J.M.W. Turner's 'The Fighting Temeraire Tugged to her Last Berth to be Broken Up' (1838) was his masterpiece. Sam Willis now tells the real-life story behind this remarkable painting. The 98-gun Temeraire warship broke through the French and Spanish line directly astern of Nelson's flagship Victory during the Battle of Trafalgar (1805), saving Nelson at a crucial moment in the battle, and, in the words of John Ruskin, fought until her sides ran 'wet with the long runlets of English blood'. It is a story that unites the art of war as practiced by Nelson with the art of war as depicted by Turner and, as such, it ranges across an extensive period of Britain's cultural and military history in ways that other stories do not.
