Reporting for Duty: A New Life of the Man Who Saved Britain

By Andrew Roberts

The publication of Nelson: The Sword of Albion, the second and final volume of John Sugden’s monumental life of Horatio Nelson, is a perfect time to reflect on what the admiral’s memory still means to Britons today.The book itself takes Lord Nelson from September 1797, when he was at a low ebb having lost his arm in battle and subsisting on opium and half-pay, to his glorious death at the moment of victory at the Battle of Trafalgar eight years later.

[2] That victory assured Britain’s security from Napoleonic France in the short term, and British naval supremacy over the oceans for the next century in the long. Small wonder, therefore, that he is unquestionably one of Britain’s greatest heroes, with a reputation that today stands alongside those of Elizabeth I, the Duke of Wellington, and Winston Churchill. The Royal Navy still toasts his “Immortal Memory” every October 21, on the anniversary of his last and greatest victory. This book,though by no means uncritical of Nelson’s personal vanity, certainly does nothing to dislodge him from a metaphorical height equal to the actual 169-foot pedestal on which his statue stands in Trafalgar Square in central London.

約翰·薩格登記錄霍雷肖·納爾遜輝煌一生的第二部也是最后一部著作《納爾遜：阿爾比恩之刃》出版了。讀者從該書中完全可以感受到這位海軍上校對當(dāng)今英國人的意義。作品開篇于1797年9月，當(dāng)時的納爾遜正值人生低谷：他在戰(zhàn)爭中失去手臂，終日吸食鴉片，靠一半薪水過活。8年后，他指揮的特拉法爾加海戰(zhàn)大獲全勝，而他卻壯烈犧牲。

[2]從短期的影響看，特拉法爾加海戰(zhàn)的勝利確保了英國的國家安全，使其免受拿破侖治下法國的威脅。就長遠來看，這場戰(zhàn)爭奠定了以后一個世紀(jì)英國的海上霸主地位。因此，毫無疑問，他是英國最偉大的英雄之一，其聲譽今日可與伊麗莎白一世、威靈頓公爵和溫斯頓·丘吉爾比肩。為了紀(jì)念納爾遜取得的最后也是最偉大的一次勝利，每年10月21日，皇家海軍都會向他留下的這段“不朽記憶”致敬。倫敦市中心的特拉法爾加廣場豎立著他的雕像，僅底座就高達169英尺，這是一種具有象征性的高度。盡管這本書對納爾遜的虛榮心頗有微詞，但這絕不會影響他在人們心中的形象。

[3] Born in Burnham Thorpe in Norfolk, England, on September 29, 1758,the fifth surviving son of its rector Edmund Nelson, Horatio Nelson went to sea at only age 12 on the 64-gun warship Raisonnable, under the command of his maternal uncle Capt. Maurice Suckling, and was violently seasick.Nonetheless, Suckling ensured the boy became expert at navigation and sailing,and his training in practical seamanship could not have been better. At just age 14 he was chosen for an Arctic voyage as coxswain of the captain’s gig. On his return, he was sent to the East Indies on board the 20-gun Seahorse, but—traveling to every station “from Bengal to Bassorah”—his health completely broke down and he was invalided home.

[4] It was a depressing period for him, but also one that fired the young Nelson with a powerful sense of personal destiny. “I almost wished myself overboard,” he later said of this period of his life. “But a sudden glow of patriotism was kindled within me. Well then, I exclaimed, I will be a hero, and confiding in Providence I will brave every danger.” By April 1777, Nelson was serving aboard the 32-gun frigate Lowestoft, under the command of his great friend Capt. William Locker,whose military philosophy was simple:“Lay a Frenchman close and you will beat him.” It was a lesson that Nelson was to take to heart. He rose by dint of his charm, intelligence, application, and great maritime ability.

