Editor’s Foreword As the Trafalgar Chronicle embarks on its fourth decade, we are delighted to take the helm from Captain Peter Hore RN, Rtd, the previous editor from 2015 to 2019. While all three of us have published books and articles and possess broad experience in writing and editing, for each of us this is a first experience in editing a scholarly research journal. In fact, as we look over the list of editors of the past issues, we feel honoured and humbled to be included in the pantheon. Captain Hore has generously given us his blessings and guidance as we undertake this new adventure. We are committed to maintaining his high standards. The theme for this 2020 issue is portrayals of the Georgian Navy in art, literature, and film. As proposals and submittals began arriving over the past year, we have felt astonished and excited by the quality of material we have received, the acumen of the authors, and the depth of their diligent research. Because our theme concerns the arts, we also received, to our amazement, almost 100 illustrations – some familiar to our readers and some quite rare. Our feature article is by Captain Gerald Stulc, Medical Corps, US Navy Ret. As a civilian, Captain Stulc is a retired cancer and trauma surgeon. His paper explores how paintings, drawings, and films have depicted Nelson’s ailments and battle injuries. Dr Stulc brings his medical knowledge to bear in discussing Nelson’s bouts with viruses and fevers as well as head trauma, impaired vision in one eye, a wound to his abdomen, the loss of his right arm and the circumstances of his death. We learn that the many depictions of Nelson seldom squared with medical reality. Yet, not only his victories but his injuries as well made him a hero in the eyes of his countrymen, who lionised him in death. Complimenting Dr Stulc’s article, historian Andrew Venn examines narratives and paintings of Nelson’s death. He sifts through the eyewitness accounts written by those who witnessed Nelson’s death and compares the paintings of West and Devis, who both portrayed his final moments. Venn sees Devis’ painting as being much closer to reality. West, however, compensated for his inaccurate illustration with a more masterful, allegorical painting of Nelson’s ascension to immortality. Cartoonist and writer, and the new editor of The 1805 Club’s Kedge Anchor, Peter Turner casts a light-hearted glance at the many ways Nelson’s image has 6
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