Nelson.

Making the journey from Cadiz to Falmouth in nine days, the ship’s captain then hired a carriage which took him to London from the west of England in just 37 hours. Normally the journey would have taken a week.

What was Bermuda’s connection to this journey? Pickle was a Bermuda-built cedar schooner which was launched as the Sting and was bought into the Royal Navy in 1800, just five years before Trafalgar.

She was one of a large number of fast-sailing Bermuda cedar sloops that would be used to reconnoitre enemy coastlines and carry messages between fleets and the Admiralty.

These vessels were built for speed and carried plenty of sail. Strong and weatherly, they were the Royal Navy’s equivalent of the Pony Express and helped to make Bermuda’s shipyards and the Bermuda rig famous around the world.

With the advent of steam and steel, this golden age of Bermuda sailing would later come to an end. But during that period, Bermuda’s shipyards and sailors – black and white – were renowned both for the quality of their craft and for their skill.
That the Royal Navy first bought Bermuda-built sloops into the service and then started commissioning them directly speaks volumes for their quality.

[Hangtime]

While it's true the British always brought into the service any swift & weatherly sailer as a Packet, more popular than the 'Cedar Sloops' were the American Schooners.

In 1851 when the British offered a Cup for the Isle Of Wight race and allowed the single schooner 'America' to compete against 30 of the finest, fastest yachts & RN Packets in England, Queen Victoria inquired in the last hours of the race as to the standings. "Who is first?"

The minister, with his eyes glued to the telescope replied, "Highness, it is America."

The Queen then in enquired "Who is second?"

After a long pause, the reply was:

"Madam, there is no second".

[Pongo]

That is 45 years after trafalger.

[Seagoon]

Thanks Curval,

I sincerely appreciated that historical note.

A couple of distantly related historical questions.

I had heard that the body of Lord Nelson was preserved in a barrel of sailors rum on the voyage home to England. Any truth to that?

Also, I recall reading that several of the Southern Blockade runners during the Civil War were built in Bermuda, so that apparently they were still building fast sailing ships 50 years after Trafalgar.  

- SEAGOON

[Curval]

Seagoon...thanks.  

I am not sure at all about your first question.  Perhaps this is where the "Your turn in the barrel" thing came from.   (kidding...but I'd be interested in knowing if that is true).

As to Southern Blockade runners...yup, Bermuda played an interesting role in the Civil War.   We also played a role in the War of Independence.

I will find out from the Maritime Museum curator about your question...he still owes me one.    Our family donated a table made by my grandfather a year or so ago.

[Hangtime]

A 'Bermuda rig' is a 'fore and aft' rig.. what you see on current modern yachts; i.e. one tall mast, no square sails. It's able to sail close to the wind, however down wind she is at a disadvantage to a square rigger.

The Balitmore 'Schooner' combined the better aspects of the bermuda rig with a Square Rigger... the rear mast, taller and bermuda rigged, the fore mast a bit shorter and equipped with a square yard. Further, the Baltimore Schooner hull was a signifcant advance over the bluff bowed european (and bermudan) ships of the day, the Baltimore Schooners could carry more sail and were faster, tho the pure Bermuda Rigged Schooners were able to sail closer to the wind.

In Packet Duty, heading North from Gibraltar across the Bay of Biscay to England was upwind most of the year.. a pure Bermuda rig would be faster. South, from England to damn near anyplace else, was downwind.. hence the more successful packets of the day were Baltimore Schooners (aka Brigs, Barkintines Hermorhadite Sloops, etc)... utilizing the advantages of both rigs on one platform, so to speak. Not able to sail quite as close to weather as a pure sloop but able to sail much faster than a sloop off the wind.

The Pickle was handed the dispatches for the simple expedient reason that she was the best rig at hand for the task of dashing back upwind to England with the news.

The hullform and radically raked rig of the Baltimore Schooner delveloped into the fastest most exceptional sailing ships of all time.. the Baltimore Clippers.. eventually called just 'Clipper Ships'.

The Bermuda Rig remains popular today due to it's ease in handling and ability to sail closer to the wind.. fewer crew required to handle the rig.

