Was Nelson’s body brought ashore at Rosia?         

On May 13^th a few years ago, a group from the Nelson Society stood in front of Rosia Plaza, gazing at the parade of Georgian houses as their guide explained the legend of Nelson’s body being brought ashore whilst HMS Victory was being jury-rigged in Rosia Bay. He explained that no evidence existed to corroborate the legend and an expert in the crowd shook his head in agreement and the tale was thereby dismissed. Off they went to examine Rosia Bay. But is it so easily dismissed? Our oral tradition has proved itself again and again in many other areas, why not this one?

 Colin White, regular visitor to The Rock and very highly rated amongst Nelson experts, insists that no written evidence has yet come to light. That probably accounts for the general reluctance to accept the tale. However he stops short of asserting that it therefore didn’t happen. He would be as pleased as the rest of us if a 200-year-old diary carrying an eye witness account turned up tomorrow.

 So let’s examine some of the arguments put forward from time to time. It is known – as fact – that when Victory arrived, Nelson’s body was preserved in a barrel of brandy. It was a cask called a Leaguer, the largest size on board. Whilst here, the brandy was drawn off and the barrel was refilled with what, in the parlance of the time, they called spirits of wine; ie alcohol. That could have been achieved ashore but just as easily completed on board, so no help there then. It is also said that Victory’s crew were fiercely protective of the admiral’s remains and would never have let the barrel out of the ship. However, there are one or two possibilities, infrequently discussed, that suggest their loyalty might have made them insist on the body being taken ashore.

 Victory had been badly mauled and major works were needed to keep her afloat, let alone make her ready for a voyage to England. The replacement of masts, knees, framing, etc, required extensive rebuilding and the movement of heavy timbers in and out of the ship. The barrel and its precious contents may have been considered at risk during any one of these operations resulting in its transfer to safety ashore.

 Again, Rosia Bay was (and is) very exposed to a cannonade from seaward, a cutting-out exercise by the enemy, or even a fire ship attack. Immediately after Trafalgar both sides endured a severe storm, which dispersed the fleet and prizes, and which allowed the French to put up a small raiding squadron. This squadron succeeded in re-taking a number of prizes before escaping back into Cadiz. Who was to say that the same squadron, supported by gunboats from Algeciras might not appear in the Bay and try to excise or destroy a vulnerable HMS Victory at Rosia? If that was a reasonable concern, then the fiercely loyal crew would have positively insisted on Nelson being transferred ashore; and, since the victualling yard would not be built for another few years, what better place than the bombproof shelter of a house in Rosia.

 But all this is unsupported speculation. What about evidence for the veracity of our oral tradition? We know for instance that nearly every street in Gibraltar has its Spanish name as well as its English one. Although many are relatively recent, more than you might think date back over 300 years to Spanish times. The name Rosia Bay itself is not an English corruption of Rocio, as some once thought, but is shown on 17thC. Spanish maps as Bahia Rosia. 

 Consider if you will the English nursery rhymes ‘Ring-a-ring-a-roses’ which purportedly describes the symptoms of the Black Death and ‘Old King Cole’, who was possibly a Romano English king. Their origins may well be disputed, yet both have been around for more than the 200 years since Trafalgar.

 Some phrases in fairly regular use in Gibraltar can be directly traced to 18^th century forms of speech.  Several people that I know, when astounded, might reply:  ‘never in my life’ have I seen/heard... etc., which is a direct descendant of the ‘never in life’ frequently used by Nelson’s contemporaries. At least one person I know often uses: ‘as who should say’ which is the 200 year old form of ‘who might say’ or ‘one might say’ which would be typical today. Both these phrases are of course English but I am told there are similar hangovers, particularly in Genoese dialect, that were still in common use quite recently.

 Whilst these are only shreds of evidence, they are sufficient to convince me of the power of our oral tradition. In the west, we have a tendency to value written evidence more highly than oral histories. But as modern, literate people we cannot afford to sneer at an oral tradition we no longer need; that shouldn’t mean we turn our nose up at evidence, information or even speculation, that was handed down to us that very same way.    

 

 

   

          An imagined conversation on the mole, 5 Nov 1805.

  I give you joy of the victory, sir. 

They tell me you might hear the cannon roar as far away as Ronda, and yet we heard nothing here.

Indeed sir, more powder was expended than Guy Fawkes might have dreamt of and yet that Popish villain would have seen his compatriots well served out. The Dons fought well, the French somewhat less so.

 Yet was it not a French marksman that downed Lord Nelson?

 It was sir. Not even a lucky shot; he was barely 20 yards away, in Redoubtable’s top.

 Pray tell sir, where his Lordship’s remains lie now.

Well guarded in the bombproof, by the Master Shipwright’s house at Rosia, more peaceful than he has been these last twenty years, he looks more like a sleeping child; a wizened child at that.

 If I might make so bold sir, was it not imprudent to shift his cot ashore.

 Less so than you might think; the danger from the fleet is past but Spanish gunboats roam the bay. Not needing the wind they stalk at will and know the value of the Victory to us. Rosia has an open door; the proverbial stable door.

 Indeed you’re in the right of it....  Handsome is as handsome does.

 I give you joy sir, Aye.

 

This was part of my attempt to convince Colin White and despite Lionel Culatto’s well reasoned deposition during the fight to save Rosia Tanks, I remain convinced that there is more than a possibility that Nelson’s body was brought on shore here.

Colin is no longer with us… so by now he probably knows the answer.

 

 

                                  

                                                                 Sorry Paul… evidence??

First published at Gibraltar Magazine 2005 revisited 2025.  Paul Hodkinson.