"I have always been a quarter of an hour before my time, and it has made a man of me."

Horatio Nelson is Britain's greatest naval hero. In his dashing exploits at the Battles of Cape St. Vincent (1797), the Nile (1798), and Copenhagen (1801), his legendary romance with Lady Emma Hamilton, and his epochal victory and tragic death at the Battle of Trafalgar (1805), Nelson seems always to be a little larger than life. The Nelson commemorated throughout the Caribbean, however, is younger, a little newer to the world, and if a bit less impressive, certainly more intimate.

It was in the Caribbean, on the island of Nevis, that Nelson met and married Fanny Nisbet, and the island still bears traces of the young captain's presence. His position at the time was commander of the Leeward Islands Squadron, a group that had as its home port English Harbour, on Antigua. Nelson's legacy is visible there as well, in the fine restored Georgian dockyard that now bears his name. What follows is a brief look at the life of Horatio Nelson. For those who desire a more extensive portrait, we recommend a visit to the Nelson Museum on Nevis, a modest institution that has the distinction of maintaining the largest collection of Nelson memorabilia in the Americas.

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