The dockyard will be showing off Medway's maritime past

The naval commander also joined his first ship at Chatham Dockyard.

Medway Council and Chatham's Historic Dockyard are promising "an explosion of colour and pageantry" in October 2005.

Events planned for next year will form part of the national SeaBritain campaign, which promotes the coastline, waterways and links with the sea.

We have always appreciated history and those people that played a major part in the towns growing in the way they did Councillor Jane Chitty

Celebrations are to be held throughout the Medway towns and at the dockyard, which continued building ships until the 1980s.

Councillor Jane Chitty, spokesman for tourism in the Medway towns, said: "We have always appreciated history and those people that played a major part in the towns growing in the way they did.

"Here is a good example of precisely that.

"We value Nelson. We value the Navy. We value the contribution they made, not only to our history, but to the way we evolved."

Turning point

Richard Holdsworth, the dockyard's museum and heritage director, said that Nelson, "a man who enjoyed living life to the full", would have appreciated the chance to celebrate the anniversary of one of the turning points of history.

Horatio Nelson joined the Royal Navy in Chatham in 1771 and spent his early naval career at Chatham and Sheerness.

HMS Victory was built in the Royal Dockyard at Chatham and launched into the River Medway in 1765.

Five other ships which fought at the Battle of Trafalgar were also built on the River Medway, three in the dockyard and two in adjoining shipyards.