Cap'n Hornblower

We had naval heroes on 15th January and shortly after that the publication of a fine new 1,000 page biography of Admiral Nelson (aka the sword of Albion). But this was £30 and so I settled for a new-to-me biography of Captain Durham for £1.80 from one of the many Epsom Library book sales - sales which appear to specialise in large & expensive books about collecting, things like porcelain, pots and toby jugs. Perhaps the public taste for such books is declining.

It turns out that Captain Durham was a real life version of Captain Hornblower, a chap in whom I took a great deal of interest during my early teens. Joined the navy as a boy, was glorious in his thirties and forties, managed to avoid winding up as a louche hero statue in St. Paul's, living rather to a decent age as a rather rich admiral on half pay. Various other points of interest.

The book is unuspported by maps which makes all the talk of having the weather and luffing up fairly heavy going. Finding out where Cape Trafalgar is on Google Maps not really an effective substitute. More heavy going in the form of lists of the ships participating in the various battles, lists which might have been better presented in tabular form.

But the book does convey a sense of the intense competition amongst promotable officers. There was much jostling for position, some of it rather unseemly. Much competition also to get postings which afforded good chances for prize money, which could be a very significant boost to the income of a captain, most of whom came from modest backgrounds. Most of whom worked their way up on merit, but some of whom were still able to buy themselves in. There were some incompetent captains who had never learned their trade.

There were lots of admirals, so having as many admirals as ships, as we do now, is not a particularly new phenomenon. The idea seemed to be that worthy captains were promoted admiral, then allowed to slip into quiet country life on half pay. Pensioned off in all but name, at much the same rate as civil servants now, less the lump sum.

And then, having found out on 10th January, that there was a bit more to Austerlitz than a stunning victory, now I find out the same thing about Trafalgar. It seems that we remember the stunning bit but forget all the messy detail which made it stunning in the first place.

So there was a messy battle some months before Trafalgar, with an Admiral Calder in the chair on our side. A battle which might have gone seriously wrong and allowed the French fleet through into the channel and cleared the way for an invasion of England but which in fact paved the way for Trafalgar, in part by making the French admiral keen for the second battle which he was thought to have shirked or at least scamped first time around. But a first battle which some thought should have been the decisive victory for the British which it was not and which resulted in disgrace for Calder.

Trafalgar itself was fought in very light & tricky winds (mentioned by Conrad in his memoir. See November 24th 2010 in the other place) and might also have gone seriously wrong. It also went on for a long time with the last ships in the lines joining battle hours after the first ships. But despite the savagery of the fighting, there were still flashes of chivalry and decent behaviour. One of which was Nelson allowing Calder to sail home to his court martial in his big battleship immediately before Trafalgar, a battle in which he (Nelson) was seriously outnumbered and in which he might have been thought to need every battleship he could lay his hands on.