[3] 1758年9月29日，納爾遜生于英格蘭諾福克郡伯納姆索普，其父是當(dāng)?shù)亟虆^(qū)牧師埃德蒙·納爾遜。他是家里存活下來的第五個兒子。納爾遜12歲就參加了海軍，在戰(zhàn)艦“合理”號上服役。這艘戰(zhàn)艦配備了64門大炮，由納爾遜的舅舅莫里斯·薩克林艦長指揮。納爾遜當(dāng)時嚴(yán)重暈船，盡管如此，薩克林還是給了他最好的航海技術(shù)實訓(xùn)，確保他成為一名航海專家。納爾遜年僅14歲就被選為艦艇舵手參加北極探險隊。返航時，他乘坐裝配20門大炮的“海馬”號軍艦被派往東印度群島，但是，“從孟加拉到巴士拉”站站走來，他的身體完全垮了，只好因病歸國。

[4]那段時間他情緒低落，但也正是在那段時間，年輕的納爾遜對自己的命運有了清楚的認識。他后來這樣說起那一時期：“當(dāng)時我真希望自己溺水身亡，但突如其來的愛國情懷點燃了我的內(nèi)心。于是，我發(fā)誓，我要成為一個英雄，我向上帝保證要勇敢面對一切危險。”1777年4月，納爾遜前往“洛斯托夫特”號護衛(wèi)艦服役。這艘軍艦配備了32門大炮，由其好友威廉·洛克上校擔(dān)任指揮。洛克的軍事理念很簡單：讓法國人靠近，靠近了再打。這讓納爾遜銘記于心。納爾遜憑借自己的魅力、智慧、勤奮和杰出的航海能力得以晉升。

[5] On July 12, 1794, while Nelson was besieging the Corsican town of Calvi, a cannonball struck the ground near where he was standing and splinters flew up, blinding him in his right eye. Three years later he lost his arm to grapeshot. “A left-handed admiral will never again be considered,” he lamented. “I am becoming a burden to my friends and useless to my country.”

[6] Events the following year, minutely covered by Sugden in perhaps the best biography of Nelson to emerge in the past two centuries, soon proved him spectacularly wrong.

[5] 1794年 7月 12日，納爾遜圍攻卡爾維的科西嘉鎮(zhèn)，一枚炮彈落在他附近，碎片飛濺，造成他右眼失明。三年后，他又在炮火中失去了一條手臂。“軍隊不會考慮任用一個只有左手的海軍將領(lǐng)?！彼瘒@道，“對友人來說我成了負擔(dān)，對國家來說我毫無用處。”

[6]第二年發(fā)生的事件很快證明納爾遜對自己的評價是極其錯誤的。薩格登在書中詳細記錄了這些事件。也許這本傳記是近兩個世紀(jì)以來最令人稱道的納爾遜傳記。

[7] It was Nelson’s inspired guess that Napoleon Bonaparte’s fleet, which had slipped past the British blockade of Toulon, France, was making for Egypt,and on the evening of August 1, 1798,he finally caught up with it at anchor in Aboukir Bay at the mouth of the Nile. By sailing round the head of the French line to attack from the landward side, Nelson won one of the most decisive victories in naval history. Only four out of 17 French ships escaped, and Napoleon’s army was left utterly stranded in Asia. Nelson was elevated to the peerage.

[8] At the end of Britain’s short-lived Peace of Amiens with France, Nelson was appointed to command the Royal Navy in the Mediterranean, where he blockaded Toulon, not stepping off his flagship HMS Victory for more than 10 days over the next two years. Yet what a vital two years they were. With a vast army at Boulogne ready to cross the Channel at any moment that the Royal Navy could be decoyed away, Napoleon posed by far the greatest invasion threat to the United Kingdom between the Spanish Armada in 1588 and the Battle of Britain in 1940.

[9] Finally, after two exhausting transatlantic journeys chasing the combined French and Spanish fleets, on October 21, 1805, Nelson managed to close with the enemy and put his mentor Captain Locker’s theory to the ultimate test. As Sugden expertly explains,Nelson’s battle plan at Trafalgar was to sail through the enemy’s line in two columns, cutting it roughly into equal thirds, and then to concentrate the British firepower on the rear two thirds,thus equaling up the numbers between the combined fleets’ 33 ships and the British’s 27. It was imaginative and daring and was nicknamed by his captains“the Nelson Touch.”

