In the Hour of Victory

by Sam Willis

  The third map (p. 195) shows the position of the fleets some time around 22.00, after L’Orient has exploded. Her wreck is marked with a red cross. The Alexander was badly caught up in the blast and was disabled for two hours while her crew extinguished fires and cut away damaged rigging. The Alexander and the disabled Bellerophon have now drifted well clear of the site of the explosion. The Swiftsure, remarkably, was undamaged. In the moments before the explosion all firing stopped from both ships. The Swiftsure’s crew, having rescued as many as they could of the swimming Frenchmen who had dived clear of L’Orient, all hid below decks and shut the gunports. Her captain hoped that, by staying close to L’Orient, the explosion would fire the debris up and thus over her. It was a bold decision and her captain’s conviction was not shared by all of her crew. As the heat became so intense that the tar between the deck planks began to melt, Captain Hallowell ordered sentries placed at her anchor cables to stop any British sailor from cutting them.

  The French ships immediately astern of L’Orient cut their cables to escape the devastation. The Heureux and Mercure are shown inshore, where they struck a shoal in their bid to flee L’Orient. Others headed north (towards the bottom of the picture) in a bid to escape. When L’Orient exploded all firing stopped. The flash of light was seen nine miles away in Alexandria.

  The only British ship near the escaping Frenchmen was now the Bellerophon but she was too shattered to give chase. Hood in the Zealous, at the far right of the map, set sail in a bid to cut them off but was immediately recalled by Nelson because there were too many damaged British ships to be left alone.

  Nevertheless, of this group of isolated French ships, only four subsequently escaped: Guillaume Tell, under the command of Rear-Admiral Pierre-Charles Villeneuve, who would command the allied French and Spanish fleet at Trafalgar; Généreux, which would, within days, capture the British Leander together with Nelson’s dispatches; and the two frigates Justice and Diana. The Timoléon and Tonnant were both in a bad way, the Tonnant entirely dismasted and the Timoléon with only her mizzen mast standing. The Tonnant only surrendered when surrounded by British ships and the captain of the Timoléon continued to fire until the last possible moment when he ran his ship ashore and burned her with her colours still flying.

  At the far south of the bay and at the top of the map, the Mutine, a small brig and thus a ship with a shallow draught, is shown assisting the grounded Culloden. To lighten her, food, drink and shot were thrown overboard and more transferred to the Mutine. Meanwhile work at the pumps was continuous, although seamen from the Mutine took their turn while the Culloden’s crew had breakfast.

  Account of the Battle of the Nile by E. Poussielgue

  The French Adjutant-General’s account (p. 183) was acquired relatively easily by the British because it was composed on a British warship by a man held prisoner, but we are particularly fortunate with the Battle of the Nile because, in subsequent weeks, British and Turkish ships seized several French vessels bearing official dispatches as well as personal letters from the army in Egypt. The letters, which included several personal missives from Napoleon himself, were highly revealing, very personal and extremely embarrassing.

  This is one of those captured letters, written by the Comptroller General of the Expenses of the Eastern Army and Administrator General of the finance to his wife or perhaps his sweetheart. It adds little to our knowledge of the battle, apart from the fact that we know it was witnessed by several Frenchman from the top of a nearby tower, but it captures beautifully the quality of description and personal touches that characterised so many of these captured letters. He starts by describing the battle but ends with a magnificent flourish, admitting to having had a portrait made but refusing to send it, before declaring his commitment to finding his way home and into her arms again: ‘There is no fortune which shall retain me. I shall be contented to arrive with you naked as my hand.’

  Unfortunately, the letter never reached its intended recipient but landed on the desk of a gloating St Vincent who insisted that it was sent on to Nelson’s wife, a curious request that was clearly ignored because the letter remained in the Admiralty archives.

  LIBERTY EQUALITY

  ROSETTA IN EGYPT 17th THERMIDOR 6 OF THE FRENCH REPUBLIC OR 3D AUGUST 1798

  FROM E. POUSSIELGUE COMPTROLLER GENERAL OF THE EXPENSES OF THE EASTERN ARMY AND ADMINISTRATOR GENERAL OF THE FINANCE.

