More than 1,000 unpublished letters written by Nelson have been discovered by Dr Colin White, the National Maritime Museum’s Director Trafalgar 200.

The new material gives us a glimpse of the private side to Nelson, and some insights into his secret activities, such as the intelligence network he operated in the Mediterranean in the two years leading up to the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805.

Some of the new letters are to go on public display in the NMM’s special exhibition for 2005, Nelson and napoleon.

Dr White discovered the material during research for the Nelson Letters Project, commissioned by the Museum and the Royal Naval Museum in 1999. The project’s latest report revealed a “staggering” 1.300 letters, with new material still being unearthed.

This represents a 20 per cent increase in known Nelson correspondence.

In addition to the NMM archives, material has been found in 30 different public and private archives around the world.

The new material covers all periods of Nelson’s Naval career, and sheds new light on some of his key relationships and all three of his main battles.

According to the Museum, it will now, in a sense, be possible for Nelson to re-tell his own story in his own words.

Dr White has travelled more than 25,000 miles in search of the letters, and transcribed more than 700 of them personally.

“I am as surprised as anyone by the amount of material found,” Dr White told Navy News.

“When I started this project I expected to find a few hundred letters.

“But in fact there has been an avalanche of new material. Almost everywhere I have gone I have found new treasures.

“Nelson wrote as he spoke. The letters directly reflect his character and give a strong sense of the man.”

In May 2002 the project uncovered Nelson’s roughly-drawn sketch of the battle plan he intended to use at Trafalgar.

This discovery alone caused a sensation, and was dubbed the ‘Holy Grail of naval history’ by historian Andrew Roberts.

The new finds include an early letter written by Nelson when he was already a post-captain at the age of 21 to his friends Admiral Sir Peter Parker, discussing plans for an attack on the Spanish-held river fortress of El Castillo de la Immaculada Concepcion, on the San Juan River which marked the boundary between Nicaragua and Costa Rica.

It demonstrates that even at an early stage in his career, he had great confidence in his own ability, saying: “I beg leave to represent to you that in my opinion it will be much for the Good of the Service that all the Seamen in the Transport Service be left entirely to my direction.”

The fortress duly fell in April 1780, though by that time Nelson was on his way back downriver to the sea, suffering the effects of dysentery.

Included in the family material is a letter to his sister-in-law Sarah Nelson, begging her to stay with Emma Hamilton, so that she might stay with Nelson.

Sarah, a clergyman’s wife, is giving ‘cover’ to the Admiral’s mistress: “I beg intreat and pray that you will not leave our dear excellent Lady Hamilton.

“She is miserable at the thought of it and so am I, you can have good lodgings and no bugs, and they shall be no expense to you.”

A series of letters to Nelson’s friend and brother officer the Duke of Clarence (later King William IV) includes some that were published in 1809, but the Project has established that others in the series were suppressed by the Duke and his advisers.

Some have pencil marks where cuts were to be made. A typical example is one showing that when the British sailors mutinied in 1797, Nelson’s first instinct was to sympathise with them and blame bad leadership by some of his fellow officers.

Clearly this was considered too hot top publish at the time: “To those of us who see the whole at once, we must think that for a Mutiny (underlined) which I fear I must call it having no other name, that it is the most Manly thing I have ever heard of and does the British sailor infinite honour.”

Some 500 of the most interesting and important letters will feature in Dr White’s new book Nelson: The New Letters, to be published by Boydell and Brewer in association with the museums in the summer of 2005.

The National Maritime Museum has one of the most significant Nelson collections in the world, including the bloodstained uniform he wore at Trafalgar and important paintings, including J.M.W. Turner’s version of the Battle of Trafalgar.