Nelson & His World

True to form today's Daily Mail has a Nelson-related article to coincide with Trafalgar Day.

It refers to a letter written by Robert Hope, a sailmaker on HMS Temeraire, which gives his personal description of the Battle of Trafalgar.

The letter has apparently been sold to the NMM by Hope's descendants "for an undisclosed sum".

The problem is that the letter is headed Temeraire, Portsmouth, 4th November 1805.

This is shown quite clearly in a photo of the letter and repeated in the text of the article. It also says specifically that it was a fortnight after the battle.

Well Temeraire didn't return to Portsmouth until 30th November - so what is going on here?

I double checked this to a contemporary newspaper which states:

November 30th, Portsmouth. The Temeraire, Tonnant, and the Colossus arrived here today under jury masts from Gibraltar.

Can anyone tell me if I have missed something here?

I even wondered if back then there was a Portsmouth at Gibraltar - but I can't find anything.

Help!!

MB

Most likely he wrote the letter on 4 December, and just wrote the wong month by mistake. Even Nelson dated his letters incorrectly sometimes.

But it takes someone clever like you to spot the mistake.

Here is the NMM's article: http://www.nmm.ac.uk/explore/collection ... the-month/ You had better tell them they have got it wrong, Mark!

Tony,

How interesting - my thought process never went in that direction that's for sure.

But I like the idea - a simple human error would explain it.

Having said that I would be very surprised if the letter is in Hope's own handwriting. I hope I am not being unfair on him but it appears to be a very cultured hand for a member of the sailmaker's crew.

But I know it is recorded that clerks would often write letters on behalf of other men - so that might be the case here.

Thanks for your input.

Mark