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June 28, 2005

Trafalgar 200

For those who don't know, the Royal Navy - accompanied by warships, merchant vessels and tall ships from thirty-six nations including the United States, France, Spain, India, Japan, South Korea, Pakistan, Nigeria and South Africa - are participating today at the International Fleet Review in the Solent as part of the celebrations marking the 200th anniversary of our spectacular victory over the French and Spanish fleets off Cape Trafalgar.

Her Majesty The Queen has reviewed the assembled fleet already and right now there's an air display. The Red Arrows have just finished but I'm just watching a nice flyby by some WWII fighter aircraft. It's worth checking out the live feed from the BBC, especially since the best part is yet to come: an unfortunately politically-correct reenactment of the battle itself by tall ships, accompanied by pyrotechnics and sound.

The tall ships are maneuvring into position right now with the evening's events due to start with the arrival of "Admiral Lord Nelson" on his flagship at 19:30 BST (14:30 EDT) and the beginning of the "battle" at 21:20 BST (16:20 EDT). The entire combined fleet will also perform a Grand Lighting of the Fleet to complete the celebration (after what is labelled as the largest firework display ever in the UK) at 22:30 BST (17:30 EDT). Catch it if you can, it should be good...

More later...

Posted by gcurtis at 01:04 PM | Comments (0)