Nelson the Commander

by Bennett, Geoffrey

  3. He would have had seven more but for Rear-Admiral Robert Man's 'desertion'. This officer, having been ordered to take his squadron to Gibraltar for stores in October, and then to rejoin Jervis's fleet (at that time still in the Mediterranean), decided that the threat presented by Cordova's fleet (then to the eastward of the Rock) justified a decision to forsake his Commander-in-Chief and return to the greater safety of English waters. The Admiralty showed their strong disapproval by ordering Man to strike his flag, nor was he again employed afloat.

  4. It was much quicker to wear a ship round, stern to wind, even for a turn of more than 180 degrees, than to put her about, head to wind.

  5. As an indication of the worth of this honour, when, shortly after the Napoleonic Wars this Order of Chivalry was divided into three classes, Knight Grand Cross (G.C.B.), Knight Commander (K.C.B.) and Commander (C.B.), all surviving holders of the K.B. became G.C.B.

  6. This Samuel Hood (of whom we shall hear more) was a cousin of Nelson's 'patron', the Samuel (later Lord) Hood who was C-in-C Mediterranean before St Vincent (Jervis) was appointed to succeed him.

  7. The story that the boat came first to the Seahorse, but that Nelson refused to board her, saying that he would die rather than alarm Captain Fremantle's bride, Betsy, who had been authorized to accompany the expedition, because he could give her no news of her husband's safety, is not supported by any reliable evidence, and is probably apocryphal.

  8. In [this] action . . . several ensigns of the British boats were captured. Ever since [wrote Admiral Lord Charles Beresford in 1913], it has been a tradition in the [Royal] Navy that the flags ought to be recaptured. A party of bluejackets did once succeed in taking them from the Cathedral [of Santa Cruz] and carrying them aboard, but the Admiral ordered their restoration. They were then placed high up on the wall, out of reach, where I saw them [in 1863]. We held a meeting in the gunroom of the Defence to consider the best method of taking the flags; but the Admiral, who . . . was aware that all junior officers cherished the hope of recovering the relics, issued orders that no such attempt was to be made.' Since then, other 'young gentlemen' from I-IM ships, imbued with more patriotic zest than diplomatic discretion, have no doubt attempted to recover them, but to no avail. These legitimate spoils of war can still be seen, preserved in Santa Cruz's parish church of Nuestra Senora de la Concepcion, which is known locally as the Cathedral.

  9. Vanity, and its adjective vain, need definition. According to the Concise Oxford Dictionary vanity can mean 'futility, unsubstantiality, unreality, emptiness'. Nelson was none of these. It can also mean 'conceit, based on personal attainments' - and Nelson's attainments are indisputable.

  10. Unfortunately for Nelson's heroic image, but not for his very human one, when the Agamemnon was refitting at Leghorn in 1794, he consorted with 'a dolly' - to use the euphemism of Captain Fremantle's Diary for one Adelaide Correglia - a lapse of which Emma Hamilton learned enough to warn Nelson later, 'Pray . . . do not go on shore at Leghorn, there is no comfort for you there'; and St Vincent wrote, 'he [Nelson] is made of flesh and blood, and cannot resist [women's] temptations'. But this is not indicative of an unsatisfactory marriage: many a man has broken the seventh commandment when away from home without impairing a lasting union - especially, perhaps, those whose profession is the sea, because this imposes continence on some too often and for too long. [Note: At least one letter from Nelson to Adelaide Correglia, written in French, has been traced, and is preserved in the Huntington Library, in the USA.]

  11. He was in point of fact only 5 ft 5 in high and his frame so spare that to an observer he appeared 'one of the most insignificant figures I ever saw. . . . His weight cannot be more than seventy pounds.' But, as another contemporary succinctly expressed it, 'when induced to talk about the things he knew he took on stature'.

  Chapter VI

  1. Francois Paul Brueys, born 1753, served as lieutenant during War of American Independence, dismissed during Reign of Terror (1793), reinstated and promoted to flag rank in 1795, appointed to command Toulon fleet in 1797.

  2. Ireland was in the throes of a rebellion, for which Wolfe Tone had obtained a promise of French support; but this was never Bonaparte's destination. 'I made one great mistake,' he told his secretary, when he was in exile on St Helena - 'my decision to invade Egypt.' The Directory sent no more than 1,150 troops under General Humbert whom Commodore Savary landed in Killala Bay, Co. Mayo, on 22 August. These routed the Irish Militia at 'The Races of Castlebar', but were compelled to surrender to a much larger British army under General Cornwallis at Ballinamuck as soon as 8 September. And a second French force, numbering 3,000 troops, convoyed by Commodore Bompart's squadron, was intercepted by a stronger detachment from Bridport's fleet, under Commodore Sir John Warren, and defeated off Donegal Bay on 12 October. The British prizes included Bompart's flagship, from which Wolfe Tone was taken prisoner and sentenced to death.

