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National Geographic : 2005 Oct
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Nelson's naked body was covered with sailcloth. With each heartbeat, blood gushed into his lungs. He had no sensation in his lower body. He called for a fan. He asked for lemonade. on since 1793. There was a brief peace in 1802, but a year later hostilities flared again. The Napoleonic Wars, as they became known, were a new kind of conflict: a war of ideology prose cuted in a spirit of deep animosity. For Nelson, Napoleon represented what Joseph Stalin-or Osama bin Laden-would mean to our age. Nelson passionately believed he had been called by his country, and by God, to defend England from tyranny. By the summer of 1805, Napoleon had massed 90,000 troops in Boulogne for an invasion across the English Channel. But he had yet to assemble the naval power to protect his troops during a crossing. "England was in the middle of a total war for national survival," says Andrew Lambert, a professor of naval history at King's College London. "More taxes were raised per capita in the war against Napoleon than in the war against Hitler. For Nelson, the French were the enemy, and they had to be annihilated." nnihilate was one of Nelson's favorite words. "It is annihilation that the coun try wants, not merely a splendid vic tory,' he told his officers before the Battle of Trafalgar. The word was almost cer tainly on his lips as he paced the quarterdeck of Victory that morning, with his closest friend, the ship's captain, Thomas Masterman Hardy. They made a curious pair. Hardy was six feet four, a burly Dorset man of farming stock. Nelson was five feet six, narrow-shouldered and built like a ballet dancer. At the age of 47, Nelson was the most famous British naval commander since Sir Francis Drake. He had won three major battles and fought 50 other engagements, more than any admiral in the history of the Royal Navy. His highly publi cized-and adulterous-love affair with Emma Hamilton, a British diplomat's wife Nelson had 60 NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC * OCTOBER 2005 Glorified in art, Nelson wore the stars of knighthood awarded for his many naval victo ries. His amputated right arm and a sightless eye were war wounds that earned him the respect of the ranks.Nelson spent his last agonizing hours belowdecks on Victory (right) before payingthe ultimate price.Says historian Andrew Lambert, that was the moment "when Nelson ceased to be a living hero and became a god." met in Naples, only added to his star wattage. "Nelson was the first great modern hero," says Tom Pocock, a Nelson biographer and former war correspondent. "Everyone knew the stories of his battles, and the story of Emma. He had toured Britain a lot. There were pictures of him everywhere. He was the first celebrity of the mod ern kind. He was everyman and superman." He bore little resemblance to the apple cheeked dandy of his official portraits. At sea since he was 12, Nelson had spent only two of the past dozen years on land. His face was weather-beaten, his teeth rotten, and his body scarred and mangled. It was common for sailors or gunners to lose limbs, be shot or burned. It was rare among admirals. Nelson led from the front, putting his own life on the line while ask ing others to do the same. Nelson's wounds were the true badges of his courage, more than the four orders of knight hood and two gold medals that glittered on his coat on ceremonial occasions. In 1794, at the siege of Calvi on the island of Corsica, a cannon ball smashed into the parapet next to him, driv ing sand and gravel into his right eye. (Contrary to popular portrayals, Nelson never wore an eye WILLIAMBEECHEY.GUILDHALL ARTLIBRARY/BRIDGEMAN ARTLIBRARY(ABOVE; A.W. DEVIS.NATIONALMARITIMEMUSEUM,LONDON(RIGHT)
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