A flotilla of boats recreated Nelson's funeral procession up the River Thames through London on Friday 16th September 2005.

(With some thumbnails borrowed from the Daily Telegraph and from the Getty Image Collection.)

Admiral Sir Alan West, the First Sea Lord, took part in the re-enactment, representing the Chief Mourner who in 1805 was Nelson's friend Admiral Sir Peter Parker.

The event had the official title of the Thames Nelson Flotilla and took place at 10.55am at the Old Royal Naval College, Greenwich, to 1.30pm at Westminster Boating Base.

The Jubilant (the Royal Barge built for the Queen's Golden Jubilee in the shape of a Royal Shallop, a replica of the Naval Victualling Commissioners' Barge owned by the National Maritime Museum and on display in Somerset House, London) acted as funeral barge, and was rowed up the Thames, replicating Nelson's funeral procession, in company with a flotilla of motorboats, barges, shallops, gigs and cutters.

As the flotilla passed HMS Belfast sailors from HMS Collingwood and HMS Sultan fired a salute from saluting guns.

Admiral West disembarked at the Honourable Company of Master Mariners' vessel HQS Wellington at Temple Pier, where he made a presentation of the New Trafalgar Dispatch to the Dean of St Paul's Cathedral, the Very Reverend Dr John Moses in the presence of the Princess Royal.

The intended timetable for the event was as follows:

10.15 Music starts at Greenwich, Trinity College of Music.

10.20 Guests start arriving at Painted Hall.

10.30 Procession locks out of West India Dock. Guard forms at Greenwich.

10.40 VIPs arrive at Painted Hall.

10.45 Flotilla arrives off Queen's Stairs, Greenwich and forms up in two groups, the leading group on the north side of the river and the remainder down river from the Queen's Stairs.

10.55 -11.10 Ceremony at the Painted Hall, Old Royal Naval College. Nelson expert Dr. Colin White delivers the prologue. Admiral the Lord Boyce reads the New Trafalgar Dispatch, which is then presented to the First Sea Lord, Admiral Sir Alan West. Drum roll follows and the procession then makes its way down the central aisle of the Painted Hall, through the Old Royal Naval College and down the Queen's Stairs.

11.15 -11.30 The First Sea Lord and other VIPs embark at Queen's Stairs in the Thames Guardian, the Jubilant, HMS Victory's Cutter, the Paul Satow and the procession starts upriver.

Minute guns sound upon departure from Greenwich.

11.20 Leading group of motor vessels starts off up river.

11.45 Flotilla passes Canary Wharf Pier.

12.10 Flotilla passes under Tower Bridge.

12.15 Salute from HMS Belfast.

12.20 Flotilla passes Shakespeare's Globe.

12.30 Flotilla arrives in King's Reach (the Waterloo area of the river) & the Princess Royal arrives on HQS Wellington.

12.35 The First Sea Lord with The New Trafalgar Dispatch lands at HQS Wellington and presents it to the Dean of St Paul's Cathedral, the Very Reverend Dr. John Moses. Royal Reception hosted by the Honourable Company of Master Mariners follows.