  3. Sultan of Mysore, who was seeking French help to expel the British, and against whom an expedition was already being organized in India, commanded by the future Duke of Wellington, who defeated and killed his enemy at Seringapatam in 1799.

  4. Not all of the Orient was lost. HMS Swiftsure picked up part of her mainmast out of which her carpenter fashioned a coffin for Hallowell to present to Nelson so that 'when you have finished your glorious course in this world, you may journey into the next in one of your trophies'. Nelson kept this bizarre gift in his day cabin, saying to curious visitors: 'You may look at it, gentlemen, as long as you please, but depend upon it, none of you shall have it.'

  5. Cf. Shakespeare in Henry V, Act IV, Scene 3:

  We few, we happy few, we band of brothers:

  For he today that sheds his blood with me

  Shall be my brother.

  6. Article on Nelson in the Soviet Historical Encyclopaedia, Vol. X (1967).

  Chapter VII

  1. There is no parallel between this and twentieth century practice. In Nelson's time letters could be sent and received by schooner and cutter as easily from a flagship at sea as from one in harbour. Admiral Sir Martyn Jerram, C-in-C China in 1914, was the first to appreciate that an overseas commander could not take advantage of the speed and flexibility of radio communication (to control his ships during their search for von Spee's East Asiatic Squadron) from a flagship obliged, for her own security, to keep radio silence, and so to shift his flag ashore at Singapore. Although other overseas commanders were reluctant to follow his example, a further reason, the need for the closest cooperation with other forces, especially maritime air, compelled naval commanders overseas to establish headquarters ashore from the outbreak of the Second World War, although they sometimes hoisted their flags afloat for particular operations. For example, although Cunningham led his fleet in the Warspite at the battle of Matapan and for the raid on Taranto, he controlled the evacuation of Crete from Alexandria.

  2. One cannot be certain that Nelson and Enuna consummated their love before April i800 when their daughter, Horatia, was conceived, but there is ample circumstantial evidence that they must have done so during the early months of 1799.

  3. R.A. Add 16/12.

  4. Cf. Nelson's comment: 'The Russian Admiral has a polished outside, but the bear is close to the skin. . . . He is jealous of our influence.'

  5. For one example, see the Encyclopaedia Britannica (1964 edition, volume XVI), where the relevant section makes this naive comment: 'Nelson's conduct at Naples is of course bound up with his friendship with Lady Hamilton . . . but that a private attachment seriously warped his judgment in public matters no one has yet shown, nor has anyone explained why it should.'

  Chapter VIII

  1. A bequest of £1,000 ($2,400) per annum in his will.

  2. A petulant exaggeration since, at St Vincent's suggestion, he had embarked in the St George Captain Sir Frederick Thesiger, an officer who had served in the Russian Navy, to be his adviser in the Baltic.

  3. Incidentally, the scene is today bes
t visualized (rather than seen because parts of it have been reclaimed to construct a shipyard and an oil depot) from the top of the old mast crane, which is portrayed in several contemporary pictures, and is now preserved for posterity in the Royal Danish Navy's Copenhagen dockyard.

  4. The other forts shown to the south of the city on most plans of the battle were no more than redoubts manned by infantry armed with muskets.

  5. Four fought in two of these battles; Berry at the Nile and Trafalgar, Foley and Thompson at the Nile and Copenhagen, and Fremantle at Copenhagen and Trafalgar.

  6. In Nelson's time (and in contradistinction to British twentieth century practice), to 'acknowledge', a flag signal indicated no more than that it had been seen. To show that its meaning had been looked up in the signal book and was understood, the signal had to be repeated (i.e. hoisted) by the ship(s) for which it was intended.

  Chapter IX

  1. St Vincent's choice of a flag officer so senior for an appointment which would otherwise have been filled by a junior one, was also motivated by a desire to save Nelson's reputation from public scandal by removing him from the Hamilton household.

  2. In this letter Hamilton also wrote: 'I well know the purity of Lord N's friendship for Emma', but it is impossible to accept that he really believed this.

  3. Now in the Wallace Collection.

  4. RA. Add 21/14.

  5. One translation of the final words of I Corinthians, VII, 9.

  Chapter XI

  1. Which should be pronounced Traffle-gar. Trafalgar is the Anglicized form.

  2. Hardy found this letter, to which Nelson added more that is quoted below, lying unsealed on his Admiral's desk after the action and took it to England where Emma added the poignant words: 'O miserable, wretched Emma! O glorious and happy Nelson!'

