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On 8th January 1806 the River Thames witnessed one of the most amazing spectacles in its long and fascinating history – the funeral river procession of Admiral Lord Nelson. The boat that carried his body had originally been built for Charles II in an age when river pageants were very much the fashion. It is now exhibited at the National Museum of the Royal Navy at Portsmouth and, in spite of being the oldest royal barge to survive, it is in excellent condition. The barge, or more correctly shallop, is 35 ft. long with a 6ft 1 in. beam. For Nelson’s funeral its bright red and green paintwork and gilded carvings at bow and stern were draped with black velvet and the coffin was covered by a large and ornate canopy with black ostrich plumes tremulous at each corner. The crew was suitably clothed in mourning and in a strong south westerly they rowed their precious charge from Greenwich to Whitehall. The procession was probably the largest ever to take place on the Thames, with 17 barges and 55 boats in the official procession, including the barges of the Lord Mayor of London and eight City Livery Companies. The Drapers’ barge led the other seven Livery Company barges since Nelson had been an honorary freeman of the Drapers’ Company. The Company records state that the crew were, “dressed in mourning scarfs, with the Company’s staffs covered with Black Crape and each of the Watermen had a black armband.”
William Watson at St Katherine’s Dock, wrote that “thousands of boats covered the water” filled with yet more spectators”. The rest of the throng were “clinging like Bees upon the rigging” of nearby ships and every window was crammed with people eager to get a view.
