Nelson's Victory at Trafalgar (Brave Nelson) [Laws J17]

DESCRIPTION: Nelson leads his English fleet to battle with the French and Spanish navies off Cadiz. "He broke their line of battle, and struck the fatal blow," but in the melee is shot. He dies knowing he has won and that Napoleon's threat to Britain is ended
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1869 (Logan-APedlarsPack)
KEYWORDS: war Napoleon injury death
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1758-1805 - Life of Horatio Nelson, victor at Aboukir (the Nile), Copenhagen, and Trafalgar
Oct 21, 1805 - Battle of Trafalgar
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar) Britain
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Gardham-EarliestVersions, "NELSON'S VICTORY AT TRAFALGAR"
Laws J17, "Nelson's Victory at Trafalgar (Brave Nelson)"
Logan-APedlarsPack, pp. 67-69, "Nelson's Glorious Victory at Trafalgar" (1 text)
Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia 77, "Nelson's Victory at Trafalgar" (1 text)
Creighton-FolksongsFromSouthernNewBrunswick 94, "Brave Nelson" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ashton-RealSailorSongs, #18, "The Battle of Trafalgar" (1 text)
DT 549, NLSNTRAF
ADDITIONAL: C. H. Firth, _Publications of the Navy Records Society_ , 1907 (available on Google Books), p. 301, "Nelson's Glorious Victory at Trafalgar" (1 text)
ST LJ17 (Full)
Roud #522
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Nelson's Monument" (subject)
cf. "Bold Nelson's Praise" (subject)
cf. "The Grand Conversation on Brave Nelson" (subject)
"The Death of Nelson" (subject)
NOTES [280 words]: Napoleon dearly wanted to capture Britain -- and he was right to feel that way; Britain was his worst enemy and the one that finally defeated him. But he could not invade England unless the Royal Navy could be swept aside. Trafalgar was his attempt to do so, and it failed miserably. The Franco-Spanish navy, under Villaneuve, was slightly larger (33 ships to Nelson's 27), but poorly led and badly trained. Nelson not only had a better fleet, but new ideas. After a game of cat and mouse that had led the fleets all the way to the Americas, the two fleets finally met off Cape Trafalgar in 1805. Nelson's method of "breaking the line" worked, and he heavily defeated the French. In the midst of the battle, however, he was shot by a French sharpshooter and mortally wounded.
Even so, the French threat to Britain was permanently lifted.
Miscellaneous references in the broadside include:
"The hero of the Nile": Nelson's first great exploit against Napoleon occurred before the turn of the century, when he effectively destroyed the fleet that had carried Napoleon's expedition to Egypt. The conflict was known as "The Battle of the Nile" (August 1, 1798).
"Collingwood" was Vice Admiral Cuthbert Collingwood (1758-1810), Nelson's second in command and Chief Assistant Hero of the battle. - RBW
A distinguishing characteristic of this ballad is that each verse ends "brave Nelson."
I haven't found this ballad among the broadsides in the Bodleian catalog though there are broadsides on the subject. See, for example, the chapbook printed by J. Pitts (London) with fifteen "admired songs, on the glorious victory off Trafalgar," Bodleian Curzon b.24(98) [not all of it legible]. - BS
Last updated in version 6.8
File: LJ17

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