In the pantheon of heroes there is none like the hero who dies in the act for which he is honored. When that act results in a great national victory, he is virtually deified.

St. Paul's Cathedral, London

So, when my colleagues, Bill Galvani and Ron Roehmholdt of the Naval Undersea Museum at Keyport, WA and I journeyed to England for a meeting of the Historical Diving Society and we had a couple of days to sightsee, we expected to encounter the ghost of Lord Nelson in the places we chose to visit: London, Portsmouth, and Greenwich. What we didn't anticipate was the pervasiveness of the spirit of Nelson and his great victory at Trafalgar on the British scene. Perhaps it was the spirit of romanticism which, at the turn of the 19th century, was being born, that drove a people to make demigods of their national heroes and honor them with monuments, art works, and florid literary tributes. In America, it happened to George Washington, who died in 1799; in Prussia, to Frederick the Great, who died in 1786; in France, to Napoleon I who was exiled in 1815 and died in 1821. British monarchs and politicians during this period were not cut from heroic cloth, so the people chose military or naval heroes to deify. Thus, when Nelson destroyed the navy of the hated and feared Napoleon, Britons breathed a sigh of relief, made poignant by Nelson's romantic image and death at the moment of triumph. The navy's stout "wooden walls" had kept the nation safe once again. Only the Duke of Wellington, victor at Waterloo, rivals Nelson in British public affection.

The Battle of Trafalgar was the climax of a dogged campaign waged by Nelson that started when war resumed between Napoleon Bonaparte's France and Britain in 1803. Nelson's fleet was to prevent the French fleet from descending on the English Channel where Napoleon's army waited for such a conjunction, when the French fleet would achieve temporary superiority at sea long enough for him to ferry his army to England. Since Great Britain had virtually no army at home, such an event must result in Napoleon's triumpn over his most tenacious and otherwise unreachable enemy. After Nelson had been at sea watching them for two years the French fleet slipped out of Toulon undetected. Nelson gave chase, all the way to the West Indies and back to England, where he learned the French commander, Villeneuve, had not put in to a Channel port, but instead had made for Cadiz, Spain, just outside the Straits of Gibraltar. By this act, Villeneuve admitted strategic defeat and a disgusted Napoleon immediately had his army march into Germany where, on December 2, he scored his most brilliant victory at Austerlitz.

In the meantime, Nelson returned with his fleet to watch the now combined French and Spanish fleets, which outnumbered him 33-27, and still posed a mortal threat to British interests. On October 19, Villeneuve sailed toward the Mediterranean, knowing he would have to fight to get there. Two days later, Nelson, after carefully explaining his tactical plan to his captains, hoisted his famous signal, "England expects every man will do his duty," and leading with his flagship HMS Victory, boldly sailed into the French line. The result was a total British victory: All but four of the French/Spanish ships were either sunk or captured. But the victory had its price: Nelson was shot by a French sharpshooter and died three hours later.

At the news of the victory England erupted in joyous relief, tempered by knowledge of the Nelson's death. In its gratitude, England buried Nelson with full honors in the crypt beneath St. Paul's Cathedral in the heart of London. In the 1840s, an urban redevelopment project in the area just north of Westminster in London cleared a seedy area and built a magnificent plaza—much like the Place de la Concorde in Paris—and called it Trafalgar Square. In 1849, the Nelson Column was added in the heart of the square. This 170 feet tall Corinthian column is topped by a statue of Nelson by the sculptor H E. Bailey. Later the column was flanked by Edwin Landseer's four bronze couchant lions, each 20 feet long, added in 1867, and two fountains, in 1939.

Trafalgar Day is unofficially considered Royal Navy Day, and Trafalgar Square is the great gathering place where Britons gather to celebrate great occasions such as the New Year or V-E Day. On the north boundary of the square is the National Gallery of Art and across the street is a baroque church masterpiece, St. Martin's-in-the-Field, designed by James Gibbs. The square truly is the heart of London; it is at the confluence of such famous streets as the Strand, Whitehall, the Mall (through Admiralty Arch), Pall Mall, Haymarket, and Charing Cross Road.

About a mile and a quarter's stroll along the Strand, which becomes Fleet Street, which in turn becomes Ludgate Circus and then Ludgate Hill, and you are in the heart of the financial district. There one finds Christopher Wren's baroque masterpiece, St. Paul's Cathedral, finished in 1710, and the site of Wren's burial, as well as Nelson's and Wellington's. On Wren's bier is his epitaph, Sic monumentum requiris, circumspice ("If you seek his monument, look around you."). Or if one wishes to take the Underground, you can catch the Northern Line at Charing Cross Station, change trains at Tottenham Court Road (the second stop) to the Central Line and go to the third stop, which is St. Paul's.

Check back in two weeks when we follow Nelson's trail to Portsmouth, England.