IT'S REALLY HARD TO GET ENOUGH NELSON

It is impossible to overstate how cool Nelson was. Fortunately, there is The Nelson Society, which provides institutional support for all things Nelsonian.

They include on their website an excellent account of Trafalgar, including his legendary coolness as the battle was commencing.

"The Victory, surging towards the enemy line, could not bring her own broadside to bear and was raked from bow to stern by their broadsides. One shot smashed the ship's wheel to splinters and she had to be steered by the forty seamen standing by the huge tiller on the lower gun-deck, helm-orders reaching them by messenger. Another shot cut through a file of marines standing along the rolled hammocks packed in netting along the bulwarks as a barricade and waiting to engage enemy snipers; eight were dead and Nelson ordered the survivors to be dispersed around the upper deck. Splinters of wood whirred across the quarter deck, one denting the silver buckle of Hardy's shoe; he caught the admiral's eye and Nelson said calmly: 'This is too warm work to last long.' "

And Hardy writes in the log: "Partial firing continued until 4.30 p.m., when, a victory having been reported to the Right Hon. Lord Nelson, K.B., and Commander-in-Chief, he died of his wounds."