Celebrate Friday with a new hot dead guy

I really don’t feel like working. So instead I’m going to write about another hot dead guy.

Lord Horatio Nelson

First, a disclaimer: Lord Nelson is on my personal shit list. He took up with another man’s wife, and when his own wife issued an ultimatum that he leave the other woman or else, Nelson declined. So his wife left.

The woman in question is Emma Hamilton. Like I said, she was a hot piece—so I can see what drew Lord Nelson to her. But she doesn’t sound like someone I’d want to invite to tea.

Anyway, his personal foibles aside, Lord Nelson really was a hell of a naval tactician. Under his command, the Royal Navy opened a can of whoopass on the Spanish and French navies during the Napoleonic Wars. And in 1805, the British ships of the line engaged with a combined Spanish and French fleet at Trafalgar, off the southwest coast of Spain. The British fleet sank 22 out of a total of 33 French and Spanish ships without losing a single ship of their own. But during the battle Nelson was killed by sniper fire from a French ship. The sailors aboard his ship, the HMS Victory, stored his body in a cask of alcohol to preserve him until they could get him back to London. He was buried at St. Paul’s Cathedral.

So maybe he wasn’t the best husband, but he’s one of Britain’s greatest war heroes. And he looked mighty fine in uniform.