EJ

The Tomb of Vice-Admiral Horatio Nelson ⚓️ I am very rarely starstruck, let alone within the presence of the dead. Having grown up in and around London, I have seen and ignored many famous people and so-called celebrities. But, when I stood in front of Nelson's tomb, I felt my very soul reach beyond its usual parameter. Though I know he existed, history often decreases our brains ability to truly separate reality from fiction. Knowing he's in there didn't only make me feel closer to the man himself, but his legacy and the people who lived to see it take shape. To know that he was laid here as a result of his heroic death leading the British Navy into the Battle of Trafalgar (1805) leaves one both silent and awe struck. We've all seen his Monument at Trafalgar square (named after the battle that took his life), but to stand by his burial place is a very different experience altogether. It matters not if we agree with everything that took place during his lifetime, but what does matter is understanding the grit and heroism required to have seen it all through. I have very few heroes, but I knew I was looking at one in this moment. I also consider the men who signed up or who were forced to fight in death defying conditions in order to maintain British dominance at sea. Be they strangers or our own family members, it's tombs like this that help us connect with the people who lived through adventures we're still studying centuries later. The following is a contemporary account of Nelson's body being brought back to England for his preparation and state funeral. "After the battle of Trafalgar, the corpse of the ever-to-be-lamented Admiral Lord Nelson was placed in spirits for the purpose of being conveyed to his native land. It was at first the intention of Lord Collingwood to send home the body in the Euryalus; but the crew of the Victory manifested the strongest reluctance to part with the precious relic. They remonstrated against its removal, through the medium of the Boatswain's Mate, and urged a plea that could not be resisted: 'The noble Admiral (they said) had fought with them, and fell on their own deck. If by being put on board a frigate, his remains should fall into the hands of the enemy, their loss would be doubly grievous; and therefore they were resolved, one and all, to carry it in safety to England, or to go to the bottom with their sacred charge.'" From January 5th to the 7th, 1806, the coffin was displayed under a velvet canopy in the Painted Hall at Greenwich Hospital. On January 8th, 1806, the coffin was placed aboard King Charles II's royal state barge upon which is was transported up the River Thames from Greenwich to Whitehall. On January 9th, 1806, a huge military and naval procession escorted the coffin on a grand funeral car modelled after HMS Victory to St. Paul's Cathedral, where it's been ever since. The sleek black marble sarcophagus surrounding the coffin was originally commissioned in the 1520s by Cardinal Wolsey for himself. It later fell under the ownership of King Henry VIII before eventually being gifted by King George III for Nelson's entombment. The sarcophagus is topped with Nelson's viscount coronet and is situated in the central chamber of Europe's largest cathedral crypt. His body rests within a wooden coffin that was crafted from the mainmast of L'Orient, the French flagship destroyed at the Battle of the Nile in 1798. Nelson had, in a fatalistic fashion, kept this coffin behind his own desk. As this subject and my take on it could extend a great deal, I shall leave it there and hope that you'll understand why I find being in this crypt such an emotional experience. Vice-Admiral Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson, 1st Baron Nelson of the Nile and of Burnham Thorpe, 1st Duke of Bronte. ⚓️ Thank you for reading. I hope this will lead you to seek out the tomb for yourself, or at least share this post to help others do so 🤝 St. Paul's Cathedral, London