  We have just been witnesses, my dear Friend, to a Naval Combat the most bloody & unfortunate that for many Ages has taken place. As yet we know not all the circumstances but those which we are already acquainted with are frightful in the extreme. The French Squadron consisting of thirteen sail of the line one of which was a 3 decker of 120 guns and three others of 80 were anchored in Line of Battle in the Bay of Aboukar or Canope, the only one that exists on all the Coast of Egypt. For these 8 days past several Ships and Frigates belonging to the English have at different times been in sight reconnoitring the position of our Fleet, so that we have been in momentary expectation of being attacked. In a direct line from Aboukar to Bonetta the distance is about 4 Leagues and an half from the heights of the latter our Fleet is perfectly seen and distinguished. The 14th of this month at ½ past 5 oClock in the Evening we heard the firing of Cannon, this was the commencement of the Battle. We immediately got upon the Terraces the Tops of the Highest Houses & Eminences from where we plainly distinguished ten English Ships of the Line the other we could not see. The Cannonade was very heavy until about a ¼ after 9 oClock when favoured by the Night we perceived an immense light which announced to us that some ship was on fire. At this time the Thunder of the Cannon was heard with redoubled fury and at ten oClock the ship on fire was heard to blew up with the most dreadful explosion which was heard at Rosetta in the same manner as the explosion of the Grenelle was heard at Paris.10 When this Accident happened the most profound silence took place for the space of about ten Minutes: from the moment of the explosion until our hearing it might take up about two. The firing commenced again and continued without interruption until 3 oClock in the morning when it ceased almost entirely until five when it commenced again with as great vivacity as ever.

  I placed myself on a Tower which was about Cannon Shot from Rosetta and which is called Aboul Maudour from thence I could distinctly see the whole battle: At 8 oClock I perceived a Ship on Fire and in about ½ an hour blew up similar to the other that night; a Ship which until the moment of her explosion was not perceived on fire at all. The other Ship moved to a greater distance from the Shore and the fire on board her apparently diminished by which we presume that it was entirely extinguished; during this time the cannonading redoubled: a large Ship entirely dismasted was on shore on the Coast; We perceived others among the Fleet in similar manner dismasted entirely but the two Squadrons so mingled among each other that it was impossible to distinguish French from English nor on whose side the advantage was. The firing continued with unabating vivacity until about 2 oClock after midday of the 15th and at this hour we perceived two Sail of the Line and two Frigates under a press of Sail on a Wind standing to the Eastward: We perceived that the whole four were under French colours no other vessel made any movement and the firing ceased entirely.

  Towards six oClock in the Evening I returned to the Tower of Abel Maudour to re connoitre the position of the two Fleets it was the same as at two oClock, the four Ships under way were abreast of the Mouth of the Nile, we knew not what to think or conjecture. Twenty four hours passed without having any person to give us any details and in our situation it was impossible to procure any by hand an account of the Arabs who were assembled between Bonatta and Aboukar, and by Sea an account of the difficulty of getting out of the opening or branch of the Nile. You may judge of our impatience and perplexity. Nothing good could be enjoined from this silence; however we were obliged to pass the whole of the night of the 15th in this incertitude and at last on the Morning of the 16th a Boat which left Alexandria in the night gave us some details though little
tending to our comfort; they told us that the Officers of the French Fleet who saved themselves in a Boat arrived at Alexandria had reported that in the commencement of the Battle, Admiral Brueys had received three severe Wounds one in the head and two in the Body, that notwithstanding he persisted in keeping his Station on the Arm Chest, and that a fourth Shot took him in the Body and cut him in two, at the same moment a Shot took off the Captain of the Ship Casabianca, that at this time they perceived the Ship to be on fire in such a manner as not to be able to extinguish it, and at last that the Ship had blown up about two oClock at Night; they added that our Fleet was totally destroyed and lost with the exception of the four ships escaped, but that the remainder were entirely ruined.