Source: Howard Chappelle, The Search for Speed Under Sail

[Furball]

Hangtime, you seem to have outstanding knowledge on maritime history. Is it just an interest?

[Seagoon]

Thanks for the info Curval and Hangtime.

Ok, I'm a big impatient Dweeb. Found this on the internet.

"In the Victory, before the storm was at its height, Dr Beatty turned his attention from the wounded to the problem of preserving Nelson's body. Such a problem was unfamiliar. Since time out of mind, men who died at sea had been hove overboard... Neither Beatty nor anyone else had equipment or knolwledge for embalming, and there was no lead on board to make an air-tight coffin. So he chose a leaguer, which was the largest kind of cask. He cut off the hair and made a brief autopsy, and then the body was put in the cask and the cask was filled with brandy." p.225

"Beatty had hoped for instructions, and perhaps for professional consultation, about the body he still had in his care, but nobody came to the ship at Spithead to offer him any. On the contrary he heard the body was to lie in state at Greenwich, exposed to the public. During the long journey, he had twice drawn off the brandy from the cask and renewed it, but he was apprehensive about his experiment. On the way up the Channel from Spithead, he therefore opened the cask and took the body out. Externally, he was relieved to find, it was still in perfect preservation." p.238

[Howarth, David. The Nelson Touch, NY, Atheneum, 1969 ]

- SEAGOON

[SFRT - Frenchy]

Trafalgar ... ouchy ... WTG Britain:aok

[Hangtime]

Originally posted by Furball
Hangtime, you seem to have outstanding knowledge on maritime history. Is it just an interest?

My family was 'Navy'. Every generation my great aunt could track had the sea as the breadwinning profession or men in uniform walking a deck. My great grandfather ran the last commercial sailing fleet on the Great Lakes. My Grandfather served on a Tin Can in the Atlantic in WWI, my Father on an LST on D Day, my big Brother in Vietnam on the Hancock 4 years before my time in the service.

I joined the army. rebel, n all... but escape from the sea was not to be for me.. as a kid, I learned to sail by the time I was 7. My grandad had a big old wood Ketch.. I spent mosta my summers varnishing that monster and fetching scotch. Untill last year, I've always owned a sailboat.. and raced 'em like a demon. For 21 years I built boats.. (Steigercraft, custom work and fishing boats) the 'sea' was my living too for awile... I did at last carry out my duty to my ancestors.

My daughter, 21 now and married, is an avid Sailor, wicked helmsman and trimmer, she can read wind as well as I. She worked for me two summers at Steiger, and weathered a brutal storm with me offshore on a race..   she's fulfilled her obligations also... I hope she gets a chance to pass the heritage and history to her kids, should she be so blessed.

[Furball]

thats cool, thanks for sharing

My grandfather was navy, WWII on board the HMS Tay, took part in the battle of the Atlantic (convoy duty) and the arctic convoys, his father was navy before that - all that i know is that he did boy's time so no idea what ship he served on.

[DREDIOCK]

Originally posted by Curval
Seagoon...thanks.  

  Perhaps this is where the "Your turn in the barrel" thing came from.   (kidding...but I'd be interested in knowing if that is true).

 

Havent looked yet but maybe you can find out here

Origen of Phrases

Really interestng stuff you  guys are putting up

[Maverick]

Neat stuff thanks guys. Much more interesting than a dry listing in the history books.

[Replicant]

Originally posted by Hangtime
Untill last year, I've always owned a sailboat..

What happened Hang?  Back in 13th TAS days I remember you living on a boat, was this the same one?

[Hangtime]

Yep.. the kegger ended when I got laid off my job. Kinda knocked me on my butt for awile. I eventually decided that it was time to do my own thing, sold the boats & re-invested in the tooling to start my own company.

I kinda doubt I'll ever have another big rag boat.. too old to tug on this 'n pull on that in a seaway anymore, kids grown up and ain't around to do the scut work. Besides.. in the summer I'm usually out on the roads weekends doin the flying circut and drumming up business.

Prolly wind up with a land yacht next.