  3. In what follows all times are necessarily approximate because there are considerable discrepancies between the various ships' logs.

  4. The coat can be seen in the Nelson collection in the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich. The emblems of orders were then worn with undress uniform on all ordinary occasions, and so sewn on, just as medal ribbons now are. It was not until a later date that stars were restricted to full dress uniform and ceremonial occasions.

  5. For details of Rodney's experiment, see this author's article "The Fleet Flagship" in the Journal of the Royal United Service Institution for August 1936. Howe also hoisted his flag in a frigate on 8 August 1778, when he failed to bring the French to action in Narragansett Bay. So did Suifren in one of his actions against Hughes from which he learned this lesson: 'a sera la premiere et derniere fois'.

  6. It was then customary for men to embrace and kiss. Jervis embraced Nelson on the evening of the battle of Cape St Vincent; Nelson kissed Captain Thompson of the Leander after the battle of the Nile. But there is a further point: the author has had the painful experience of hearing a sick adult of fifty cry out in the delirium of a distressed mind, in the voice of a child: Kiss me, Mummy.' So, for two reasons, the suggestion that Nelson must have said, 'Kismet [Fate], Hardy', has no substance.

  Bibliography

  Most of the documents relevant to Nelson's life and career have now been published in one or other of these books. I have not, therefore, listed the various collections, etc. in which these are preserved. Exceptionally, however, this is indicated, e.g. in footnotes to the text, where R A denotes the Royal Archives at Windsor.

  Anderson, R. C., Naval Wars in the Levant, 1559-1853 (1952)

  Archibald, E. H. H., Wooden Fighting Ship (1968)

  Beatty, W., Authentic Narrative of Death of Lord Nelson (1807)

  Berckman, E., Nelson's Dear Lord (1962)

  Beresford, Captain Lord Charles and Wilson, W. H., Nelson and his Times (1897)

  Berry, Sir E., Authentic Narrative of Proceedings of H.M. Squadron under Command of Sir H. Nelson (1798)

  Brenton, E., Naval History of Great Britain (1823)

  Life and Correspondence of Earl St Vincent (1838)

  Broadley, A. M. and Bartelot, R. G., Three Dorset Captains at Trafalgar (1906)

  Nelson's Hardy: his Life, Letters and Friends (1909)

  Bryant, Sir A., Years of Endurance (1942)

  Years of Victory (1944)

  Bundesen, R. C., Mindeskrift om Slaget paa Redan Kebenhaven (Copenhagen, Igor)

  Callender, Sir G., Story of H.M.S. Victory (1929)

  Chevalier, E., Histoire de la Marine Franfaise sous le Consulat et l'Empire (Paris, 1886)

  Clarke, J. and McArthur, J., Life and Services of Horatio, Viscount Nelson (1809)

  Clowes, Sir W. L. and others, The Royal Navy, a History (V ols III, IV and V) (1898-1900)

  Collingwood, G. N., Correspondence and Memoirs of Vice-Admiral Lord Collingwood (1829)

  Corbett, Sir J. S., Campaign of Trafalgar (Iwo)

  Creswell, Captain J., Some Principles of Maritime Strategy (1910

  Naval Warfare (2nd ed. 1942)

  Dancer, T., Brief History of the Late Expedition against Fort St Juan (1792)

  Desbrieres, E. (Ed. Eastwick, C. L.), Trafalgar Campaign (1933)

  Drinkwater-Bethune, Colonel K., Narrative of Action off Cape St Vincent

  with Anecdotes of Nelson (1797 and 1840)

  Douglas, Sir H., Naval Gunnery (1821 and 1860)

  Duro, C. F., Armada Espanola, Vol. VIII (Madrid, 1902)

  Edinger, G. and Neep, C. J., Horatio Nelson (1930)

  Farrere, C., Histoire de la Marine (Paris)

  Fothergill, B., Sir William Hamilton (1969)

  Fraser, E., The Enemy at Trafalgar (1906)

  Fremantle, A. (Ed.), Wynne Diaries, 1789-182o (in 3 vols. 1935, 1937 and 1940. Also a single volume selection with additional material, 1952)

  Gerin, W., Horatia Nelson (1970)

  Government, H.M., Report of Admiralty Commission to Inquire into Tactics of Trafalgar, Cd. 7120 (1913)

  Graviere, J. de la, Guerres Maritimes de la France sous la Republique et l'Empire (Paris, 1883)

