Nelson

by John Sugden

  41. Nelson to Jervis, 3/8/1796, D&L, 2, p. 226; Nelson to Fanny, 23/8/1796, Monmouth MSS, E902; Jervis to Nelson, 15, 25/8/1796, Add. MSS 34938; Jervis to Elliot, 15/8/1796, Add. MSS 31166; Jervis to Graham, 17/8/1796, Add. MSS 31166.

  42. Madame Caffarena to Nelson, 20, 21 22/8/1796, 5/10/1796, NMM: CRK/3; Madame Caffarena to Nelson, 14/8/1796, NMM: ELL/138; Joseph Caffarena to Nelson, 15/8/1796, and Daniels to Elliot, 16/9/1796, NMM: ELL/124; Elliot to Windham, 24/6/1796, NMM: ELL/159; Jervis to Nepean, 27/8/1796, Add. MSS 31171; Jervis to Bute, 30/8/1796, Add. MSS 31166; Jervis to Nelson, 25 and 28/8/1796, NMM: CRK/11; Garlies to Elliot, 1/9/1796, NMM: ELL/137; Nelson to Spencer, 20/8/1796, Add. MSS 75795. Details of the blockade of Leghorn are preserved in the log books of La Minerve (NMM: ADM/L/M292), Lively (ADM 51/1186 and ADM 52/2926), Sardine (ADM 51/1181) and Blanche (ADM 51/1140).

  43. Caffarena to Nelson, 30/8/1796, 4/9/1796, Add. MSS 34904; Nelson to Genoa, 22/6/1796, NMM: CRK/14; Elliot to Nelson, 17/7/1796, NMM: ELL/159; Add. MSS 34904: 164, 223, 224, 335, 359; Harriman to Nelson, 3/9/1796, NMM: CRK/6; Drake to Nelson, 16/8/1796, NMM: CRK/4; Drake to Grenville, 10/8/1796, FO 28/15.

  44. Heatly to Elliot, 20/9/1796, NMM: ELL/137; Drake’s letters to Nelson and Brame, 19/9/1796, NMM: CRK/4; documents filed in FO 28/15.

  45. Brame to Jervis, 9/9/1796, with enclosures, ADM 1/395; Brame to Drake, 9/9/1796, with enclosures, FO 28/16; Nelson’s notes to Genoa, and the record of his interview with the doge, SRRC, 112/16/33: 858, 863, 999.

  46. NMM: ADM/L/C51; log of L’Eclair (ADM 51/1173).

  47. For Genoese responses see Castiglione to Brame, 11, 12 September 1796, enclosed in Brame to Drake, 13/9/1796, FO 28/16; statement of 17/9/1796, enclosed in FO 28/16, no. 72; complaint of Spinola, 7/10/1796, FO 28/16; FO 67/23: 32; and Castiglione’s answers, 15/10/1796, FO 67/23: 98. The merchant’s account can be found in Jackson to Grenville, 14/9/1796, FO 67/22: 216. Many sources for the Genoa affair are duplicated in different files. Scholars should begin with FO 28/16, which contains Nelson to Brame, 11/9/1796, his ‘statement of facts’, Compton’s account, and Brame to Drake, 13/9/1796 (all enclosed in Drake to Grenville, 20/9/1796); Drake to Grenville, 5, 8/10/1796, with their enclosures; and Drake to Jervis, 21/9/1796. In FO 20/12 several documents, including the depositions of Berry and Noble, 11/9/1796, Nelson to Drake, 12/9/1796 and Elliot to Jervis, 20/9/1796, are enclosed in Elliot to Portland, 20/11/1796. Jackson sent some of these and other documents home from Turin: see Brame to Castiglione, 12/9/1796, FO 67/22; Brame to Jackson, 13/9/1796, FO 67/22; and Jackson to Grenville, 14, 17, 24/9/1796, FO 67/22. In addition to these, I have used Brame’s letters to Nelson, Jackson and Drake in his letter book (SRRC, 112/16/31); several papers in SRRC, 112/16/33, and NMM: ELL/138; ADM 1/395: nos 155–6; Countess of Minto, Sir Gilbert Elliot, 2, p. 352; Add. MSS 34904: 382 (letters of Brame and Bird); Add. MSS 34941: 157 following (letters to Nelson); and James Stanier Clarke and John McArthur, Life and Services, 1, pp. 460–8.

