Thread: Horatio's blade

I was on my way home from a conference today when I walked past the new Wellcome Institute building. The building is a piece of modern glass architecture and houses 3 exhibitions inside which are free admission to the viewing public.

(Henry Soloman Wellcome was a famous British philanthropist who made it his life obsession to collect medical artefacts and artwork from all over the world. The Wellcome Trust is one of the largest in Life Sciences.)

The first collection was all about the heart. It had famous paintings (originals) as well as the famous Dutch reproductions of Hieronymous Bosch's Garden of Earthly Delights. There were original papyrus from ancient Egypt about the heart, drawings by Galen and Da Vinci, original manuscripts from William Harvey (personal physician to King James I and, later, Charles I who discovered the theory of circulation), recordings of songs with the word 'heart' (e.g. Hearts on Fire by Gram Parsons and Emmy Lou Harris), and all manner of ancient instruments.

The second collection had loads of stuff from Wellcome's collection. The third collection was about modern medicine.

The second collection was amazing. Among the artefacts included: Charles Darwin's carved-ivory walking stick, Napoleon Bonaparte's toothbrush (solid silver of course), a mummified body from Peru, and much much more.

So why post about it here? Well, as I wandered aimlessly through the gallery, I happened upon this dark, slightly rusty piece of metal. It was none other than Lord Horatio Nelson's razor. The scales were made of horn and were carved with scenes depicting hunting (e.g. a man carrying a rifle over his sholuder). The steel was still semi-shiny and had a wicked frown on it! I couldn't discern a spine as such, the blade just looked flat from edge to top, but that might have been from excessive honing! Looking at it, I suspect he would have had worse shaves at sea that my own first shave with a straight.

I found myself drifting off in my imagination. I was Nelson, at sea, the day before Trafalgar, determined to beat that short-arsed little French war-monkey Napoleon and teach him that Brittania does indeed rule the waves. The smell of gunpowder would have been in the air as the crew were busy cleaning the cannon and preparing the charges. I retire to the captains cabin, move to the sink and pick up my trusty steel and horn straight razor. The folly of hunting seems a million miles away. I begin to prep [OK, I have no idea if he would have had soap or what in them days!] and start to shave WTG. Damn and blast! It's as blunt as the First Mate's wit. I shall have to get Mr. Truefitt to sharpen it when I return to London, victorious. I can't stand the man, he has a very effete way with his customers, but he can surely sharpen a blade like no other. His partner, Hill, can only cut hair and sounds like a dimwit.

So, like a true Brit with his stiff upper lip, Nelson would have sailed into the Battle of Trafalgar cleanly shaved, and that's how we beat the French.

I seriously need to upgrade my phone as it's one of those with a truly useless 'camera' built in. Apologies for these pictures, they're almost worse than useless, but it's all I had to hand. The first picture is of Nelson's razor. The second is the description on the wall.

Cheers
Mark

P.S. Here's the link to the Wellcome collection for those interested. www.wellcomecollection.org

I like the idea that he would have had a sink in his cabin. Run the admiral his bath, jones.
I wonder what shaving with salt water would be like? Problematic getting soap to lather well iirc.

Yeah, I did pause before typing it but, hey, stranger things have happened at sea!

Thanks Mark - that was a great read

All I can say is Nelson deserved to win the war if he used a cutthroat at sea I bet the helmsman and mate were sweating blood every time the admirable Admiral shaved...

James.

Not half as much as he was!

Pitty he never got to try Trafalgar cream.

Not only did he shave with a straight at sea ... he did it with only one arm and one eye!!

Great read, Mark!

-well done!

-Lou

Originally Posted by Doc4

Pitty he never got to try Trafalgar cream.

Not only did he shave with a straight at sea ... he did it with only one arm and one eye!!

That is an excellent point! A blunt blade, only parallax vision to judge relative distance twixt blade and face, and no ability to stretch skin!!

Of course, it's possible he had the cabin boy stretch for him. (Now there's a wide open invitation for a Lou-joke if I ever read one! )

Originally Posted by majurey

That is an excellent point! A blunt blade, only parallax vision to judge relative distance twixt blade and face, and no ability to stretch skin!!

By the time Nelson lost his arm, he was already Rear Admiral of the Blue, not to mention a knight in the Order of Bath. I'd think that by then he'd have some kind of attendant, secretary or other such flunky to shave him.

As far as I can tell, ships back then had a ship barber. Surgeons sometimes doubled as barbers, and possibly other sailors or midshipmen were barbers alongside their main job on the boat.

Originally Posted by majurey

That is an excellent point! A blunt blade, only parallax vision to judge relative distance twixt blade and face, and no ability to stretch skin!!

Of course, it's possible he had the cabin boy stretch for him. (Now there's a wide open invitation for a Lou-joke if I ever read one! )

"Kiss me, Hardy!"

At the time, ships like Nelson's 'Victory' were the supercarriers of their day: not only the most powerful thing afloat, but the largest and most organised working machinery ... collection of gear and men in one unit for one purpose ... in the world.

Going by memory, the Vicotry had 104 guns (a 'first rate' ship in the 9-layered rating system of the British Navy ... the top 3 rates being 'ships of the line' that fought in pitched battles ... where the ships line up [hence the name] and fire broadsides at each other until one side is pounded into oblivion. Third-rate ships went as low as 64 guns, but most commonly were 74 gunners. The Victory would have had over a thousand men on board.) That was pretty much the tops for ships then, although there was a spanish ship that had I think 138 guns.