Saturday
Yours truly, my fiancee plus regular Samizdata commenter Julian Taylor, have returned from a fine and patriotic day out in Portsmouth for the "International Festival of the Sea", an event which at its core commemorates the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Trafalgar. Trafalgar in fact was fought in October, but the organisers are no doubt exploiting what passes for the English summer to put on all manner of events for sailing nuts like myself.
There has already been a fair amount of media coverage of the events linked to the Trafalgar bicentennial, although arguably the BBC has underclubbed its coverage, giving more attention it seems to Wimbledon tennis and the Live8 music event. For anyone who wants to know the human cost of defending this nation's liberties, however, understanding what Lord Nelson and his forces achieved is important. As an island nation, our livelihood is crucially dependent on our peaceable enjoyment of the high seas.
For more than 100 years after Nelson crushed the Franco-Spanish forces off Cadiz, the Royal Navy dominated the world's oceans, enjoying a naval mastery to an extent not seen until the modern U.S. navy and its vast carrier fleets. Nelson instilled in the Senior Service an esprit de corps, a sense of confidence that was to carry on until the First World War, at which point Germany and Japan began to challenge Britain's mastery.
There are many excellent studies of Nelson's life and achievements, and I would recommend in particular Alan Schom's study of the countdown to Trafalgar, which gives credit not just to Norfolk's most famous son but also many of the other actors of the time, who ensured that the Royal Navy was raised to a high pitch of excellence. Tom Pocock's biography of Nelson is also a rattling good read of this brilliant, occasionally vain and charismatic man.
You're engaged to Julian Taylor? Holy shitballs!
Posted by Concerned Citizen at July 2, 2005 11:11 PM
Concerned - That's the way I read it, too! I refrained from writing a word, out of being non-judgemental.
Posted by Verity at July 3, 2005 12:23 AM
Have to say that's the way I read it too - "my fiancee plus regular Samizdata commenter Julian Taylor" made it sound as though you were listing two attributes of the same person...
(Pedantry bit - something like "My fiancee has returned with regular Samizdata commenter JT from..." would have made it clear you were talking about two separate people.)
Posted by RPW at July 3, 2005 11:47 AM
Strange i didnt read that way at all. I am from latin language(Portuguese) and the fiancee "plus" means "faincee and" or "faincee more"
Posted by lucklucky at July 3, 2005 12:18 PM
Good to see the pedants are out in force. Yeesh already. I was supposed to go along as well except that I got back from a gig w/backstage passes with Wolfie at 4am the night before. We were partying with this lot and thought it rude to head home early.
Posted by Andrew Ian Dodge at July 3, 2005 01:51 PM
AID - No one was being pedantic. That is the way Jonathan's post read in English, whatever the meaning conveyed in Portuguese.
Those pictures are magnificent. Thank you!
Posted by Verity at July 3, 2005 02:35 PM
Verity, you should have been there, patriotic lass you undoubtedly are. I did not want the post to be too "political" but I must say I got quite emotional at the wonderful show that was put on. Very impressive and a nice way to escape from London and the Live8 nonsense.
Posted by Johnathan Pearce at July 3, 2005 08:34 PM
And he managed to make it back to miss all the crap and in time to see Floyd perform.
Posted by Andrew Ian Dodge at July 3, 2005 09:08 PM
I must be the only person on this earth to consider that both Pink Floyd *and* the Beatles are over-rated.
Posted by I'm suffering for my art at July 3, 2005 09:29 PM
Yeah its fairly unusual for people to think both the Beatles (which I agree with you about) and Floyd are over-rated. Floyd were certainly better than McCartney yesterday.
Posted by Andrew Ian Dodge at July 3, 2005 10:53 PM
It must have been a magnificent day, Jonathan! And what lucky weather!
Posted by Verity at July 3, 2005 10:58 PM
Floyd were certainly better than McCartney yesterday.Floyd would be better than McCartney any day.
I've heard it suggested that if the remaining members of the Who were to recruit the remaining Beatles they would be back to a four piece. Unfortunately they would still need a drummer and a bass player.
Posted by The Weasel Bearder at July 4, 2005 08:21 AM
McCartney was never much without the rest of them. It's the combination of the four that was so remarkable. Besides, who compares Pink Floyd and the Beatles anyway? It's like apples and oranges.
Posted by Alisa at July 4, 2005 10:00 AM
Ah I was in Portsmouth on the Thursday which was a very wet day, but thoroughly enjoyable. Looks like you had better weather! Those fireworks on Tues were something though!
Posted by PL at July 4, 2005 02:27 PM
The Beatles were pop and PF never were. What was amazing to me is how bad U2's performance were and at least in London they didn't manage to get the sound right until Robbie's set.
Posted by Andrew Ian Dodge at July 4, 2005 05:57 PM
I must be the only person on this earth to consider that both Pink Floyd *and* the Beatles are over-rated.
No, there are at least two of us. Prog rock is one thing I will never agree with Jeremy Clarkson about.
U2 is hugely overrated anyway, but maybe it's just me:-)
Me too, and it's not just because Bonio has become such a hectoring bore in recent times.
Posted by John K at July 5, 2005 03:55 PM
