Editorial Huw Lewis-Jones I find that few think as I do – but to obey orders is all perfection! To serve my King and destroy the French, I consider as the great order of all, from which little ones spring; and if one of these little ones militate against it…I go back to obey the great order and object, and down, down with the damned French villains. Nelson writing to Duke of Clarence, HMS Vanguard, November 1799. Nelson was never afraid of going it alone. His approach certainly made some of his superiors at the Admiralty nervous. However, those who fought with him were inspired by his decisiveness. His directness in issuing his own orders, and his style in the toughest of actions, ensured him a devoted following among his young officers. Combat command was his strength. Our Club Vice-President Admiral Joe Callo agrees: ‘Nelson had an uncanny ability to grasp both strategic and tactical situations, and he repeatedly risked his career to do the right thing based on both the situation at hand and his overall mission’. It was fortunate that there were many seniors, like Admiral Earl St Vincent, who supported Nelson without fail, recognising his value as a warrior and leader of men. Nelson’s sense of duty was clear – to his country, though perhaps not to his wife – and he delivered on the promises he made to dear England. Dying amid the cannon’s roar of Trafalgar, with victory assured, he had surpassed everything that was expected of him. Those ‘damned French villains’ never stood a chance. Year on year the contributors to this journal exceed my expectations. As their Editor, mine is the gentle guiding hand, but they never fail to deliver on the promises they make. It has been a real pleasure working on The Trafalgar Chronicle for almost a decade now. My authors – a ‘band of brothers’ indeed, if you’ll excuse the parallel – are a wonderful bunch and this journal is what it is because of their efforts. I’ve always seen it as my duty to serve up a variety of maritime subjects. This golden age of history has a wide horizon and it would be wrong to confine it just to one man, however great he undoubtedly was. Nelson is the main character in this year’s journal, of course, but he is joined by many others. We have brief lives of some of Nelson’s contemporaries, men who vi
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