  48. Elliot to Nelson, 17/7/1796, NMM: CRK/5.

  49. Nelson to Brame, 24/3/1796, and Castiglione to Brame, 14/8/1796, SRRC, 112/16/33: 503, 815; Brame to Nelson, 25/3/1796 and Nelson’s note of 28/4/1796, SRRC, 112/16/31.

  50. For the French complaints about the Genoese battery see letters between Sucy and Bediani, 12/9/1796, Annual Register, 1796, pt ii, pp. 199, 200. The amount of ammunition expended by the Captain is given in the list of gunner’s stores, 1796–7, Houghton Library, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts.

  51. Nelson to Brame, 11/9/1796, SRRC, 112/16/33: 873, and other documents in the same collection.

  52. Brame to Jervis, 16/9/1796, SRRC, 112/16/31.

  53. Elliot to Jervis, 20/9/1796, FO 20/12; Jervis to Nelson, 17, 20/9/1796, Add. MSS 31166; Jervis to Brame, 25/9/1796, Add. MSS 31166; and Jervis to Nepean, 28/3/1797, ADM 1/396.

  54. Drake’s letters to Genoa (September 1796), Brame (30/8/1796, 4/9/1796) and Jervis (30/8/1796), SRRC, 112/16/33: 899, 844, 851A, 845.

  55. Vouchers for provisions received by Nelson in Genoa, 5 to 11/9/1796, are filed in SRRC, 112/16/33: 853–5, 860.

  56. Elliot to Nelson, 15/9/1796, ADM 1/395; Elliot to Nelson, 3/10/1796, Add. MSS 34904.

  57. Nelson to Jervis, 14 to 15/9/1796, Monmouth MSS, E987.

  58. Elliot to Jervis, 21/9/1796, NMM: ELL/159; Logan to Elliot, 20/9/1796, NMM: ELL/124. The capture of Capraia can be studied in Nelson to Jervis, 19/9/1796, Elliot to Nelson, 15/9/1796, and other enclosures in ADM 1/395, no. 156; Nelson to Elliot, 19/9/1796 and Nelson to De Burgh, 25/9/1796, Monmouth MSS, E988; Logan to Elliot, 19, 20, 22/9/1796, 6/10/1796, NMM: ELL/124; return of the Genoese garrison, NMM: ELL/124; Add. MSS 34904: 390; FO 20/12: no. 121 and enclosures; Elliot to Logan, 15/9/1796, and other letters in NMM: ELL/159; documents in NMM: JER/2b; logs of the Captain (ADM 52/2825) and La Minerve (NMM: ADM/L/M292); and Clarke and McArthur, Life and Services, 1, pp. 468–72.

  59. Logan to Elliot, 22/9/1796, NMM: ELL/124.

  60. Summons, 18/9/1796, and Nelson and Logan to Aynolo, 18/9/1796, NMM: ELL/124.

  61. Nelson to Towry, Preston, Garlies and Tyrrell, September 1796, Add. MSS 34904; Nelson to Udny, 24/9/1796, NMM: ELL/132; Nelson to Bolton, 1796, Monmouth MSS, E988.

  62. Letters from Genoa, 30/9/1796, 8/10/1796, FO 67/23: 32, 37; Genoese protest, 4/10/1796, SRRC, 112/16/33: 915.

  63. Nelson, 1/9/1796, Monmouth MSS, E987; Nelson to Jervis, 30/9/1796, NMM: JER/2b; Jervis to Nelson, 25/9/1796, Add. MSS 31166.

