ix SeaBritain 2005, is the overarching year-long celebration of Britain’s relationship with the sea. The Trafalgar Festival is at the very heart of SeaBritain 2005 and it has presented an array of special events numbering more than a thousand. The flagships have included an International Fleet Review at Spithead, with 35 navies represented, a four-day International Festival of the Sea at Portsmouth, the journey of the New Trafalgar Dispatch from Cadiz to London via Falmouth generating more than 50 events, and The Emirates Thames Nelson Flotilla, a symbolic re-enactment of Lord Nelson’s river borne funeral procession in London. All have been stunning, hugely successful events attracting tens of thousands of people and considerable media attention. Many of them have been organised by Council members of the Club. Yet, interspersed between and among them there have also been hundreds of smaller events, including tree plantings, village fêtes and fairs, Trafalgar parades, lectures, church services, lunches, dinners, regattas, concerts, musicals and fireworks. They have all been organised at the local level, which has been their strength, and each has displayed a personality of its own. And then there is the Club’s own Trafalgar Captain’s memorial project, brought to a wider audience by the publication of The Trafalgar Captains: Their Lives and Memorials. Whatever the event the same spirit has actuated all of them. There is a feeling that the occasion of the bicentenary is genuinely important, there is the glow of patriotism, and there is the sense that Britain is still a maritime nation. The visible affection for the Royal Navy during at all of these events has been striking. Moreover, the philosophy of the Trafalgar Festival, which is embodied in the words of The New Trafalgar Dispatch, has been given a very warm reception. Heroism and homage to all heroes, humanity after victory, the Brotherhood of the Sea and its inspiration for international friendship have been the key themes. They are now the foundations for the bicentenary’s legacy. We shall have to wait many years to see how durable that legacy is, but the auspices appear propitious and The 1805 Club will play a significant part ensuring that it is effective. Let us hope that our descendents will look back as they prepare for the Trafalgar tricentenary and recognise that in 2005 ‘Nelson’and ‘Trafalgar’ were commemorated with imagination, relevance, and true purpose. The 1805 Club, through its membership of the Official Nelson Commemorations Committee, has been a significant voice influencing the character of the Trafalgar Festival. Our main purpose is and remains the conservation of
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