AT WAR IN NELSON'S NAVY

The sailors who triumphed at Trafalgar are often portrayed as press-ganged stooges forced to serve in a brutal world of strict discipline and harsh punishment. But what was it really like to live and fight on the waves?

- NICK SOLDINGER

Overcrowded living quarters. Years away from home. Ritualised floggings. Daily risk of injury and death. On the surface, there wasn’t much to recommend joining Lord Nelson’s navy. And yet thousands did, operating the ships that would win countless engagements, including the Battle of Trafalgar (1805). But what drove these men to serve in this dangerous and demanding world?

At the end of the 18th century, the Royal Navy began a transformation that turned it into the most formidable maritime fighting force in the world. Prompted by the French Revolution and the threat of invasion, it grew more than eightfold, with its ranks swelling from 17,000 in 1792 to 145,000 by 1810. With this rapid growth, and the victories it brought, a new type of national hero was born as the British sailor was reimagined as a patriotic archetype. The fabled Jack Tar became both a grog-loving free spirit with a girl in every port and a fearless servant of the crown who ensured Britannia ruled the waves. Life for Britain’s seafarers at the time, however, was less romantic than this contradictory image would have us believe.