May the Great God, whom I worship, grant to my country and for the benefit of Europe in general, a great and glorious Victory; and may no misconduct in any one tarnish it; and may humanity after Victory be the predominant feature of the British Fleet. For myself, individually, I commit my life to Him who made me, and may His blessing light upon my endeavors for serving my Country faithfully. To Him I resign myself and the just cause which is entrusted to me to defend. Amen. Amen. Amen.
– The prayer of Horatio Nelson, commander of the British fleet, written on the eve of the Battle of Trafalgar, the following day. For those interested in this period of naval warfare, I strongly recommend this excellent book by Sam Willis.
Roger Knight’s excellent biography of Nelson, which I read about three years’ ago after it was published, is also a brilliant study of the man. (Being an East Anglian, as Nelson also was, I am somewhat biased.)
I leave it to Samizdata readers to elaborate on the potential parallels between Nelson’s destruction of the French/Spanish fleets on that day and the recent far less violent assertion of UK independence on 23 June, 2016.
Trafalgar was, to apply Churchill, the end of the beginning, may the independence vote be the beginning of the end, for pan-European tyranny, be it bureacratic, or be it military.
It always astounds me that people such as Nelson could effectively command such fleets of sailing vessels, subject as they were to the vagaries of winds and tides, with only rudimentary communication, over distances so vast that you couldn’t even see most of your fleet (or the enemy’s).
Laird,
Nelson may well have had more effective comms than his ‘heirs’ at Jutland over 110 years later, and unlike them, his fleet knew better how to keep their magazines safe from flash fires.
And today a Russian flotilla breezes past Dover (as is its right) making the Royal Navy laugh, as they say ‘You Russians may well have one working aircraft carrier, and it is nuclear-powered, but your seamanship won’t enable you to hit one of our diversity targets!’.
The “Admiral Kuznetsov” is an oil-burning steamer; the “Pyotr Velikiy” is nuke-powered with an oil-burning boost powerplant.
Cheers
Trafalgar, while guaranteeing the safety of Great Britain from invasion, was not the end of the beginning for the Napoleonic wars. Napoleon had only just begun the Empire’s rampage across Europe, handing major defeats to, and wringing major concessions from Austria, Prussia and Russia in rapid succession. And he browbeat the Spanish Royals into abdicating to brother Joseph. The true end of the beginning, IMO, was the Spanish popular uprising in 1808. It may not have looked like it at the time, but it eventually provided Great Britain with the opportunity to open a major land front, and bled the Empire of manpower and resources it well could have used elsewhere. The beginning of the end for Napoleon was, naturally, the destruction of La Grande Armee in Russia.
Likewise, the Brexit victory, while a signpost on the path out of the EU, is not the end of the beginning. I’d say you will not have that until Article 50 is actually invoked. There’s still a lot that can go wrong. I probably don’t need to tell you what – there’s been plenty of discussion here on that.
J M H,
My apologies, I foolishly trusted our media. I thought only the UK was dumb enough to oil-power a huge carrier.
Slightly OT, a short YT video about the Imperial measurements preserved in Trafalgar Square. The embed link button does not appear on an iPad, just a row of buffoonish pictures.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=R71eZKTLkyQ
Real stupidity is Australia proposing to buy French nuclear submarines modified to have diesel engines.
At the first committee meeting after the referendum victory, the Revd. Philip Foster opened the
proceedings of the cross party Campaign for an Independent Britain with this prayer-
O ALMIGHTY God, the Sovereign Commander of all the world, in whose hand is power and might which none is able to withstand; we bless and magnify thy great and glorious name for this happy Victory, the whole glory whereof we ascribe unto thee, who art the only giver of Victory.
