The Historical Maritime Society

Nelson and His Navy - Santa Cruz and Nelsons Arm

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The story of Nelson losing his arm to a whiff of Spanish grapeshot at the assault against Tenerife in June 1797 brings to mind a story which was carried in the French Journal Le Yacht in February 1933. It was claimed that Nelson's arm was kept behind the altar in the Cathedral in Las Palmas, Gran Canaria. So far as I know no-one has refuted this. Anyone going on holiday to Gran Canaria might want to check out if it's still there. It would be one hell of a holiday souvenir.

Here are the notes concerning the operation kept by Thomas Esherby, the surgeon of the THESEUS to which Nelson was brought after the unsuccessful attack.

Compound fracture of the right arm by a musket ball passing through a little above the elbow, an artery divided. The arm was immediately amputated and the following given him:

Opii gr. ii.ft. Pil.statim.s

July 26

Rested pretty well and quite easy. Tea, soup and sago. Lemonade and Tamarind drink.

The following additional information was kindly supplied by Julio N. Rancel-Villamandos, from Tenerife (Spain), who now lives in Belgium.

His great-great-great-great grandfather José LUIS de LA GUARDIA PLASENCIA (he was the father of Valentina LUIS de LA GUARDIA, who was the mother of Saturnina MARRERO LUIS de LA GUARDIA, who was the mother of Fernando RANCEL MARRERO, who was the father of Fernando Marino RANCEL ALVAREZ, who was the father of Julio RANCEL MARTIN, who was Julios father), was born about 1767 in the island La Gomera and died 1 Nov 1812 in Santa Cruz de Tenerife. He was a real estate manager and trader in Santa Cruz during the 1790s. His shop was in the middle of the old town (Genoveses street, now Candelaria street), very close to one of the points where the British troops disembarked. He took arms -one among many others, of course- and fought 'for God, Country and King'. He was still mentioned in the honour list as a member of the Militia during the 1997 festivities commemorating the 2nd centenary of the Battle.

Julio continues:-

" I have read the comment above about Nelson's arm... which is truly amazing. Nelson attacked Santa Cruz, the capital town of Tenerife and headquarters of the Capitan General (Military Commander and sort of Viceroy of the islands). The battle took place in the harbour and in the town streets. Nelson was hit by the fire of a gun during an attempt to disembark at Santa Cruz' shore. The place and even the gun are well-known.

Las Palmas is the capital city of the island Gran Canaria, some 150 kms. away, and even if the British surgeon who cut Nelson's arm during an emergency operation in his ship would have given such a trophy (?) to their Spanish enemies, it would be really amazing that the arm would have been sent to Las Palmas. To be kept under the cathedral's altar would have been twice amazing, against all Roman Catholic rules, laws and uses, because they place under an altar... only relics of saints. Nelson was truly a great man, but never was declared a saint by the Roman Catholic Church, I'm afraid...

At the contrary, if you visit Tenerife (not Gran Canaria) you will find many real souvenirs from the battle:

• the monument dedicated to the town and to the people of Tenerife, in Plaza de Espana, at the place (more or less, because the new port has changed the scenes a lot) where Nelson was hit by the gun's shot.
• the Military Museum of the Canary Islands, in Almeida Fort, where you'll find a diorama about the battle with sound effects and explanation; there you will find the gun 'Tigre', a sort of symbol of the town, and traditionally the one who 'defeated' Nelson because it shot from the battery in front of the Admiral's boat and it was said already at the time that it was its shot which hit the Admiral; you will find the British flags of the troops which tried to occupy the city but surrendered after one day and a night of fight in the streets and houses of the old town. The last British position was the convent of Santo Domingo, a place nowadays occupied by the City Theatre built in the middle of the XIX century.
• The anchors of one of the British ships, sunk during the battle, which have been recovered and are in the crossroads between Avenida de Anaga and the Ramblas boulevards, in front of the Local Navy Headquarters and Santa Cruz' harbour.
• a fair street, called 'Avenida Horacio Nelson', in a nice residential district of Santa Cruz, because the city has felt always a sort of strange love (although the disappointing feeling of 'having-been-attacked-by-him') for the figure of Nelson, acknowledged as one of the greatest sailors of the World History. He was always respected in Santa Cruz, anyway, as a gentleman, because the terms of the surrender were fully respected and Nelson himself brought the news of his defeat to continental Spain (!) when he sailed back to England, sending a written message of the Canaries' Capitan General to the King of Spain through a neutral ship which entered Cadiz Bay. And furthermore, we people from Tenerife have been always deeply 'anglophiles' (English-loving) inspite of wars and politics.

Anyway, Nelson's defeat in Tenerife has been of incredible importance for the city Santa Cruz. Maybe because this proved that the town was loyal and able to be defended, the King awarded it the titles and institutions of an incorporated town - before it was just a dependence of the old island capital, La Laguna, several kilometers inland. The King also granted the town its coat of arms -full of symbolism about Nelson's attack- and its titles as 'Most Noble, Loyal and Undefeated'. This statute of incorporated town allowed Santa Cruz in only a few years to receive the status as capital town of the whole Canary Islands, which it hold until 1927 when the islands were divided into two provinces. Nowadays Santa Cruz is one of the two co-capitals, and permanent seat of the Islands' Parliament. The date of Nelson's attack, 25 July, is still a public holiday in Santa Cruz among with the town's foundation day, 3rd May.

If you want to have more details about the coat of arms, Nelson in Santa Cruz, etc... you can find some information in my hobby style pages at http://www.jrancel.org/sc-eng.html , and spec. at the webpage which speak about Santa Cruz' symbols.

Thank you very much for the pages about Nelson. He really was a great man and we Spaniards were really unlucky not to have had such a sea strategy during this crucial period of European History.

And in our family we still remember 'Horacio Nelson', as he is called in Tenerife, as the most gallant enemy we ever had."