Lot Essay
Three relics of Alexander Scott, Nelson's chaplain (for whom see lots 24 and 246). The thunderbolt said to be a memento of his being struck by lightning on the Topaz in the West Indies (which left him with a nervous condition), the splinter from the French flagship L'Orient which exploded at the Battle of the Nile and the stuffed crocodile, another souvenir of the Battle of the Nile: seamen apparently stuffed crocodiles and sold them at Portsmouth, Chatham and other ports in parody of the Nelson's captains' Nile swords with crocodile grips. These swords were themselves in imitation of the magnificent Nile swords presented to Nelson by the Sultan of Turkey and by Nelson's captains (who instituted their 'Egyptian' or 'Crocodile Club' after the battle).