Possumblog

What she said.

Britain marks anniversary of sea victory

By THOMAS WAGNER
The Associated Press

PORTSMOUTH, England (AP) — Two hundred years ago a daredevil naval hero by the name of Horatio Nelson led the British to a glorious victory over France and Spain. But that might not be clear from watching Tuesday's reenactment of the Battle of Trafalgar.

Wary of offending European neighbors who enjoy a close but sometimes testy friendship with Britain, organizers decided to dispense with details such as who won and who lost. Instead of depicting the battle as a contest between countries, they assigned the fleets colors — red and blue — and left it up to the spectators to figure out which was which.

Nelson's great, great, great granddaughter called it a "pretty stupid" idea.

"I am sure the French and Spanish are adult enough to appreciate we did win that battle," said Anna Tribe, 75. "I am anti-political correctness. Very much against it. It makes fools of us." [...]

Amen, sister. (Although I would be careful about overestimating the level of adulthood of the French and Spanish.) Then again, the same could be said of certain newspaper reporters. Buried deep toward the end is this howler of a sentence:

[...] In the 1800s, ships such as the HMS Victory were that era's weapons of mass destruction. [...]

Only if you are so stupid that you cannot understand the definition of mass destruction, or have even less than the normal thimbleful-sized dollop of history taught in school.

Prior to the advent of poison gas, there really was no historical antecedent for a weapon of mass destruction, with one possible exception--a large army on the march. Especially in the absence of secure supply lines, an army consumed huge amounts of food, water, horses, cattle, and firewood, all taken from the land it was marching through. This doesn't even account for the destruction of anything that might have the slightest use for the enemy. Large armies could leave a miles-wide path of desolation that could take years for to recover after it had been picked over and torn apart. This also doesn't take into account ancient armies who generally enslaved or killed any civilians they came across.

The one thing warships were great at, though, was projecting power to distant lands and keeping lines of trade open. Having a ready source of income and the ability to move cash and goods freely from one place to another was, and still is, the surest way to insure strength. England's naval victories ensured its ability to have an umimpeded access to markets around the world, and helped make it a world power.

Posted by Terry Oglesby at June 28, 2005 09:10 AM