Trafalgar Day 1970 remembered
Sailors and officers stood shivering in the autumn wind on the quarter and poop decks of Nelson’s flagship Victory in Portsmouth Dockyard as Admiral Sir Horace Law, their Commander-in-Chief, laid a wreath at the spot where Nelson fell mortally wounded 165 years previously.
The traditional Trafalgar Day ceremony began with the hoisting of Nelson’s famous signal ‘England Expects...’ and his laurel-wreath garland. Chaplain of the dockyard, Rev Pope, conducted a short service. After Admiral Law laid the wreath, captains of Portsmouth area establishments followed him below to place wreaths in the cockpit where Nelson died.
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Hide AdRepresented at the cermony were the Royal Naval Barracks, Portsmouth, HMS Excellent, Vernon, Sultan, Collingwood, Dolphin, Dryad, Phoenix, Mercury, Bellerophon and St George.
Excellent, the navy’s gunnery school at Whale Island, provided the guard of honour and Royal Marines buglers sounded the Last Post.