A naval hero was struck down in the Napoleonic War when Vice-Admiral Horatio Nelson wound up on the receiving end of a musket ball. The ship was damaged and with no quick way of making it to England, the crew had to get creative with a way of storing his body so it would survive the return journey. And by creative, we mean dunking it in a barrel of brandy.
We’ll get on to the benefits of storing corpses in alcohol later, but there’s a branch to this story that’s more curious still. The tale goes that the ship headed for repairs via Gibraltar, whereupon it was discovered that the barrel was empty. It had been drained, and the brandy drunk by those on board.
What level of desperation is a seaman driven to that he should “tap the admiral”, as the saying now goes, and drink spirit that’s been pickling a human body for several days? It’s a story steeped in science, spirit, and just a peppering of falsehoods. So, what really happened?
Did sailors drink Nelson’s corpse brandy?
By all accounts, this element of the story is an embellishment. It’s easy to imagine thirsty sailors folding to temptation and sipping away at Nelson’s brandy until there was nothing left, especially in light of the fact that even Darwin couldn’t resist indulging in his subjects when aboard the Beagle, but according to Snopes, the Admiral arrived well topped up, not drunk dry.
The very fact that Nelson made it to England at all is in a way indicative that they didn’t drain all his preserving alcohol, as without it, the rate of decomposition across 44 days at sea would’ve been really something. Fortunately, onboard surgeon William Beatty came up with a solution that we may still have a sample of today.
Why use alcohol to preserve a body?
Beatty knew that dunking the beloved Admiral in something as high a proof of brandy would slow the rate of decomposition as they journeyed to England, but it still wasn’t quite enough. A letter in The National Archives tells of how his body burst “the cask in which it was confined,” leading to a “terrified sentinel crying that the Admiral was come to life again”. It seems English public figures have a habit of exploding out of their caskets, spirit-filled or otherwise.
To tackle the issue, Beatty conducted an autopsy mid-journey, according to Atlas Obscura, resulting in the removal of the musket ball that killed him as well as his internal organs, which were decomposing faster than the rest of the body. This gaseous race is one that embalmers still face today, and the process involves a special step designed to halt the potentially explosive changes that go on in our guts post-mortem.
Nelson’s boozy body eventually made it back to England where he was transferred into a lead coffin, a common burial right for royalty, which was topped up with brandy, camphor, and myrrh. And hey, since none of us know what happens when you die for certain, why not pack a roadie for your journey to the afterlife?
Curious about near-death experiences? Find out about the seven kinds, or read up on your Admiral pickling with our crash course: what is embalming?
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