Admiralty Report on Nelson's Tactics at Trafalgar - 1913

[ionia]

Is this Report available anywhere on the Web?
_________________
Ionia

[alexlitandem]

Ionia,

I’ve personally not come across the full, 100+ page, report online.

Depending on your need, you may – if you haven’t already reviewed it – consider purchasing the following:

Admiral Nelson's Tactics at the Battle of Trafalgar
Author: MARIANNE CZISNIK
Source: History, Volume 89, Number 296, October 2004 , pp. 549-559(11)
Publisher: Blackwell Publishing

By following this link:

http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/bpl/hist/2004/00000089/00000296/art00004?crawler=true

Or, you may consider buying a first edition of the Committee’s report for £850:

Description:

TRAFALGAR
Report of a Committee appointed by the Admiralty to Examine and Consider the Evidence relating to the Tactics employed by Nelson at the Battle of Trafalgar.
Presented to Parliament by Command of His Majesty. London, HMSO, 1913 Foolscap 4to. Original blue paper wraps. 4 maps and charts, 3 of them folding. Small ink-stamp to the upper wrap, minor chipping, but overall a very good copy. First Edition of this key work for understanding the tactics employed by Nelson in the battle and extremely hard to find in such fresh condition. The committee was set up to question the conclusions of Corbett's Campaign of Trafalgar in 1910, but after a close study of original logs and journals, contemporary battle-plans and signal books, and published works such as Desbrière's magisterial account of 1907, the committee more or less concurred with his findings. The committee comprised of Admiral Sir Cyprian Bridge, Admiral Sir Reginald Custance, the chairman, historian and Admiralty secretary C. H. Firth, and W. G. Perrin, Admiralty librarian and the man who in 1908 had discovered the original signal books employed at Trafalgar.

And accessible via this link:

http://www.ilab.org/db/detail.php?booknr=352321891&source=vialibri&lang=en

Will post more if anything else comes to light.

[alexlitandem]

Battle of Trafalgar-related materials in Norwich Library:

Miscellaneous references that may potentially be helpful to you?

The ADMIRALTY. Nelson's signal at the battle of Trafalgar : " England expects that every man will do his duty." pp. 3. Illus. 1908.
— Report of a Committee appointed by the Admiralty to examine and consider the evidence relating to the tactics employed by Nelson at the battle of Trafalgar, pp. xvi., 107. Plans. 1913.

Gives a list of the documents and books consulted, and the published diagrams re-presenting the attack at Trafalgar.

Bridge, Sir Cyprian, Admiral. Nelson : the centenary of Trafalgar. In
"The Cornhill Magazine," new series, vol. 19, pp. 312-325. 1905.
Deals with Nelson's tactical principles and achievements at Trafalgar.

CoRBETT, Julian S. The campaign of Trafalgar, pp. xvi., 473. Plans. 1910.
The author is a well-known authority on naval matters. Deals systematically and exhaustively with the campaign. The author pays particular regard to the other actors in the famous battle besides Nelson, and describes the higher diplomacy and statesmanship which decided the object to be attained, and the parts played by the military as well as the naval forces. Reviewed in The Times Literary Supplement, July 7, I9I0, pp. 238-9.

CUMBY, W. P. The battle of Trafalgar. In " The Nineteenth Century," vol. 46, pp. 717-728. 1899.

Copy of a letter written by W. P. Cumby, Captain of the Bellerophon, to his son Anthony,giving an account of the battle of Trafalgar. The narrative commences on the 19th Oct., 1805.

Description of Messrs. Marshalls' grand historical peristrephic panoramas of the battle of Trafalgar, and the ceremony of crossing the line ; to which is added a brief sketch of the life of Lord Nelson ; 2nd ed. pp. 32. Norwich : Matchett and Stevenson. 1823.

Hannay, David. Battle of Trafalgar. In " Encyclopaedia Britannica," vol. 27,
pp. 153-155. 1911.

Kerr, Mark. How Nelson's memorandum was carried out at Trafalgar. In
" The Nineteenth Century," vol. 70, pp. 679-704. 1911.

Laughton, Sir John Knox. The centenary of Trafalgar. In "Quarterly
Review," vol. 203, pp. 611-630. 1905.

[alexlitandem]

Lot 386 in the KEYS Auction of September, 2008, went unsold, estimated at £200-250 ( much less than £850).

See here:

http://www.keysauctions.co.uk/sales/b1/b1250908/res/fullres_b1250908.pdf

And here:

http://www.invaluable.com/catalog/viewLot.cfm?lotRef=lvo37d2o0p&scp=c&ri=1

It could be that you could obtain the unsold item at a keen price were you to contact the Auctioneer?

KEYS contact details:

8 Market Place
Aylsham, Norfolk
United Kingdom
NR11 6EH
Phone: +44 (0)1263 733195
Fax: +44 (0)1263 732140
Email: mail@aylshamsalerooms.co.uk

[Still trying to find an online full or extracts source for you / us / all]

[ionia]

Thanks for such valiant efforts to track this down. I had looked at the secondhand market but the prices are rather steep (even the passed in example). I am surprised that this report has not been put on the web - particularly in view of the recent Trafalgar anniversary. The other Trafalgar item I would like to see is Desbriere's "Trafalgar" in its two volume OUP translation from 1933. However, at about £2000, that too is steep. Fortunately, Corbett had the benefit of the original French version when writing his "Campaign of Trafalgar".
_________________
Ionia

[PMarione]

The Trafalgar Report is a huge thing with even bigger maps. So I suppose it's fifficult to scan.
I personally couldn't: my scanner is too small.

@+P

[Peter]

Hello Ionia,

I have a copy of the said document which I managed to copy some years ago.

Is there a particular bit you wanted? I would be happy to scan for you, but the whole book would be too much.

It consists of the findings, charts, and all the ships' logs for Trafalgar. lots of interesting snippets as well.

Tonnant: Sunday 20th October 1805
Opened Pork No. 4 weight 199lb}
Pork No. 5 weight 193lb} from the Malaber
Pork No. 6 weight 200lb}

Cheese N21 cont, 141lb
Cheese N30 cont 140lb
There was 144 tons of water remaining.

Victory. Sunday 20th October 1805

Water expended 8 butts,
Remains 197 and half Tons.
Served wine and again on the 21st, so they went into battle with wine inside them, not fired by rum as thought by many.

Monday 21st October 1805 Victory, ...at 4 minutes past 12 open'd our Larboard guns at the Enemy's van.

[PMarione]

It's certainly the most accurate reconstruction to date and it has not been superseded.

@+P

[ionia]

[Peter]

Ionia,

Glad to hear you have tracked down a copy - an interesting read.

I think it would be a best seller if somebody got it re-printed.