  I returned to the Tower where I found things absolutely in the same situation as yesterday, they were ever so yesterday Night and this Morning.

  I have now to say how they appeared to our view from the Castle of Aboukar on the left sweeping the Horizon to our right.

  The first Ship is without mast and under English Colours, The second and third are in good state but cannot distinguish theirs, the fourth has lost one mast, the fifth in good state and English Colours, the sixth has lost her Top Mast, this Morning she hoisted her Fore Top Mast Stay Sail and set some after Sail, seventh is without Top Gallant Masts, the 8th is dismasted, the 9th is dismasted with the exception of her Bowsprit, the 11th 12th and 13th form a kind of groupe having only seven masts between them. The 14th has only her Fore Mast, the 15th has lost her Fore and Mizen Top Gallant Masts, the 16th is entirely dismasted, the 17th has lost her Mizen Top Gallant Mast, the 18th has only a Fore Mast, the 19th 20th and 21st form a groupe with only four Masts between them and these without Top Gallant Masts. The 22nd is entirely dismasted and on shore. She has English Colours up, the people on board her are trying to get her afloat and to raise other masts, the 23rd is in a good state under English Colours the 24th is also in good state.

  This is all that I can distinguish from which results that though the English have had the advantage, they have been very roughly handled since they could not follow the Vessels which went away on the 15th, for these two days these ships have been perfectly inactive and seemingly destroyed, this Morning news has arrived here from Alexandria which confirms our losses. Rear Admiral Decrest is killed also Vice Admirals Blounquet and Duchouila, five Ships have struck their Colours, the Tonant was the last Ship in action. Dupetitoir who commanded her had his two Legs carried off by a Cannon Shot, the Ships escaped are the Guillaume Tell the —— with the Frigates Diana and Justice. They say it was the Artamise which blew up the Morning before yesterday, many things relative to this Battle are yet to learn, they say that the English Admiral has sent a Flag of Truce to Alexandria demanding that they should receive and take care of the Wounded which amounts to 1500, they will send us all our Prisoners, as yet I am ignorant of what has been decided on.

  You will receive in France the official news of us and of the English, I know not what they will say but you may rely on what I have written because it is what I have seen. Communicate my Letter to Citizen Carancey, his Son who ought to have given him these accounts is by me, otherwise occupied. He has written six Letters and has not received one in return. I have no news of Citizen Moray whom I have named Agent at Dunantrour.

  Berancée who has been ill is quite recovered he is with me. Martin is extremely well but has not received one line from his family. I am the only fortunate one among them having received three Letters from you since my arrival in Egypt, one of the 2nd prairial one the 16th and one the 27th and 28th. Most certainly many are lost as the English have taken many of our Couriers.

  I have had since my arrival here my portrait in profile taken by an Able Artist Citizen Bonoy, it is said to be very like but we have so many English around us that for fear of its falling into their hands or going to the bottom of the Sea I dare not send it. I could wish to be the bearer of it myself! Be assured that as soon as I can obtain that permission which I shall not cease to solicit I shall take my departure. There is no fortune which shall retain me. I shall be contented to arrive with you naked as my hand

  As for what remains to be said, I am in good health. To morrow morning I take my departure for Cairo in an handsome Boat with the Money and Paymaster General, two Armed Boats with 250 men as an escort and more than 40 Passengers: I take with me a fine Arabian Horse which a Sheikh made me a present of here. We go by the Nile. Cidri [illeg] my dear little girl, love me always, and recall me often to the memory of all our friends. I embrace you and also my children.

  E. Poussielgue

  This Frenchman seems to know so much more of the Battle than I do that I will not continue to contradict him: I am satisfied with it if he is. Send it to Lady Nelson when read.

  ST. V.

