THE FIGHTING TEMERAIRE

J.M.W. Turner's The Fighting Temeraire Tugged to her Last Berth to beBroken Up (1838) was his masterpiece, and in a recent BBC Radio 4 poll tofind the nation's favourite painting it won by a landslide, receiving overa quarter of all votes cast and fighting off Constable's The Hay Wain andother equally well-known works by Manet, Hockney and Van Gogh. Sam Willistells the real-life story behind this remarkable painting. The 98-gunTemeraire warship broke through the French and Spanish line directlyastern of Nelson's flagship Victory during the Battle of Trafalgar (1805),saving Nelson at a crucial moment in the battle, and, in the words of JohnRuskin, fought until her sides ran 'wet with the long runlets of Englishblood - those pale masts that stayed themselves up against the war-ruin,shaking out their ensigns through the thunder, till sail and ensigndropped.' It is a story that unites the art of war as practised by Nelsonwith the art of war as depicted by Turner and, as such, it ranges acrossan extensive period of Britain's cultural and military history in waysthat other stories do not. The result is a detailed picture of Britishmaritime power at two of its most significant peaks in the age of sail:the climaxes of both the Seven Years' War (1756-63) and the NapoleonicWars (1798-1815). It covers every aspect of life in the sailing navy, withparticular emphasis on amphibious warfare, disease, victualling, blockade,mutiny and, of course, fleet battle, for it was at Trafalgar that theTemeraire really won her fame. An evocative and magnificent narrativehistory by a master historian.