And, we beseech thee, give us grace to improve this great mercy to thy glory, the advancement of thy Gospel, the honour of our Sovereign and, as much as in us lieth, to the good of all mankind. And, we beseech thee, give us such a sense of this great mercy, as may engage us to a true thankfulness, such as may appear in our lives by an humble, holy and obedient walking before thee all our days, through Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom with thee and the Holy Spirit, as for all thy mercies, so in particular for this Victory and Deliverance, be all glory and honour, world without end.AMEN
From Forms of Prayer to be used at Sea, after Victory or Deliverance from an Enemy.
BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER 1662
Nelson would have been familiar with this
You can see why the modernising, politically correct, extreme Europhile, clergy persons of today’s
Church of England do all they can to suppress the Book of Common Prayer
The CofE believes in fuck all apart from feathering it’s own nests, sodomising kids, wearing expensive frocks (for men only, obviously) and being the Clerical wing of RESPECT. They are in terms of Western Culture the moderate branch of ISIS. They lack the bollocks of the Muslims. That would be an ecumenical matter. They can have a conference about that, embezzle the funds extorted from old dears and then retreat over sherry to get their flacid members fellated by all the young lads they are importing in ISO containers from Calais. Oh, the stubble! THE STUBBLE!
There must be some mathematical principle that parallel and 180 degrees divergent are the same.
Because the British Empire and the people of the Royal Navies made Trafalgar stick for a hundred and forty years.
Brexit won’t happen.
Mr. Ed, et al:
Re: “short YT video about the Imperial measurements preserved in Trafalgar Square”.
The earnest young chap presenting the “article” was obviously raised well after the introduction of “Metric”.
A “Perch” is a measurement of area NOT length. He probably assumed that a “perch” was something really big birds rested on. “Square Rod”, (an “un-hip” rod?), was sometimes used as another term for “perch”.
Even today, in allegedly “Metric” Australia, house blocks are often quoted in “perches” as well as “square metres”.
“Standards” matter. Case in point, the production of the SMLE rifle in Australia.
The rifle, of thoroughly British design, was adopted by Australia soon after its introduction into British service.
HOWEVER, it was decided to skip over the “dark, Satanic mills” of British manufacture and adopt the somewhat more “modern” American system. (Besides, P&W came in with a MUCH cheaper “turn-key” price).
Thus, the nice chaps at Pratt and Whitney built an entire production set of machinery, tools and gauges to drawings supplied by Australia and, ultimately, Britain.
The entire plant was “proof-run” in the US before being shipped to Oz, where it was trundled up to behind the Blue Mountains and re-assembled in the buildings that had been newly constructed for the purpose. The little mining town of Lithgow was about to get a new lease of life.
Rifles from the first Lithgow batch were sent to Britain for “evaluation”, and this is where it got interesting.
There were some minor problems with interchangeability and measurements when Lithgow rifle parts were mixed with “Enfield” parts.
It turned out that Pratt and Whitney used the “Pratt and Whitney”, INCH as opposed to the “ENFIELD” inch and that their gauging was EXTREMELY fine across the board. They had achieved a level of interchangeability previously unheard of in “Imperial” armaments-manufacturing circles. The catch was that they did it with THEIR inch and not the “Imperial” inch.
Before the place was gutted and the “knowledge” dispersed, there was a chart in the Lithgow factory archives, delineating this very discrepancy in “inches”.
Trafalgar was indeed a victory in one battle – not the end of the war.
However, had the Royal Navy been defeated, Britain would have been left open to the invasion by the forces seeking a “United Europe”.
Preventing such a “United Europe” (which would inevitably be a threat to us) has been the policy of this island since at least the time of the first Elizabeth. Our efforts against Philip II of Spain, Louis XIV of France (the Sun King), the French Revolutionary regimes, the Germans in both World Wars and the Soviets – are all about preventing a United Europe.
This is the history of our island – this is what Britain is about.
Paul, doesn’t that mean that Britain should start re-arming, if it breaks away from Europe? How serious is the threat that Europe will have its’ own army? Will a Europeon Navy follow, capable of intimidating the U.K.?
