Bermuda will have its own piece of Lord Nelson?s flagship with the release of special stamps for the UK Overseas Territories.

The stamps are due to be released next year, the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Trafalgar in which Nelson?s fleet, although heavily outnumbered, crushed a combined French and Spanish force. Not a single Royal Navy vessel was lost in the conflict, which effectively ended French Emporer Napoleon Bonaparte?s ambitions to rule the waves.

However, as an article in The Times newspaper on Wednesday reported, it took a French printing company to get tiny slivers of the ship to stick to postage stamps.

The wood was purchased by Nigel Fordham, a member of the Nelson Society and the former head of the Crown Agents? Stamp Bureau, who found out that timber was available for purchase after her refit at the Portsmouth Naval Dockyard.

Mr. Fordham bought 50 kilograms of the ship?s oak and he even had a certificate of provenance from the ?s commanding officer, Lt. Cdr. Frank Nowosielski.

But Mr. Fordham had to go to Paris in order to find a printer capable of sticking slivers of the oak onto a postage stamp.

Impressed by the techniques of a Paris-based printer, he visited the Cartor Security Printing factory in January, 2003.

Cartor?s Managing Director, Gilles Le Baud, had already mastered several experimental philatelic printing techniques, including getting powdered rock to stick to stamps showing the Rock of Gibraltar.

M. Le Baud personally accepted the challenge and had three proofs ready to send back to Mr. Fordham by May. The stamps will have a picture of the and as Royal approval is being sought for the stamps, they may also include either a portrait of the Queen or the royal cipher.

Of the 11 signatories to be issued the stamps, seven are British Overseas Territories.

Apart from Bermuda, the ten countries are: Ascension Island, the Bahamas, British Indian Ocean Territory, Cayman Islands, Gibraltar, Jamaica, Nauru, St. Lucia, St. Helena and Tristan da Cunha.

The stamps will be released in a two part Omnibus. The first part is due to be released in January. The second part will be issued on October 18, 2005.