Guy Chant, a singer and songwriter from Hampshire, loved the story of Lapenotiere and the News of Trafalgar so much that he wrote a song about it! The lyrics are below. It's very accurately observed!
Upon the Schooner Pickle new orders I received
To make full haste to England from Trafalgar's bloodied seas.
No time for us to count the cost, nor for recovery.
We set the prow nor'westwards and we prayed to God for speed.
A mighty victory had been won through Nelson's daring plan,
to strike the French across their bows so their guns could little aim.
We brought them crashing to their knees, those left had cut and run,
No more to threaten England with their powder and their guns.
We brought the news to Falmouth, then inland from the sea,
from Bodmin onto Launceston, with London calling me.
After thirty-seven hours' hard ride I reached the Admiralty, with tidings of both joy and tragedy.
But in the hour of triumph our Lord Nelson slumped and fell,
brought low by a musket ball from the rigging, I heard tell.
It ripped down though his shoulder and it lodged hard in his spine.
The end had come so cruelly for this faithful English man.
So we brought the news to Falmouth, then inland from the sea,
from Bodmin onto Launceston, with London calling me.
After thirty-seven hours' hard ride I reached the Admiralty, with tidings of both joy and tragedy.
Six and sixty and two hundred miles I had to go,
with nineteen stops to change the team when they could no longer pull.
When finally I reached my goal I found a fame quite rare,
for now the history books will know "LAPENOTIERE",
who brought the news to Falmouth, then inland from the sea,
from Bodmin onto Launceston, with London calling me.
After thirty-seven hours' hard ride I reached the Admiralty, with tidings of both joy and tragedy.
We brought the news to Falmouth, then inland from the sea,
through Bodmin onto Launceston, with London calling me.
After thirty-seven hours' hard ride I reached the Admiralty, with tidings of both joy and tragedy.
