With The Utmost Possible Dispatch:
Poems of Nelson's Navy

Book Review

reviewed by Paul Chamberlain, UK

With The Utmost Possible Dispatch: Poems of Nelson's Navy Harry Turner Spellmount 2002 ISBN 1 86227 175 5 Hardback, £15.00 'Twas the British Navy's proudest claim, Their patriotic boast, That they could sail the seven seas To the farthest foreign coast. (Arctic Incident) A few years ago Harry Turner published a collection of his own poems on the soldiers of the Peninsular War entitled Against All Hazards: Poems of the Peninsular War. He has now turned his attention to the naval side of the period. While poetry may not be to everybody's taste, Harry Turner's verse is readable and makes sense; each poem telling a story of Nelson's navy. It makes for 'easy-reading', each poem being evocative of life at sea during the Napoleonic Wars, and they hark back to an era when poetry was a storyteller's tool. The 23 poems cover Nelson's life in the navy and the conditions experienced by the ordinary seamen. These urchins who toiled in the navy, Who performed menial tasks by the score, Who emptied the slops of the sailors, Were just ten years old, seldom more. (The Powder Monkeys) Subjects put into verse include battles such as the Nile, Copenhagen and Trafalgar; food (in Bullocks, Onions and Wine 1804); and Nelson's love affair with Emma Hamilton. The author has researched the subject to get the historical flavour for each poem. Some are very thought provoking, such as The Frenchman who shot Nelson, which is a view of the battle and aftermath through the eyes of the French sailor who fired that fatal shot. With The Utmost Possible Dispatch is a different slant on the study of the Napoleonic period, but well researched and readable. Other naval titles have been received for review recently. As these are reprints of older titles they are mentioned in brief. Many readers (especially those who can remember Pounds, Shillings and Pence, and Pan's People!) will have the original works on their shelves. Book Reviews Naval Special Medicine Under Sail Nelson's Ships: A History of the Vessels in Which He Served 1771-1805 The Nelson Encyclopaedia With The Utmost Possible Dispatch: Poems of Nelson's Navy Nelson's Battles Sea Life in Nelson's Time Back to Table of Contents -- First Empire # 74 Back to First Empire List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 2004 by First Empire. This article appears in MagWeb.com (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other articles from military history and related magazines are available at http://www.magweb.com