Two hundred years after the pride of their navy was sunk at the battle of Trafalgar, the French appear to be still smarting at the defeat.

Some 41 rowed boats and 29 motor vessels set off from Greenwich this morning in a reenactment of Admiral Lord Nelson's funeral procession along the River Thames.

But members of the Nelson Society, which organised the gala, said that authorities at the French naval port of Brest had refused to accept a copy of the historic Dispatch announcing the victory - even though it was a modern, politically correct rewrite of the original message.

"We were told we wouldn't be welcome in Brest and they didn't want to receive the Dispatch," one Society member, who did not want to be named, said aboard the training vessel Lord Nelson which carried the Dispatch.

"The idea was we were going to deliver the Dispatch to the people of Spain in Cadiz, and to the French in Brest, but only the Spanish wanted to go ahead with it.

"So when the Lord Nelson reached Brest the Dispatch was just kept on board the ship and I think that the French copy was going to be delivered to the French ambassador to do with as he saw fit. It is a shame.

"The whole idea of the New Trafalgar Dispatch was to celebrate the brotherhood of the sea and to reinforce that we are all friends now, and to commemorate all the people who died at sea, but the French couldn't see past their pride."

Another Society member said: "I think they had just lost the Olympics to London, and they weren't in a good mood."

But the sour French grapes did not put a damper on today's celebration, which was described as the largest flotilla seen on the River Thames in recent years.

On January 8, 1806, tens of thousands of mourners packed the riverbanks and decks and rigging of boats to catch a glimpse of the English hero’s last journey. Today the numbers were smaller, but more than 1,000 members of the public still braved a cold and blustery wind to view the departure ceremony at the Old Royal Naval College in Greenwich.

Hundreds more lined the route, waving and cheering as the small wooden Jubilant, a replica of a traditional shallop which was created for the Queen’s Golden Jubilee and today acted as the funeral barge, rowed past carrying the First Sea Lord, Admiral Sir Alan West.

Inside the tiny glazed cabin of the Jubilant was a mini replica coffin containing the new Trafalgar Dispatch, a specially written modern version of the missive sent home with news of the historic victory at Trafalgar, when Nelson defeated a combined French and Spanish fleet in October 1805.

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