Trafalgar Mysteries

On Thursday November 7th, 1805, one of Hetty Jane Owen’s ancestors strolled down to his local news kiosk and purchased a copy of the Times. The newspaper was kept, and travelled down the generations, fading somewhat until it joined various Wombwell and Bradley oddments in Harold Eldridge’s box file.

The main story in The Times that day was somewhat sensational. The English fleet under the command of Admiral Horatio Nelson had, after an exhaustive pursuit that had taken them to the West Indies and back, finally caught up with the combined French and Spanish fleet just off the coast of Spain. Nelson’s strategy was bold and unconventional, and rested on speed. It was also utterly decisive, and delivered a knockout blow to any ideas Napoleon might have had for invading England, whilst assuring the sea superiority so essential for a maritime empire. 

The nation celebrated and mourned at the same time. Nelson’s body was on its way back to England, along with the wounded commander of the French fleet, Villeneuve, who was to be accorded the dubious privilege of attending Nelson’s state funeral before being allowed to return to France to die the following year, either by suicide, or murdered by Napoleon, depending on which story you prefer to believe.

It was a story of massive historical and national significance, but it still doesn’t quite explain why the newspaper in question was so carefully kept by the generations that followed.