Nelson & His World

As I've said in the Jack Tar paperback thread below, Roy and I send out occasional newsletters, about four times a year, to anyone who wishes to subscribe via our website (or you can contact me via this forum). Previous newsletters can be seen on our website. The latest newsletter has just been sent out, and Anna suggested that we include some or all of it on this forum. The latest newsletter has an update on Jack Tar, a piece on Anglesey and the work of photographers Mick Sharp and Jean Williamson, a piece on holidays and Gibraltar, a description of church pews, and a competition. This is what we wrote on Gibraltar, but bear in mind that these are written for a general readership, not for Nelson and nautical experts like yourselves!

The traditional holiday season has come to an end, at least for us in the western hemisphere, but the concept of holidays is a recent phenomenon of the industrial age. The aristocracy did the Grand Tour, but before the rise of factories, the mass of people generally only had days or part-days off on Sundays and feast days for religious observance. Holidays were part of the Industrial Revolution because of the need to regiment all aspects of a worker’s life in order to maximise profits. When industry was less mechanised and on a smaller scale, with much manufacturing done by piece workers, often at home, it didn’t matter much if a few workers took some time off. When output came to depend on machines in factories, though, it was essential to have workers on hand to keep the machines running – all day, every day, if possible.

The idea of foreign holidays is an even more modern concept, especially in Britain where such holidays for less wealthy people than the fabulously rich have only been available within living memory. Before that, the best way to see the world cheaply was to join the navy or the merchant navy. In Jack Tar we mention Thomas Rees from Carmarthen in south Wales who was bored with being a tailor’s apprentice and so first joined the militia and then, in April 1808, the Royal Marines because of his ‘very great desire to engage in active service, and to be able to visit foreign countries.’ Two centuries ago opportunities for ordinary people to visit foreign countries were virtually non-existent, and apart from the records of travellers and explorers who deliberately set out to see foreign lands and record what they experienced, the letters and journals of seamen are one of the few sources of information.

The men of the navy often took a rather narrow, pragmatic view of foreign places. The British naval base at Gibraltar was a frequent port of call, and the sailor George Watson had two things to say about Gibraltar in his memoirs – and they both concerned drink. According to him, ‘the wine generally drank by seafaring people at Gibraltar is Malaga, a sweet port-coloured liquor, and another species by the tars called “black strap”, rough unpalatable heady stuff; these cost about fourpence a quart, and the best not more than a shilling.’ To be stationed in the Mediterranean, where this wine was commonly given to seamen, was known as being black-strapped.

The fiery white Spanish Mistela wine was more acceptable, although the naval officer Basil Hall reckoned it was ‘a most insidious tipple, called Mistela in Spanish, but very naturally “transmogrified” by the Jacks into Miss Taylor.’ Watson’s other observation was that the people of Gibraltar ‘appear on all occasions ready to buy poor Jack’s clothes, which are generally disposed of at a very low rate to procure wine &c. I sold a waistcoat here, I paid half a guinea for at Portsmouth, for the small sum of half a crown, and I have no doubt they would get as much again for it, when they sold it to another having plenty of money, and wanting such an article.’

Whatever the sailors of Nelson’s time thought about it, Gibraltar has had a long and interesting history. Gibraltar is not an island now, although it was in the distant past and can still appear so from some angles. It is a limestone outcrop that is a remnant of a land bridge that once joined Europe with Africa. Many thousands of years ago, when sea levels were much higher and the sea had broken through that land bridge, Gibraltar was an island more than a mile from the mainland, but now it is joined to Spain by a low-lying stretch of land on which the airport has been built.

Some people assume that Gibraltar is the nearest point in Europe to the Continent of Africa, but it is not. Nor is it the most southerly point of Europe. The Spanish town of Tarifa, a few miles to the west of Gibraltar, is actually the most southerly point. Gibraltar is very close to Africa, though, and even on hazy days it is usually possible to make out the coast of North Africa looming out of the mist. In the time of the ancient Greeks, Gibraltar was one of the Pillars of Hercules, marking the boundary between the Mediterranean Sea with its civilisation and the Atlantic Ocean to the west that was home to barbarians. It was to the Greeks the limit of the known world.

The Greek legend was that Hercules went mad and killed his wife and children. To atone for this he was set twelve tasks, the ‘labours of Hercules’, and on completion of one of these he split a mountain in two, allowing water to rush in and form the Mediterranean Sea. The two halves of the mountain were the Pillars of Hercules. The Romans named the peak in Africa, that was regarded as the southern pillar, Mons Abila. They named Gibraltar Mons Calpe, and the name Calpe is still used by Gibraltarians today. For the Romans Gibraltar offered little strategic advantage, although they incorporated the rock in their Spanish province of Baetica.

It was some time later, after southern Spain had been under Islamic rule for several centuries following an invasion by the Moors of North Africa, that Gibraltar began to be regarded as a natural fortress. The campaign of the Spanish to push the Moors out of Spain, which is known as the Reconquista, was a long struggle for territory reminiscent of the First World War in Europe. First one side would push forward and gain some ground and then the other side would regroup, counter-attack, and recapture it. The Reconquista lasted several centuries, but by 1309 the Spanish were gradually pushing the Moors into the sea and had laid siege to the coastal town of Algeciras, which is just across the bay from Gibraltar. To stop the Moors sending supplies to the besieged town by boat, the Spanish made an attack on Gibraltar which developed into its first siege. Between 1309 and 1350 there were five sieges, but few fortifications survive from that time, mainly a castle and what is called the Moorish zig-zag wall.

By the end of the 15th century the Moors had finally been expelled from Spain, and Gibraltar was ruled by the Spanish. Under King Charles I of Spain, who became the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V and who was a contemporary of Henry VIII of England, the defences of Gibraltar were strengthened. The Rock remained in Spanish hands until the War of Spanish Succession, which broke out in 1701. With such a name, this sounds an insignificant conflict, but the stakes were high. There were three possible successors to the throne of Spain: the Archduke Charles of Austria, Philip of Anjou and the Elector of Bavaria. If Philip of Anjou succeeded to the throne of Spain, France and Spain would be ruled by the same family, because Philip was the grandson of the king of France. With France the most powerful country in Europe, and Spain with its colonies in North and South America providing gold and silver, the French dynasty would effectively rule the world. To prevent this, Britain, Holland, Austria and Prussia formed an alliance and declared war on France.

During the course of this war, in the summer of 1703, a British fleet with an invasion force attacked Barcelona on the north-east coast of Spain, but they were fiercely opposed and had to retreat. Barcelona had been chosen in order to provide a naval base for British ships in the Mediterranean, and so the British fleet looked for another suitable place and chose Gibraltar. They called on Gibraltar to surrender, but the Spanish governor refused, despite having a garrison of only 200 men. The British attack lasted less than one day, and since that time Gibraltar has been in British hands.

The war did not prevent Philip becoming king of Spain, and the fighting rumbled on for 12 years. The result was a political and economic mess through most of Europe, but the war did at least curb the power of France and prevent the French royal family dominating the world. Gibraltar continued primarily as a naval base, withstanding many attacks and sieges. After the Battle of Trafalgar, which took place at Cape Trafalgar on 21st October 1805, the Gibraltar Chronicle had one of the biggest newspaper scoops in history. A schooner called the Flying Fish passed the British fleet soon after the battle and took the news and dispatches to nearby Gibraltar. On 24th October the Gibraltar Chronicle published the very first newspaper report of Trafalgar. Eventually the battered British warships limped into Gibraltar and anchored in Rosia Bay on the west coast of the Rock. Nelson’s flagship, HMS Victory, was so badly damaged that the hulk had to be towed to Gibraltar for repairs.

One of the more obvious reminders of Trafalgar at Gibraltar is the Trafalgar Cemetery, which is something of a misnomer. Apart from a relatively recent Trafalgar monument, the cemetery only has the graves of two men who died in the hospital at Gibraltar from the wounds they received during that battle. The Trafalgar cemetery was actually consecrated in 1798 under the less romantic title of the Southport Ditch Cemetery, but was renamed sometime after the battle.

If you walk around Gibraltar, fortifications of all dates are some of the most striking aspects of the landscape. Even in the main square, called Casemates Square, many of the buildings are barracks built in the 19th century and now converted to other purposes. There are only three small beaches on the Rock, because in most places the cliffs plunge straight into the sea, so it is not the best destination for lovers of sea, sand and surf to take a holiday, but for anyone interested in many aspects of history, it is a fascinating experience.

We did include a photo of Gibraltar, but don't think I can do that here.

Lesley

http://www.adkinshistory.com

Lesley,

Many thanks for including your piece on Gibraltar; it made most interesting reading and told me a lot I didn't know. It has always been, and still is, on my 'to do list'!

I hope you will add some more! As for the photo, don't worry, I for one have seen a few of those!