  Grenfell, Captain R., Horatio Nelson (1962)

  Guerin, L., Marius Illustres de la France (Paris)

  Hardman, W., French Occupation of Malta and Early British Rule (1909)

  Hardwick, M., Emma, Lady Hamilton (1969)

  Harrison, J., Life of Viscount Nelson (1806)

  Letters of Lord Nelson to Lady Hamilton (1814)

  Howarth, D., Trafalgar, The Nelson Touch (1969)

  James, W., Naval History of Great Britain 1793-1820 (1837)

  James, Admiral Sir W. M., The Durable Monument, Horatio Nelson (1948)

  Old Oak, the Life of John Jervis, Earl St Vincent (1950)

  Jeaffreson, J. C., Lady Hamilton and Lord Nelson (1888)

  Queen of Naples and Lord Nelson (1889)

  Jonquiere, C. de la, L'Expedition d'Egypt (Paris, 1899-1907)

  Joubert, Admiral, La Marine Franfaise (Paris, 1946)

  Kennedy, L., Nelson's Band of Brothers (1967)

  Kerr, Captain M., Sailor's Nelson (1932)

  Laughton, Sir J. K., Nelson Memorial (1896)

  Lecene, P., Les Marius de la Republique et de l'Empire, 1793-1815 (Paris, 1884)

  Lewis, M., Navy of Britain (1948)

  Social History of Royal Navy, 1793-1813 (196o)

  Lloyd, C., St Vincent and Camperdown (1963)

  The British Seaman (1969)

  Longridge, N., Anatomy of Nelson's Ships (1955)

  Mackenzie, Colonel R. H., Trafalgar Roll (1913)

  Mackesy, P., War in the Mediterranean, 1803-1810 (1957)

  Mahan, Captain A. T., Influence of Sea Power upon History (189o)

  Influence of Sea Power upon French Revolution and Empire (1892)

  Life of Nelson (1897)

  Marcus, G. J., Naval History of England, Vol. II: Age of Nelson (1971)

  Marshall-Cornwall, J., Napoleon as Military Commander (1968)

  Masefield, J., Sea Life in Nelson's Time (19o5)

  Matcham, M. E., Nelsons of Burnham Thorpe (pp I)

&
nbsp; Miles, J. M., Vindication of Lord Nelson's Proceedings in Bay of Naples (1843)

  Minto, Nina Countess of (Ed.), Lift and Letters of Sir Gilbert Elliot, first Earl of Minto (1874)

  Mordal, J., Vingt-Cinq Siecles de Guerre sur Mer (Paris, translated and published in London as Twenty-five centuries of Sea Warfare)

  Mordvinov, R. N. (Ed.), Letters and Papers of Admiral Ushakov (in Russian), Vols. I-III (Moscow 1951,1952 and 1956)

  Morrison, A., Hamilton and Nelson Papers (1893-94)

  Murray, G., Lift of Lord Collingwood (1936)

  Navy Records Society

  Vol. XVI, Logs of Great Sea Fights, Vol. I

  Vol. XVIII, Ditto, Vol. II

  Vol. XX, Naval Miscellany, Vol. I

  Vol. XL, Ditto, Vol. II

  Vol. LXVIII, Ditto, Vol. III

  Vol. XCII, Ditto, Vol. IV

  Vol. XXIV, Journals and Letters of Admiral-of-the-Fleet, Sir Thomas

  Byam Martin, Vol. I

  Vol. XXV, Nelson and the Neapolitan Jacobins

  Vol. XXIX, Fighting Instructions

  Vol. XXXV, Signals and Instructions

  Navy Records Society (contd)

  Vol. XXXIX, Letters and Papers of Charles, Lord Barham, Vol. III

  Vol. XLVI, Private Papers of George, second Earl Spencer, Vol. I

  Vol. XLVIII, Ditto, Vol. II

  Vol. LVIII, Ditto, Vol. III

  Vol. LIX, Ditto, Vol. IV

  Vol. LV, Letters of Lord St Vincent, Vol. I

  Vol. LXI, Ditto, Vol. II

  Vol. LXXIV, Tomlinson Papers

  Vol. XC, Letters and Papers of Admiral Viscount Keith, Vol. II

  Vol. XCVI, Ditto, Vol. III

  Vol. XCI, Five Naval Journals

  Vol. XCIII, Sir William Dillon's Narrative of Professional Adventures,

  Vol. I

  Vol. XCVII, Ditto, Vol. II

  Vol. XCVIII, Private Correspondence of Admiral Lord Collingwood