viii wager of war. For others, he means nothing at all – a hero long forgotten, irrelevant to the modern world, shamed by neglect. Though Nelson’s statue looms high above London’s Trafalgar Square, it is often hard to see past the legend, past an image of the hero that history has passed down. And yet, new information frequently comes to light and things we understand to be familiar are called into question. Nothing is ever set in stone. This rare cast of Nelson’s face, for example, was for many years believed to be a death mask made after Trafalgar. It was bought by Queen Mary in 1924 from an antique shop in the Isle of Wight and made its way into the collections of the National Museum of the Royal Navy in Portsmouth. We now know that this cast was created when Nelson was alive, though admittedly rather unwell, travelling through Vienna. This rare mask is possibly the most authentic image of Nelson. Certainly, it is more truthful than many of the portraits that were painted of him, but is this enough? Imagine for a moment if Nelson had survived into the age of photography, like many of those men who served with him. If only a daring cameraman could have been at his side, that tempestuous day off the Spanish coast. We must however content ourselves with journals, logs, and many thousands of letters; yet happy in this too, for there is much we can still learn in the primary record about the rise, and fall, of this enigmatic man. Back to 1800 for a moment and even Nelson was unsure that he deserved to be remembered. He was so worn out, he wrote, that he felt but a shadow of himself remained. He was consumed with self-doubt and even his beloved career was in jeopardy: ‘who wants a one-eyed, one-armed admiral? My life is finished’. Though Nelson drew crowds of admirers, for many he remained a disappointment, his reputation over-hyped and his appearance unremarkable. In Germany, one observer would declare: ‘Nelson is one of the most insignificant figures I ever saw … a more miserable collection of bones and wizened frame cannot be imagined. He speaks little, and then only in English, and he hardly ever smiles’. *** It is clear, whatever you do, you can never please everyone. I would hope there is enough in this year’s journal to satisfy a range of tastes and interests. In doing so, I trust we are able to come closer to Nelson, not just in death, but in those visions of him in life – described in the words, and through the actions, of his contemporaries and reaffirmed in our remembering the men who fought alongside him.
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