7 Editors’ Foreword ‘Reasonably sophisticated, national-level and naval intelligence’ existed during the ‘Age of Fighting Sail’ and ‘aside from its crude technology and primitive communications, it lacked only the formal, institutionalised, and bureaucratic organizations that began to emerge in the late nineteenth century—which in turn evolved into the modern, extremely technical intelligence communities of today.’ Thus, international intelligence expert, Captain Steven E. Maffeo, USN (Ret) opens this 2024 edition of the Trafalgar Chronicle, which focuses on the theme ‘Naval Intelligence in the Georgian Era’. The article is excerpted from his book: Most Secret and Confidential: Intelligence in the Age of Nelson. Following his paper on ‘Secret Intelligence in the Age of Nelson’ are five more well-researched articles on how Britain’s ‘reasonably sophisticated’, but thoroughly informal intelligence capability, gathered and applied the obtained intelligence to further the strategic and operational objectives of the Royal Navy. dr Evan Wilson of the US Naval War College explains how young naval officers made ‘grand tours’ of the Continent, ostensibly to expand their cultural knowledge so that they could be viewed as gentlemen; but they also observed and sometimes reported on the naval strength of England’s enemies and competitors. Through historian Andrew Venn we learn about Nelson’s use of intelligence in chasing Villeneuve across the Caribbean. Likewise, dr Anthony Bruce describes how Admiral Edward Vernon relied on intelligence in his taking of Porto Bello, Panama. Next topic: spies. Nicholas James Kaizer, a Canadian scholar and teacher gives us a tale of British espionage in the Ionian Islands, while Tom Fremantle elucidates on how Admiral Arthur Phillip (1739–1814) was not only a Royal Navy office, explorer, and administrator of the penal colony that marked the founding of New South Wales; Phillip had also served as a mercenary with the Portuguese, reporting his observations to England. In this edition of the Trafalgar Chronicle we have a first – a featured monograph by Natacha Abriat, director and curator of the Cultural Heritage Research department of the Occitanie region of France. When we issued our Call for Papers last year, and we stated that proposers should send us papers of 3000 to 5000 words in length, we were surprised when Natasha sent us a paper
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