Fergus County argus., 1906-03-23
THE ORIGINAL
ORDER FOUND
"GENERAL MEMORANDUM" OF
LORD NELSON is FINALLY
BROUGHT TO LIGHT.

London, March 22.-The original
draft in the immortal Nelson's hand
writing of his historic General Mem
o1andum" issued to his captains at
Trafalgar has just come to light after
concealment for 100 years. This mas
terpiece of naval strategy eXtant in
the copies distributed by Nelson to his
fleet has passed into classic and has
probably been translated into the Ian
suage OF every nation possessing a
seaboard or ship.
1t has become an article of faith to
naval students throughout the world
and shortly all will be privileged to
see this precious relic, just as he set
| the words down with the corrections
with the deletions, with his rough
drawing of his own and the enemy's
lines OF battle at the moment of the
intended attack.
An expert who compared the memo
randum as printed with the original
draft says that he was flrst struck
with the bold, outstanding and broad
side character of the penmanship.
Next he examined the alterations and
deletions compared with the fair copy.
In the latter occurs early in the memo
randum the sentence, The second in
command will, after my intentions are
made known to him, have the entire
direction of his line to make the at
tack upon the enemy" etc.
Ne-son penned this originally, "The
second in command will in fact com.
mand his line and" and then struck
out the words from will" to "and."
A very important deletion is the ex-
cision of the sentence in speaking of
the enemy, 81 shall suppose them 46
sail in the line of battle"
Some important Changes. ;.
Again the opening of the second fair
copy reads, "If the enemy's fleet should
be seen to windward in line of battle,
and that the two lines and the ad.
vancing squadron could fetch them,
they will probably be so extended that
tier van could not succor their rear"
Nelson wrote advanced" for "advanc.
ing" and "can" for could" These
are not his corrections; but he cor
rected to "and that" sentence be.
ginning, "but in that position that"
and later when he wrote, II should.
therefore, probably make the second
IN commands signal" he had altered
your" to Second in command" Fur
ther in the sentence, "but look with
confidence to a victory before the van
of the enemy could succor their rear"
the last word was altered from
friends"
In the rough map of the "intended
attack Nelson draws four parallel
lines. The top three he labels "B," the
fourth e" It is common knowledge
that the first monument to Nelson's
fame was raised in Scotland. In Mel
sons map 'B" stands for British and
"E for enemy.
Lastly, as regards these interesting
differences and emendations, the fol-
lowing sentence is usually underlined
in quoting from the memorandum:
No captain can do very wrong If he
places his ship alongside of the en-
emy." Nelson in no way shows that
he desired these words to be empha-
sized, noble and inspiring though they
be.
The document is in the possession
OF family living not far from Mer-
ton Abbey-"Emma's" home-from
which the hero started for the cruise
ending in glory and death. The ex.
perts in Nelson documents pronounce
it indubitably genuine. Mr.. Stenhouse.
well known authority, is confident
That 1t bears all the insignia Of being
the real and precious lost relic. With
1t are other important naval papers
belonging to the same family.