  64. For Nelson’s officers and the switch to Diadem see Jervis to Elliot, 12/9/1796, NMM: ELL/141; Add. MSS 31175: 213; Jervis to Nelson, 8/10/1796, NMM: CRK/11; and Diadem muster, ADM 36/11823. The lieutenants on the Diadem were John Leckie, H. E. R. Baker, William Bennett, William B. Ryder and Joshua Rowe.

  65. Drake to Grenville, 1/10/1796, FO 28/16; Nelson, 1, 3/10/1796, NMM: CRK/14; Elliot’s instructions, 3/10/1796, Add. MSS 34904: 403; papers in SRRC, 112/16/33: 905, 912, 919; and several letters of Jervis to Elliot and Brame, 18 September to 7 October, in NMM: ELL/141 and Add. MSS 31166: 97, 100.

  66. Documents enclosed in Drake to Grenville, 19, 26/10/1796, FO 28/16, including Nelson to Genoese government, 9/10/1796, and in NMM: JER/2b and CRK/14; Trevor to Grenville, 12, 15/10/1796, FO 67/23; Nelson to Brame, 8, 9/10/1796, FO 67/23; Diadem logs in ADM 51/1167 and NMM: ADM/L/D93.

  67. Letters of Logan and Brame, 15/10/1796, FO 28/16 enclosed in no. 91; Trevor to Grenville, 21/10/1796, FO 67/23; Castiglione’s response, 15/10/1796, FO 67/23: 98.

  68. Grenville to Admiralty, 2/2/1796, D&L, 2, p. 311; Grenville to Drake, 18/10/1796, FO 28/16; Nelson to Brame, 4/11/1796, SRRC, 112/16/33: 959.

  69. Jervis to Elliot, 13/10/1796 (two letters), NMM: ELL/141.

  70. Minutes of Committee of Thirty, 12, 13/10/1796, FO 67/23: 114.

  71. Elliot to Portland, 19, 26/10/1796, FO 20/12; Elliot to his wife, 24/10/1796, NLS, 11050: 125. Elliot told Portland that Jervis had ‘misapprehended several points relative to the affairs of Bastia’, but it was the naval officers, from whom Jervis obtained his information, not Elliot, who supervised the evacuation.

  72. Nelson to Fanny, 7/11/1796, Monmouth MSS, E909; De Burgh to Elliot, 13/10/1796, NMM: ELL/148.

  73. Jervis to Elliot, 15/10/1796, NMM: ELL/141.

  74. Nelson to Clarence, 11/11/1796, Add. MSS 34902.

  75. Nelson to Jervis, 15/10/1796, NMM: JER/2b; Jervis to Nelson, 16/10/1796, Add. MSS 31159; logs of the Captain, Diadem, Excellent, Southampton and Egmont, respectively filed in ADM 52/2825 and ADM 51/1167, 1169, 1189 and 1223. For lieutenants’ logs of the Diadem see n. 66 above. Nelson’s brief official report of the evacuation of Bastia, addressed to Jervis and dated 21 October, is filed in ADM 1/395. Additional details come from Hoste to his father, 26/11/1796, NMM: MRF/88/1.

  76. ‘Nelson at Bastia, by an old Agamemnon’, p. 217. I have reservations about using this source, which contains vivid and exaggerated vignettes of the last days in Corsica. The anonymous author (‘M.C.’) may have been Mark Cooper from Norfolk, an ordinary se
aman of twenty-six in 1796. Cooper was illiterate but could have dictated the material. Most of the few seamen named by M.C. could not be identified from the musters of the Captain and Diadem, though reference is made to John (Jack) Thompson, who is represented as having used his fists to drive local looters from the house of a Corsican woman (pp. 216–17). Thompson, a quartermaster’s mate from Preston in Lancashire, was then in his mid-twenties and one of Nelson’s most devoted followers.

