"HUMANITY AFTER VICTORY" How Nelson's Victory at Trafalgar Changed the Course ofHistory by Peter Stanford elson had a clear picture of how the Battle of Trafalgar wo uld be won. H e also had a sure feeling fo r what the battle was about. O n the m orning of 21 O ctober 1805, with the co mbined French and Spanish Beet in sight, Nelson wrote down his hopes for the battle in a prayer. H e first asked his God for victory fo r his country "and fo r the benefit of Europe in general." As the m orning light wavered across the paper, for an uneasy swell set HMS Victory rolling in the ligh t winds, fo rerunner of the storm which arrived after the battle, he added : "and may human ity after Victory be the predominant feature in the British Aeet." In this brief appeal ro the h igh est judgment, N elson tho ught not only of his own country, which he adored, but of "the benefit of Europe in general." The calm ass urance of victory in the impending co ntest is pure Nelso n, but calling for humanity as the predominant feature of the figh ting Beet suggests a rare and wonderful expanse of vision. Nelson's patriotism, one that recognized a wider world, and his vision embracing the human nature of the an tago nists he was about to attack was widely shared in Britain in this era. H is was a vision understood and accepted in a fiercely aggressive organization, whose crews rattled their enemies by cheering as they flew into action. This vision held under the stress of combat. British sailors manned boats to rescue the French Achille's crew when that ship caught fire as the battle still raged, risking their own to save enemy lives when the ship blew up. After his surrender, the French Admiral Villeneuve was received as an honored guest in the Beet and subsequently feted in Lo ndon fo r his gallant defense. On his return to France, Villleneuve committed suicide rather than face N apoleon's wrath. Nelson fell to a French sn iper's bullet on Victory's quarterdeck a few ho urs after writi ng o ut his brief prayer. His death did nothing to diminish the fo rce of h is message, rather it grew and carried far in the com ing years of the Pax Britannica. W hat, then, were rhe res ults of Nelso n's victory? T he imm ediate consequence of Nelson's triumph ar Trafalgar was the destructio n of more than half the en em y's pri ncipal fleet -eighteen ships sunk or surrendered out of thir ty-three. This enabled Britai n to confine Napoleon to his territorial conquests in Europe. It also confirmed Britain's ability to "rule rhe waves" and prosper on growing wo rld trade fro m which E uro pe was excluded, excep t fo r an active smuggling trade which p assed thro ugh British hands.
N
(left) England's Pride and Glory. "H e was a boy your age, " this Victorian mother may be teLling her son-not talking about N elson, but about the son of the French captain Casabianca. lhe captain's son was kiLled when France's L'Orien t blew up in the Battle of the Nile, won by Nelson in 1798, as depicted in the painting next to Nelson's portrait. lhe mother and son would have known about the boy because generations ofBritish schoolboys had to Learn the poem "Casabianca" in school. Few peoples, p erhaps, celebrate their most famous hero by a panegyric to a young victim of his battles-but Britons did, honoring Nelson's caLL fo r "H umanity After Victory. "Painting by Thomas Davidson, circa 1890, (oil on canvas, 3 0 ft. x 23 1h ft.), courtesy of the National Maritime Museum, London.
SEA HISTORY 11 2, AUTUMN 2005
Britain was rhus enabled to suppo rt up risings against Napoleon's rule-notably in Portugal and Spai n-which destabilized France's dominance of the continent. 1 his ultimately led to Napoleon's decision to invade Russia to break thro ugh to the eastward and wo rld conquest. When he failed in this rash stroke, the nations of Europe rose together and, with British support, d rove the Em peror into exile while achieving their own freedom- making victo ry a "benefit to Europe in general," indeed! Ano ther gain of vital im portance to the future was the idea of what Nelson called "humanity" -the bel ief that manki nd is born free and endowed with undeniable rights. This concept had been inherent in English Common Law and was made specific in their Bill of Rights of 1689. In America's breakaway, the notion was resoundingly affirmed in the An1erican D eclaration ofindependence of 1776, which has been called freedom's mission statement, and confirmed in the US Constiw tion and Bill of Rights of 1789. Fo r Britain, the o utcom e of these adva nces produced the co nviction , shared to a notable extent by all levels of society, that Britons were fighting fo r freedom in figh ting the Napoleo nic War. This m atter needs to be recognized fo r the major, hi story-changing facto r it was, as tested in the terrible fi res of wa r. John N icol, a deckhand in N elso n's Aeet, was drafted by the press gang but still considered himself a free m an, figh ting fo r freedom's cause. H is jo urnal portrays a person who stood on his own feet within the confines and restrictions of shipboard society and kept up his enthusias m to win the next battle and ultimately the war. These attitudes bred a cohes io n that m ade British crews formidable in action . Their custom of cheering as they went into action, N icol recorded , m ade as much impression on captured French officers as the overwhelming rate of fi re achieved by the crews of British sh ips. O n the American side much the sam e ethos was at work, p roducing the stunning single-ship victories over British friga tes gained by U SS Constitution and other American vessels in the War of 1812. The American victories were hammered home by stronger-built American ships-but Britons were accustomed to winning in the face of unfavo rable odds. In this case, however, in fighting American crews of comparable discipline and spirit, their usual advantage was go ne. A societal ethos, based on dedication to freedom, individual initiative and willingness to serve in freedom's cause, had a profo und effect on wo rld history once the Napoleo nic War was wo n. W hen the young American Republic was coming of age and moving toward its continental destiny and the Pax Britannica was raking shape, that ethos of freedom cam e into play in ways that could not have been predicted and, in fac t, surprised rhe wo rld repeatedly, including rhe American and British acto rs who were making decisions on what happened o n rhe world stage. Vital decisions began to crowd o n both natio ns as soon as peace was achieved in rhe struggle against Napoleo nic France. A Community of Principle The first peace brokered was one between rhe two English-speaking protago nists to end rhe War of 1812. The Americans had learned the great lesson that Canada had no desire to be "liberated"
27