Nicholas the number of ships possessed by individual European navies would be no indicator of an ability to “outgun” the Royal Navy. Relative Navy strengths are simply a matter of Googling to do the raw sums. Technology and the compatibility of one Euro country’s navy with that of another would be an initial consideration. Do they use NATO operating procedures in which case the RN would be all over them in a flash. An alternative to that would be the development of their own procedures in which case there would be a long lead in time – language being just one of the considerations. Even in the English speaking world communications between say the US Navy and the RAN have to be carefully handled as we are separated by a common language. Then there is the integration of sea and air power into mutually supporting systems of offence/defence and on it goes.
The UK’s greatest strength, and also one of it’s weaknesses is that it is an Island and, unlike most European countries, looks to its sea strength over Army strength.
The arguments for and against are long and complex but the greatest obstacle to a united European Navy would be the intransigence of many of its national components in surrendering military power to a centralized body.
NickM,
Of course the C of E now has lady vicars and bishops! Openly queer and transgendered of all Sexual “identities” and ” communities” must surely follow.
Presently I am attending a Russian Orthodox Church. They don’t change anything. Whilst parts of the liturgy are in Church Slavonic, the English parts are in language recognisable to someone brought up on the Book Of Common Prayer. The C of E had to ( largely) suppress that because it was de facto changing doctrine . Lex Orando, Lex Credendi ( How you pray determines what you believe).
The Orthodox service is all,choral. As in pre reformation England the congregation mostly stands although ” the weakest go to the wall” to sit down.. It lasts a long time too!
I am greatly impressed that they pray for the Queen ( and those in lawful,authority under her) not Once but three times.. I know that over twenty five years ago, clergy were coming under pressure in the C of E to omit the State Prayers – even when they were using the traditional,services “because the Queen isn’t important any more”. The bishops in the House of Lords are, I am told ” Europhiles to a man” and and keenly committed to the policy of all the main parties ( until very recently) to dissolve the nation into the European polity.
That is fascinating, Edward. Presuming you have no previous connection to the Russian Orthodox Church (such as maybe family), I’m curious if you know how many others like you may be attending these churches in the UK, if any? (Sorry for being nosy, and feel free to ignore).
Edward,
The reason for my beef contra the CofE is… I am a Quaker Warden (I am not a Quaker at all- I clean the toilets, take bookings and live rent-free) but I have helped the homeless around here via that role. I have often done this because the neighbouring CofE vicar has told them to piss off. She is way too interested in coffee mornings and “nice things”. I am a better Christian than she is. And I don’t even don’t believe in God.
Alisa,
See above. I understand the need that if one believes in God it ain’t a belief in twisted sociology and quite frankly the CoFE is the theological wing of the United Former Polytechnics Departments of “Studies”.
Bruce:
I learned “perch” and “rod” as both being measurements of length, with a square rod and a square perch being the area measures.
So, maybe, YMMV. (Or, maybe, I just learned wrong, but I guess I wasn’t alone.)
David, didn’t a French sub, and a British sub, have a collision a few years back? Were the Frenchies trying to intimidate you even then?
Nicholas I am an Aussie hence the reference to the RAN. Communications between RN and RAN ships were always easy as we spoke the “same language”. With our American cousins their terminology was frequently different to ours.
The collision you refer to would have been that between HMS Vanguard and Triomphant in 2009. It would take a lot more for Les Frogs to intimidate the RN. An old RN friend of mine always refers to the French as the “Ancient Enemy”.
Edward S
I have no evidence, but less doubt, that you are right. Funny how when Labour reformed the House of Lords to reduce the hereditary peers, the Lords Spiritual (a platoon of Church of England bishops) were left in place, despite this allowing unelected bishops to vote on matters affecting not just England but the rest of the UK as well. Funny how the Nats are quiet about that, isn’t it?
Perhaps it’s time for a petition to the House of Commons to debate the removal of the turbulent priests?
the removal of the turbulent priests
Calling Reginald FitzUrse, Hugh de Morville, William de Tracy and Richard le Breton,