Feux de Joie

Splinters. A major cause of death and serious injury in 19th century naval battles. Cannon balls ripping a ship apart. Trafalgar was the last major sea battle fought with sailing ships. Brutal. I pick the book up again as soon as it's light, reading about Nelson's death, just as the battle was ending, then a wonderful section about getting the body back home. The Brits just threw bodies overboard, jotted down the name and cleared the decks, but an admiral you pickled and took back home. Then the horrible summation, total casualties and amputations. As it happens I know quite a bit about field amputations. Years ago I was the sole recipient of Jude's Bizarre Book Of The Month club and one of the books was a guide for field amputations. Two minutes was considered decent. You give the guy opium, if you have some, or a large glass of rum, the assistants hold him down; you cut through all the meat and muscle, expose the bone, push the upper, saved, part out of the way, saw off the bone, and round it crudely with a rasp, pull back the saved parts, flap them over, stitch it shut. At some point you have to cauterize the wound. Most of the victims died anyway. Blood loss and splinters to the brain. I'd jotted down several names and terms I didn't understand, and at some point I took a cushion over to the stairwell, there are book cases on either side, and the 11th Britannica lives there. There's a staircase window, and a staircase sconce, and there's a push pin where I can post an index card with my notes. Usually, after a time, I go get a drink and roll a smoke, some times I put on a tweed jacket with leather elbow patches and smoke a pipe. You know me.

The creek is dancing
pure water cascading down
the rocky stream bed

Nelson's strategy was brilliant, break the line, take advantage of the wind, and when you broke through the line, you could rake an enemy vessel on his unprotected stern. It worked more or less perfectly. The Brits lost not a single ship and captured 19 of the French/Spanish vessels. It's easy to imagine most of the battle because there are so many first hand accounts. I also had not thought about the fact that in light airs, at close quarters, smoke would be such an important issue. Nelson lived, below decks, dying, until the battle was won. He died of a musket ball, shot from the rigging of a French ship, that went in through his shoulder, traveled through his left lung, and broke his spine. I'm completely engaged, reading this account, transported. A vivid imagination is a cheap source of entertainment. I fry a large skillet of potatoes, when I know I'm going to be involved, so I can graze; dump out a can of black olives, slice off some smoked salami, a cranberry-pecan encrusted goat cheese, some left-over cornbread. This is reading at its highest level, where the fabric of nature is breeched. What I mean is where you completely lose track of yourself and you are that guy, ramming home the charge. Some of these ships had three decks of guns, 112 gun crews, with marines and the guys that ran the ship, 800 or a 1,000 guys living and working in a space 200 feet by 60. Work the logistics any way you want. The Brits had been running harbor patrol forever, practicing their gunnery, coming about in slack wind, they were just better at the business at hand. Also, shooting at the waterline, rather than blowing away the rigging.