E-text prepared by Steven Gibbs
and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team
AUTHENTIC NARRATIVE
OF THE DEATH OF
LORD NELSON:
WITH
THE CIRCUMSTANCES PRECEDING, ATTENDING, AND
SUBSEQUENT TO, THAT EVENT;
THE PROFESSIONAL REPORT
ON HIS LORDSHIP'S WOUND,
AND SEVERAL INTERESTING ANECDOTES.
BY WILLIAM BEATTY, M.D.
Surgeon to the Victory in the Battle of Trafalgar,
and now Physician to the Fleet under the Command
of the Earl of St. Vincent, K.B. &c. &c. &c.
LONDON:
PRINTED BY T. DAVISON, WHITE-FRIARS;
FOR T. CADELL AND W. DAVIES, IN THE STRAND.
1807.
Vice-Admiral Lord Nelson
CONTENTS
| To The Public Narrative Appendix Illustration: The Ball which mortally wounded the Lamented Nelson |
TO THE PUBLIC.
The Surgeon of the late illustrious Lord NELSON feels himself calledupon, from the responsible situation which he held on the eventful dayof the 21st of October 1805, to lay before the British Nation thefollowing Narrative. It contains an account of the most interestingincidents which occurred on board the Victory. (Lord NELSON's flag-ship)from the time of her sailing from England, in the month of September,till the day of battle inclusively; with a detail of the particulars ofHIS LORDSHIP'S Death, the mode adopted for preserving his reveredRemains during the subsequent long passage of the Victory to England,and the condition of the Body when it was deposited in GreenwichHospital. This short statement of facts is deemed a small but necessarytribute of respect to the memory of the departed Hero, as well as aprofessional document which the Public had a right to expect from theman who had the melancholy honour of being his principal medicalattendant on that occasion: and is presumed to be not unappropriatelyconcluded by observations on the state of HIS LORDSHIP'S health for sometime previous to his fall; with his habits of life, and othercircumstances, strongly proving that few men had a greater prospect ofattaining longevity, on which account his premature death is the more tobe deplored by his Country.
It was originally intended that this Narrative should be published inthe LIFE OF LORD NELSON, undertaken by the Rev. J.S. CLARKE and J.M'ARTHUR, Esq. and it will still form a part of that Work; but from thelength of time which must necessarily elapse before so extensive andmagnificent a Publication can be completed, the Author has been inducedto print it in a separate form.
Narrative
Lord NELSON sailed from St. Helen's in the Victory, with the Euryalusfrigate, on the morning of the 15th of September 1805, to take thecommand of the British Fleet cruizing before Cadiz. On the 18th heappeared off Plymouth; where he was joined by his Majesty's shipsThunderer and Ajax, with which he proceeded for his destined station. Onthe 20th he communicated by private signal with the