NELSON DAY.
A TRIBUTE.
(Written for the “Times” by Bert Bolt.)
Once more the time comes round t(t the anniversary of Trafalgar or “Net* son Day,” as we now call it. And t© celebrate the event the “Times” -is giving two books as essay, prizes, -to be competed for by the school children. Good enough! Ido not intend to discuss “New Zealand’s Debt to the Navy in the Great War,” here,, however. It is for he children to tell us what they /think about that. But one cannot let “Nelson Day” go past without some reference to the great ocean warrior who has lent to the day his name. *
This is the season of the year that I marks the death of Nelson, and at I such a time the gleaming phases off I his conspicuous career pass through: I one’s mind like ships in grand review* I “Not once nor twice in our rough I island-story, the path of dutv was I the way to glory.” How applicable to* I Nelson are these lines! At twelve I years of age we see him—a mere I child—step forth from the peaceful I porch of an English rectory, on t® I the storm-swept path that lead him I through (toil and torment, danger* I conquest, and again, danger,;. to the I ultimate victory. I A boy, amid/the Polar solitudes, he I he gives early promise of that in- I trepidity which marked his future I years. At the age of * .twenty-one, a I post-captain in the Navy, he serves I on the American station, and dis-1 tinguishes himself in the sack off A Fort Juan. Then comes the war I against the French Republic, and fl .wtih it the grett naval genius off I Nelson begins to grow manifest. I Commander of the “Agamemnon,” I we see him, with Hood, in the Medit-1 teranfean assisting at the siege of I Bastia, and: at Calvi, losing an eye I in (the service of the State. On the I quarter-deck of the “Captain” he I hastes to Cape St. Vincent, and ini the great sea fight that there ensued I takes so gallant a paqt that he isl made Rear-Admiral of the blue and I placed in command of The inner*| squadron at the blockad of Ca/%,1 Next, at Teneriffe, he participates ini the attack on Santa Cruz, leaving his! righjt arm there as a further tribute | to the flag he fought for. Invalided! to England he earns a nation’s thnks! and ist given a pension and the Or-l der of the Bath. ■ ’Ninety eight finds him back in the! Mediterranean— watehiig TouloQaH The French fleet—Napoleon’s effort! —set sail for Egypt, but Nelson, the! sleuth-hound! of the sea, follows close! at his heels. At last, in the Bay of! Aboukir, the Frenchmen are brought! to bay. Only two of the enemy’s! ships survive the battle, and Nelson! has put a decisive spoke in the! wheel of Napoleon’s destiny. Ho! passes to Naples to assist in the toration of the Neapolitan king, here he meets Lady Hamilton, whose! life, for good or evil, became closely interwoven with his. 1 The dawn of the Nineteenth itury finds Nelson in the where, against Copenhagen, his wins for him a Viscounty and othei! honours. A resumption of against the French sees Nelson in the Mediteranean, blockading Tou-1 lon, as of yore. The French fleet es<! cape, and linking up with a Snanisl! squadron, fly towards the westen
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