Celebrating the Battle of Trafalgar

Ships from 35 countries marked the anniversary.

Sometimes you can't help wondering if the British like living in the 21st century They still love ancient rituals, nostalgia for daring deeds on the high seas, a hankering for back-to-schoolboy re-tellings of victories over those dastardly French, and a fondness for novels in which fictional heroes such as Horatio Hornblower, Jack Aubrey and Richard Sharpe give Boney's minions a jolly good thrashing.

Next month marks the 200th anniversary of the high point of those nostalgic yearnings, the Battle of Trafalgar, in which 27 Royal Navy ships defeated a combined French-Spanish fleet off the coast of Spain.

It was the crucial naval battle of the Napoleonic Wars, since it destroyed the French ability to invade or effectively blockade Britain, and set the scene for eventual victory.

While Napoleon wasn't finally defeated until Waterloo nine years later, Trafalgar marked the start of British ascendancy over the French and supremacy on the high seas, a happy memory to counter President Jacques Chirac's snipings at English food.

Making it all the more poignant, the hero of Trafalgar, Admiral Lord Nelson, was killed in battle, felled by a sniper's bullet.

The admiral's body was preserved in a barrel of brandy and taken back to England where it was given a hero's burial.

Nelson's life, death and military prowess were wrung out for every possible drop of jingoistic propaganda value by the Government of the day.

This put putting the one-eyed Admiral firmly on the top tier of British heroes.

And he is still there - surveying the world from the top of his column in Trafalgar Square - even ranking ninth in a 2002 BBC poll asking for the Greatest Briton beaten though, by such modern luminaries as Princess Diana and John Lennon).

The 200th anniversary of the battle in which he died is being marked with as much pomp and circumstance as present-day authorities can manage.

The anniversary doesn't fall for another three months and hundreds of events are planned.

British tourism authorities are sparing no effort to cash in on the global fascination with the real Nelson, the fictional Hornblower and their ilk.

They have organised a year-long festival called SeaBritain which brings together pretty much any sea-related group and club under its banner.

But it's not just about boats, says David Quarmby, chairman of the SeaBritain steering group, and it's much wider than just a bunch of Englishmen hankering after the glories of yesteryear.

"It's more than just a jingoistic celebration of victory over the French," he says.

"The Trafalgar festival sits at the heart of the year but it's not just about heritage.

"It's a celebration of Britain's relationship with the sea."

And that involves more than just history and old ships.

Quarmby says that SeaBritain has been deliberately designed to have a broader appeal, reaching beyond the hard-core history enthusiasts.

Urbanisation and the drift of people into the big cities has tended to take people further away from their strong maritime heritage.

As well as war, that maritime heritage is also about exploration, trade, fishing, lighthouses, lifeboats, fishing villages - there is a great enthusiasm among European tourists for visiting fishing villages, says Quarmby - attractions the British have often forgotten about.

"It's about re-establishing our connection with the sea."

Visit Britain and Quarmby are eager to let New Zealand visitors know all about SeaBritain so they can share in the fun.

"It's a special bit of British history that New Zealanders can connect with," says Quarmby.

After all, Trafalgar established that Britannia did rule the waves, resulting in the search for trade and empire that opened Australia and the South Pacific for settlement.

You could say that Nelson's final victory made it safer for British citizens to travel to New Zealand.

The victory still resounds down the years - even as far away as New Zealand.

Our own city of Nelson will take part in a world-wide bell-ringing on October 21, marking that victory at Trafalgar.

Quarmby hopes the event will remind New Zealanders of their maritime heritage.

"It's a year to take a fresh look at the sea."

SeaBritain events include:

* Nelson and Napoleon exhibition at the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich. Running from until November 13, the museum claims it is the first exhibition to explore the lives of these two great adversaries together.

* Ports and cities, towns and villages across England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland are hosting seafood festivals, water-sports activities, village festivals, parades, beach competitions, arts and music events, and even a self-proclaimed world-first underwater cycle race at Guernsey.

* In one of the more unusual events, 27 new forests, each named after one of the ships that formed the Royal Navy's fighting ships of the line at Trafalgar are being planted across Britain.

All will be planted in oaks, symbolic of the fact that so many oak trees were needed to build the ships used in the battle.

* At the end of July a re-enactment was held of the manner in which news of Trafalgar was brought to London by sea and land.

The original dispatch was delayed by bad weather but eventually arrived at Falmouth in the hands of Lieutenant Lapenotiere, commander of the schooner Pickle.

Then followed a mad ride by carriage, which ended 36 hours, 436km and 21 horse-changes later when the dispatch was delivered to the Secretary of the Navy at Greenwich.

For the re-enactment a new Trafalgar Dispatch was written, which, in keeping with the modern theme of European unity, "emphasised the heroism and humanity of both sides".

* Chris Daniels stayed in London as a guest of Visit Britain.