Nelson & His World

Despite gold medals for British sailors and a claim that Lord Nelson learned to sail on the Norfolk Broads, they have just been voted “the most boring holiday destination in Britain.”

But I wondered where this claim about Nelson came from, because I don't remember reading about him sailing before he joined the Navy.

Chambers's Journal of 1949 has
A National Trust Guide says 'There are those who say that Nelson learned to sail on Horsey Mere'.

Also apparently a board on the harbour’s edge at Burnham Overy Staithe proclaims that it was here that Horatio probably learned to sail.

Does anyone have any idea where any of this originates?

I've browsed among numerous biographies today and there appears to be no authoritative information about Nelson's knowledge of sailing before he joined the navy. Certainly, in his 'Sketch of my Life', he dismisses his early life in Norfolk in a few sentences and makes no mention of boats or sailing at all.

Edgar Vincent merely mentions 'snippets' of knowledge about sailing that he had picked up at Burnham Overy Staithe, and Davis and Stephen Haworth in 'Nelson: the Immortal Memory' also mention the place, but no sources are given.

'Burnham Overy is a natural magnet for a small boy, the place where Nelson would have learned the feel of a boat as soon as he was big enough to walk and clamber aboard: would have learned also to work an oar and hoist a sail as soon as his arms could do it, and perhaps even to set a course along the winding creek and out through the sandbanks to the open sea.'

Pure speculation, I fear; but highly probable nonetheless. I have to say a word in favour of Norfolk, a place I loved long before I became interested in Nelson. I have spent wonderful holidays in the windmill at Burnham Overy Staithe. I love the wide skies, the stillness, the way land and sea merge imperceptibly into each other; the quiet villages with their flint-faced cottages; the waders and dippers who claim the water at the land's edge, where human beings are intruders in their private world. It is a wonderful, secretive, magical place. No wonder Nelson wrote of 'dear, dear Burnham'. (Though Burnham Market has recently become the playground of braying bankers from London.)

I've spent a pleasant afternoon by a roaring fire, this dismal November day, reading a charming booklet published to commemorate the 200th anniversary of Trafalgar. It was sent to me by a forum member in return for the anthology. (Thank you, Torfrida.)

In the foreword, John Baskerville, the Chairman of Norfolk County Council, mentions that 'tradition has it' that Nelson learned to sail at Barton Turf, but gives no other authority. Barton Turf is within walking distance of North Walsham where Nelson was at school for a while, so it is not impossible that a boy intent on a sea career might choose to gain some sailing experience.

Barton Hall, of course, was the home of Nelson's sister Catherine and her husband, George Matcham, where Nelson was a frequent visitor.

This may be yet another unverifiable legend: a Norfolk bus company now names the buses in its fleet after Norfolk characters. Scroll down to read that Admiral Lord Nelson 'learned to sail at Brancaster harbour.'


http://www.norfolkgreen.co.uk/bus-names/index.aspx

Anna,

I rather suspect that this is just another example of those from Norfolk wishing it were true, that Nelson was not only born in the county but learned to sail there too. However, I see no solid evidence being put forward that will pursuade me into believing it. Using such phrases as, 'is thought to have', 'may have', or even 'learned to' is surely not sufficient evidence, especially when it is allied with 'local tradition' and 'folklore', which is not factual record.

As you have said, there does not appear to be any mention of the young Nelson setting foot in a boat in his native county in any of the biographies – or at least not any of the ones I have read. Most of them mention such escapades as his scrumping apples for his friends, because they were too scared, and taking none for himself; and his once reminding William that they were on their honour to to their father to get to school through the winter snow, to mention but two. However there is nothing about boats as far as I recall, and wasn't the first instance of his showing any interest in the sea, was when he implored William to write to his Uncle to see if a career in the Navy were possible? I suspect that any such nautical episodes are not mentioned by John Sugden either, or I am sure you would have mentioned it. (Btw, I have just bought my (secondhand) copy of Vol 1, so have that reading pleasure to come in the autumn!)

As you also mention, and perhaps the most tellingly, Nelson himself makes no mention of any Norfolk boating expeditions in his 'Sketch of my Life', and I don't recall he did at any other time. If it had happened, it is conceivable he would have made mention of it. Perhaps these claims are similar to the story that the young Nelson, when first joining the Raisonnable in 1771, is supposed to have seen the Victory laid up 'in ordinary', and is said to have remarked that she would make a good admiral's flagship one day – and we are supposed to imagine that, from that day, the ship and Nelson were somehow linked!