Nelson planned to use submarines and mines

[emad]

Nelson planned to use submarines and mines
John Crossland



HORATIO NELSON held secret talks at Downing Street on sinking Napoleon’s ships with submarines, mines and rockets, according to a newly unearthed record of the meeting. The plan involved towing the mines, referred to as “infernal machines”, across the Channel on high-speed catamarans and then detonating them beneath the French vessels.

The talks took place just weeks before Nelson boarded HMS Victory in September 1805 to sail to his death at the battle of Trafalgar, the bicentenary of which falls this Friday.

The meeting is described in a letter written by Sidney Smith, one of Nelson’s commanders, and included in The Pursuit of Victory, a new biography of the admiral by Roger Knight, visiting professor of naval history at Greenwich University.

Knight said this weekend that Nelson’s interest in new weapons, which came too late to affect Trafalgar, stemmed from his worries that the war against Napoleon was near deadlock.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/0,,176-1827991,00.html

[muriel_volestrangler]

1. "High-speed catamarans"? I don't think SpeedFerry was running back then

I think "rafts" is what they effectively mean - and there's no way you'd describe them as 'high speed'. Stupid journalist.