England Expects That Every Man Will Do His Duty
ENGLAND EXPECTS THAT EVERY MAN WILL DO HIS DUTY was, of course, the famous signal which Lord Horatio Nelson sent to the British fleet as it moved to attack the Franco/Spanish fleet off Cape Trafalgar on 21 October, 1805. It is also the title of a timeline by robertp6165, which was inspired by an offhand comment made by Susano on another thread. Susano, jokingly, responded to a poster who stated that Alfred the Great created the British Royal Navy by saying…
The Royal Navy fought against Vikings? Horatio Nelson battled against the raiders of Lindisfarne?
Robertp6165 saw this, and decided, what the heck…why not? And thus was born this timeline.
In the timeline, Horatio Nelson and the H.M.S. VICTORY are swept by forces unknown from the midst of the Battle of Trafalgar, October 21, 1805, and deposited in the North Sea, about a mile off the island of Lindisfarne, in the early morning hours of June 10, 793. They arrive just after the Vikings have raided the monastery there. They do not (sorry, Susano) get there in time to battle the Vikings, however. They discover where they are, with the help of a member of their crew who had studied Anglo Saxon history and language at Oxford, shortly thereafter.
Finding themselves lost in a world where they have no friends, no home port, and no supplies, they decide to find an island where they can fortify themselves and seek to open relations with the local people. They land on the Isle of Thanet, off the coast of Kent, England, and soon find themselves embroiled in the politics, violence, and intrigue of Anglo-Saxon England.
This timeline-in-progress, which has actually been developed into a novel which it is hoped will be published in the near future has evolved through several versions. The most recent version may be read here.
The old version of the timeline can be read here and the read-only version (without comments) was posted here.