A Restoration mermaid with a literary connection at Never Sea Land

A Restoration mermaid with a literary connection

Published at September 20, 2010 in Literature and Mermaid. 2 Comments

Chris Partridge of the Rowing for Pleasure blog writes

Hi – this mermaid is carved on the bow of Charles II’s Royal Barge, built in about 1670 and now preserved at the Royal Navy Museum in Portsmouth. The boat was also used to take Nelson’s body from Greenwich to London for his state funeral in St Paul’s Cathedral in 1806.

Nautical literature fans will immediately make the connection that the mission to deliver Nelson’s body to the funeral employing this very barge was commanded by none other than the young Lt. H. Hornblower, RN, as described in the opening chapters of Hornblower and the Atropos [the paperback cover art and the plot synopsis on Amazon are both in error, though.]