Of course, the stories of Fanny Nelson and Emma Hamilton are compared and contrasted. Geoff Wright has contributed a significant account of Emma’s mother; Lily Style, a descendant, has written about her female ancestors; Lucie Dutton has written about the choice of one of the most beautiful actresses of the age to play Fanny in a silent movie; and Joe Callo has completed his series of interviews with the lovers in the Nelson ménage. Love always played a part, as Sim Comfort’s beautifully illustrated report of love tokens and miniatures tells us, just as Kevin Brown reminds us soberly of its occasional consequences. And Jane Austen also features, in the incredible life-is-stranger-than-fiction love story of the ‘real Captain Wentworth’ by Peter James Bowman, and ‘Letters Home’ by Ellen Gill. Before the days of email and even #metoo campaigns, lovers and loved ones communicated by letter, as Heather Noel-Smith and Lorna M Campbell remind us. The Trafalgar Chronicleis increasingly an international journal, and though most writers have been anglophone, I am particularly pleased to welcome a contribution by two Swedish scholars, Marianne Kindgren and Birgitta Tingdal, where the reader is left to ponder whether their subject was or was not a piratess. Finally, Karen E McAulay and Brianna E Robertson-Kirkland remind us through an unusual medium, library records in Scotland, that Georgian women were well-informed about political history and current affairs, particularly the progress of the war, and used their musical talents to show their support. For this cornucopia of knowledge, including Peter Willoughby’s article on sea surgeons, I am grateful to all the contributors and wish to thank them warmly for their research and writing. I also wish to thank Margarette Lincoln for her contribution as guest editor, colleagues who have refereed papers, and Peter Turner for help in proofreading. The call for papers and choice of theme resulted in a large number of submissions, and I can only deeply regret that I have not been able to publish every paper – but I trust that I have done my duty towards women and the sea in the age of sail. PETERHORE THE TRAFALGAR CHRONICLE 8
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