  Numerous similar letters were captured in the aftermath of the Nile when the Mediterranean was entirely dominated by British warships. The correspondence was so revealing, and often so downright entertaining, that a selection was immediately published in Britain in the snappily titled Copies of original letters from the army of General Bonaparte in Egypt, intercepted by the fleet under the command of Admiral Lord Nelson (1798). The editor gleefully recorded how the letters laid bare the French tactic of ‘spreading the most absurd and exaggerated accounts’ of their success and warned that their campaign which ‘began in wickedness and fraud’ was bound to ‘terminate in wretchedness and despair’.

  That insight was accurate. The loss of the French fleet meant that their army was cut off in Egypt. The soldiers had no choice but to be self-sufficient in an entirely alien environment and their morale plummeted. At the same time, their enemies were encouraged by the British victory and the Bedouin lit fires all along the coast of Egypt to express their gratitude for the achievements of Nelson’s fleet. Their fight against the French was renewed with vigour and cruelty. Officers moaned in their letters about everything: the climate and the country, the vicious Bedouin, the absurdity of the expedition, their lack of food, ammunition, money and medicine, and the filth and stench of the army camps in the desert heat. Moreover one of the letters, written by Napoleon to his brother, described how he envisaged himself as the ‘Washington of France’, a reference to George Washington who had risen from army officer to President of the United States and who had remained the single most dominant figure in American history for 24 years.

  Washington was no tyrant, but such firm evidence of Napoleon’s aspirations created a powerful shock wave. The author who edited the volume of intercepted French letters was confident that the Battle of the Nile would ruin those aspirations. He declared that:

  All return is now impossible, except as a fugitive, or a prisoner. He may enter into the chambers of the Pyramids, and hold conversations on the tomb of Cheops, with Imans, and with Muftis; he may organize, and conquer, and plant botanic gardens, and establish menageries; he may pass from the Delta to the Thebaid, and from the Thebaid to the Delta, with his train of tri-coloured Cheiks, and be hailed as the Ali Bonaparte of the country – all is still but folly: his final destruction can neither be averted nor delayed…16

  Napoleon, however, had only just begun. He was not captured, nor did he even flee, but returned from Egypt almost a year after the Battle of the Nile, seized power for himself and settled into the magnificent Royal Palace of the Tuileries. Later, when he had come to realise his ambition, when so many ancient European dynasties lay shattered, and when thousands upon thousands of soldiers and civilians lay dead at his feet, Nelson described him as ‘the common disturber of the human race’.17 The Battle of the Nile is too readily celebrated as an astonishing British victory, but it should also be remembered as the culmination of a British naval campaign that failed to catch Napoleon but which, had it done so, would have changed history far more radically than it ever did.

  The Battle of the Nile, nevertheless, dealt a devastating blow to French military power both in Egypt and throughout the Mediterranean. British, Turkish and Russ
ian warships waged an unopposed war on French Mediterranean possessions and the resulting pressure on French territory weakened the Directory in Paris. In a curious way, the battle gave Napoleon both the opportunity to return to France and the prospect of seizing power for himself. In spite of Nelson’s victory at the Nile, therefore, 1798 was not the year that the war ended, but the year that it was turned on its head all over again.

  Copenhagen

  Slaget På Reden

  2 April 1801

  ‘I can foresee nothing but trouble and anxiety’

  Admiral Sir Hyde parker to his wife Fanny, 30 march 1801

  AT A GLANCE

  DATE:

  2 April 1801

  NAVIES INVOLVED:

  British and Danish

  COMMANDING OFFICERS:

  Admiral Hyde Parker and Commodore Olfert Fischer

  FLEET SIZES:

  British 12 ships of the line; Danish 18 ships of various sizes

  TIME OF DAY:

  10.00 – 15.30

  LOCATION:

  Copenhagen Roads 55°42'10"N 12°36'48"E

  WEATHER:

  Moderate breezes, cloudy

  RESULT:

  12 Danish ships captured, one sunk and one destroyed

  CASUALTIES:

  British, 943; Danish, 1,002

  BRITISH COURT MARTIALS:

  None, but Hyde Parker was recalled and never employed again

  DISPATCHES CARRIED HOME BY: