GIBRALTAR 13 JULY 2009

The wedding is over; the last stop is Gibraltar. We got ashore early and wandered through the town, where we reached the old cemetery . . . . . . and noticed something going on; a lot of scrambled egg about (what junior ranks called high-ranking officers, referring to all the gold bits on their shoulders and caps). Anyway, we wandered in for a look and we heard someone say he was the first Sea Lord. Tom rolled up to him: Did I hear you correct? Did you say the First Sea Lord? I'm WO11 First Highland Fusiliers. First Sea Lord and Chief of Naval Staff Admiral Sir Jonathon Band GCB ADC chatting with Tom They chatted for a while; he told us that the navy had done a lot of work on the old cemetery and he had just unveiled a plaque commemorating the Battle of Trafalgar. He was a really nice man. The Battle of Trafalgar (21 October 1805) was a sea battle fought between the British Royal Navy and the combined fleets of the French Navy and Spanish Navy, during the War of the Third Coalition (August-December 1805) of the Napoleonic Wars (1803-1815). The battle was the most decisive British victory of the war. Twenty-seven British ships of the line led by Admiral Lord Nelson aboard HMS Victory defeated 33 French and Spanish ships of the line under French Admiral Pierre Villeneuve off the southwest coast of Spain, just west of Cape Trafalgar. The Franco-Spanish fleet lost 22 ships, without a single British vessel being lost. Nelson was mortally wounded during the battle, becoming Britain's greatest war hero. The commander of the joint French and Spanish forces, Admiral Pierre de Villeneuve, was captured along with his ship Bucentaure. Spanish Admiral Federico Gravina escaped with the remnant of the fleet, and succumbed months later to wounds he sustained during the battle. The older plaques . . . This shows how English was written in 1805 . . . and the relatively new plaques, as the spelling is modern . . . The map goes with the list of names below

THE END IS NIGH HERE