In mid-October, the Royal Navy hosted a dinner in honor of the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805. The naval battle was a pivotal moment for the Royal Navy during the war with France and Napoleon because Britain was under threat of invasion. After his fleet was decimated at Trafalgar by Admiral Nelson, Napoleon's army never stood a chance of making an invasion. Tragically, the hero of the battle, Nelson was wounded by a sniper and died that same day.
This mess dinner did not allow guests to be invited an so it was mostly students and staff at the school. The dress-code was mess dress or black tie and the variety of uniforms was staggering and interesting, not only because of all the international students, but because the British Army has a ridiculous amount of unique colors and outfits based on their regimental system.
I walked in that evening and was picked up about 3/4 of the way there by my Spaniard friend Paco. I met a few of the guys in my syndicate in the college bar for a cocktail before we mustered in the main forum of the school for another drink. Interestingly, this was the first time I'd ever had a gin and tonic. The circular room was festooned with a giant Royal Navy flag and other semaphore signal flags. After about 30 minutes of socializing, everyone moved up to the 2nd level of the forum to have a bird's eye view of the drum line about to march in.
The Navy drummers were in their full regalia and put on a 10 minute show that included various changes in formation and other synchronized movements. At the end, the lead drummer presented to our school Commodore director and then one of the junior sailors blew a long and complex whistle call and we all filtered in to the dining room.
The dining room was dim and candlelit from dozens of silver candelabras. The head table was closest upon entering and then there were four more long tables running lengthwise down the long hall. We sat together with our syndicate and I (fortunately?) was seated on the end of the table closest to the head table. There was a giant silver model of Nelson's Column from Trafalgar Square in London in front of the head table standing at least four feet tall.
The first course of smoked salmon was waiting on the table when we sat down and there was an ample place setting consisting of four crystal glasses of various sizes, and plenty of cutlery for the three course dinner.
Before we began to eat, the President (master of ceremonies) welcomed the distinguished visitors and read a letter from the Queen authorizing the mess dinner to take place. Periodically throughout the meal, the president would move the program along and a naval officer would stand in the midst of the 300 attendees and give a 2-3 minute narrative of how the battle unfolded.
Just prior to the main course being served, four junior sailors marched into the hall with a huge rack of ribs displayed on an enormous platter several feet long. They paraded the meat around the entire room and then presented it to the head table.
After the main course was finished about an hour and a half into the meal, we took our first bathroom break (no one dared exit the room until then). Upon our return we sang 'Sea Shanties,' or old traditional songs such as 'Rule Brittania' and 'Drunken Sailor.' Everyone sang enthusiastically and it was quite rousing while at the same time odd to be an American singing these very patriotic British songs that were probably sung during the Revolutionary War.
Dessert was a chocolate mousse and served with port. The guest speaker gave his remarks for 15-20 minutes or so and then the final event of the night came which was the grand procession of the 'ships of the line.' All the wait staff came out with chocolate boats about 2 feet long complete with a flaming sparkler shooting off the front. At the end of the night, we broke open the ship that was placed on our table to find chocolate 'canon balls' inside the confection...very impressive.
After we were dismissed around 11, we all moved en masse into the adjacent lounge and proceeded to consume more cocktails. I eventually left at midnight while many of my friends reportedly stayed until 3am - on a work night.
The dinner was a real pleasure to attend and I felt that I experienced an extremely unique facet of British military life.
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