[7]納爾遜大膽猜測拿破侖的艦隊繞過英國設(shè)在法國土倫的封鎖線是為了攻打埃及。1798年8月1日晚，他最終在尼羅河口追上了停泊在阿布吉爾灣的法國艦隊。納爾遜繞過法國艦隊前端，從靠陸的一側(cè)進攻，從而贏得了英國海軍史上最具決定意義的一場勝利。17艘法國軍艦只有4艘逃脫，拿破侖的軍隊被完全困在了亞洲。納爾遜被授予爵位。

[8]短命的英法《亞眠和約》終結(jié)之時，納爾遜被任命為英國皇家海軍地中海艦隊司令，封鎖了土倫。此后兩年，他離開旗艦皇家海軍“勝利”號的時間總共不到10天。然而這是多么至關(guān)重要的兩年。大批法國軍隊集結(jié)在布洛涅，一旦英國皇家海軍因假目標(biāo)被誘離，法軍就隨時準(zhǔn)備橫穿英吉利海峽。拿破侖的這次行動，是從1588年西班牙無敵艦隊進攻英國到1940年不列顛戰(zhàn)役這段時間內(nèi)對英國最大的一次入侵威脅。

[9]為了追逐法西聯(lián)合艦隊，納爾遜兩次橫渡大西洋，精疲力竭，終于1805年10月21日成功接近敵軍，并將其導(dǎo)師洛克上校的作戰(zhàn)理論發(fā)揮得淋漓盡致。對此，薩格登進行了專業(yè)的解釋：納爾遜在特拉法爾加的作戰(zhàn)計劃是讓英國艦隊分成兩列截斷敵軍艦隊，將其大致切割為三等分，然后把英軍火力集中在后三分之二部分，這樣就拉平了英法雙方的戰(zhàn)斗力——當(dāng)時聯(lián)合艦隊共有33艘軍艦，而英國有27艘。這個計劃大膽而富有新意，被軍官們稱為“納爾遜戰(zhàn)法”。

[10] The plan was totally successful, although it required great skill and nerve to implement it since the enemy was able to fire broadsides into the British ships for an agonizingly long time before they were able to respond. Nelson led one column in HMS Victory,and just before battle was joined he ordered the hoisting of his famous and stirring signal to the fleet: “England expects that every man will do his duty.”

[11] The plan went precisely according to Nelson’s specifications,but during the battle a sniper from the rigging of the French 74-gun Redoubtable shot him, the musket ball striking his left shoulder and mortally wounding him. “They have done for me at last,” he told Victory’s Captain Hardy.“My backbone is shot through.” Before he died, however, Hardy was able to inform Nelson that 14 enemy vessels had surrendered without the loss of a single British ship. “Thank God I have done my duty,” answered Nelson, as he slipped into that immortal glory for which he is still toasted by Britons every year.

[10]這個計劃十分成功，但實施過程中需要高超的技術(shù)和足夠的膽識，因為在艦隊有能力反擊前，敵軍能夠長時間舷邊排炮齊射猛攻英國艦隊。納爾遜帶領(lǐng)一列艦隊在“勝利”號上作戰(zhàn)。就在開戰(zhàn)前，他給艦隊下達了他著名的、令人激情澎湃的指示：“英格蘭要求每個人恪盡職守。”

[11]一切都根據(jù)計劃絲毫不差地進行，然而在戰(zhàn)斗中，74炮法艦“敬畏”號索具上的一個狙擊手擊中了他。火槍子彈打中了他的左肩，給了他致命一擊。“他們終于還是干掉了我?！彼嬖V“勝利”號艦長哈迪，“我的脊柱被射穿了。”然而，在納爾遜去世前，哈迪還有機會告訴他，14艘敵艦已經(jīng)投降，而英國軍艦毫發(fā)無損。“感謝上帝，我完成了使命?！奔{爾遜回答道，接著便溘然長逝，長眠于不朽的榮耀中——這份榮耀至今仍被英國人銘記。

[12] It is hard for an Englishman to read this superbly researched and very well-written book without feeling a powerful sense of atavism, yearning,and sorrow about the way it italicizes the contrast between Britain’s former naval greatness and her present unprecedented maritime weakness. Today,for the first time in history, the French Navy is actually larger and stronger than the Royal Navy.

[13] What a bittersweet experience reading this fine book is for any Briton with a sense of history and maritime pride.

[12]這本傳記內(nèi)容詳實，文筆優(yōu)美，閱讀過此書的英國人都滿懷念舊之情，渴望回到強大的過去。作者特意將英國海軍實力過往的輝煌和目前的空前弱勢進行對比，讓英國讀者感到痛心。事實上，現(xiàn)在的法國海軍遠比英國強大，在歷史上首次超越英國。

[13]對任何一個懷有歷史自豪感并以海軍為榮的英國人來說，閱讀本書都是一種喜憂參半的體驗。