In the Navy

Perhaps it's the Trafalgar Square/Nelson's Column thing but I have always thought of Trafalgar as an English battle.

An article in this month's Scottish Field points out that

- a third of the crew of HMS Victory was Scottish
- Five of Nelson's captains were Scottish
- The youngest of the 18,000 British crew at the Battle was a 10 year old cabin boy from Leith (even in 1805 Leith lads would do anything to bunk off School)

Turns out that the Purser of the HMS Belleisle shared my surname - the real one rather than D'Marriotti. If you want to check out if any of your own clan/family were there then visit this site from the National Archives.