  77. For Casalta’s march see Saliceti to the French Directory, 11/11/1796, in Maurice Jollivet, Anglais dans La Mediterranée, p. 282.

  78. Elliot to his wife, 24/10/1796, NLS, 11050: 125; note of instructions by De Burgh in NMM: ELL/148.

  79. Elliot to Portland, 26/10/1796, FO 20/12; Jervis to Nepean, 6/11/1796, Add. MSS 31171. Saliceti incorrectly reported that the British left fifty soldiers behind.

  80. Nelson to Hamilton, 18, 19/10/1796, Morrison, Hamilton and Nelson Papers, 1, p. 225. See also Add. MSS 31159: 142 (two letters of Jervis to Coffin); Add. MSS 31166: 108–9; Add. MSS 34904: 441; Add. MSS 34938: 153; ADM 1/395: 174. After the disembarkations Porto Ferraio had detachments of the 18th, 50th and 51th British regiments; two battalions of Dillon’s regiment; a Swiss regiment; and a corps of French and Maltese gunners (Edward P. Brenton, John, Earl of St Vincent, 1, p. 289).

  81. The unsuccessful attempt to reoccupy Capraia emerges from Nelson to Collingwood, and Collingwood to Macnamara, both 20/10/1796, NMM: COL/2; Excellent log, NMM: ADM/L/E159; and the unsigned account of 29/10/1796, and Nelson to Brame, 26/10/1796, SRRC, 112/16/33: 957, 959.

  82. Jervis to Nepean, 29/10/1796, Add. MSS 31171; Jervis to Cockburn, 21/10/1796, Add. MSS 31159. Though disappointed in Man, Nelson still regarded him as ‘my old friend and worthy’ (Nelson to Clarence, 23/11/1796, NMM: AGC/27).

  83. Nelson to Fanny, 13/10/1796, Monmouth MSS, E906.

  84. Nelson to Locker, 5/11/1796, D&L, 2, p. 298; Nelson to Jervis, 30/9/1796, NMM: JER/2b (two letters); Drake to Nelson, 29/10/1796, Add. MSS 34904; Nelson to Hamilton, 1/12/1796, Morrison, Hamilton and Nelson Papers, 1, p. 226.

  85. Nelson to Brame, 26/10/1796, SRRC, 112/16/33: 959.

  86. Nelson lost two lieutenants with the captured prize crew, and on 12 January 1797 promoted Charles Gill to fill one of the vacancies on La Minerve: Nelson to Gill, 12/1/1797, Houghton Library, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts.

  87. Nelson to Elliot, 24/12/1796, D&L, 2, p. 318; Fremantle, Wynne Diaries (1935–40), 2, pp. 144–6, 164; Nelson to Hamilton, 27/12/1796, Morrison, Hamilton and Nelson Papers, 1, p. 226.

  88. Jervis to Elliot, 11/11/1796, Add. MSS 31166; Jervis to De Burgh, 10/12/1796, Add. MSS 31166; Jervis to O’Hara, 13/2/1797, Add. MSS 31159; Nelson to Spencer, 16/1/1797, Add. 75808.

  89. De Burgh to Nelson, 28/12/1796, NMM: JER/2b (two letters); Elliot to Nelson, 1/1/1797, Add. MSS 34905; De Burgh’s letters to Nelson and Jervis, 23/1/1797, ADM 1/396, enclosed in no. 19; De Burgh to Portland, 13, 24/1/1797, and Elliot’s letters to Portland, especially 24/1/1797, all in FO/12; De Burgh to Windham, 3/1/1797, FO 79/15; De Burgh to Elliot, January 1797 (two letters), NMM: ELL/148.

  90. Jervis to O’Hara, 13/2/1797, Add. MSS 31159; Fremantle to William Fremantle, 10/12/1796, CBS, D-FR/45/2.

  91. De Burgh to Nelson, undated, Add. MSS 34905: 108; Fremantle to William Fremantle, 10/12/1796, 21/3/1797, CBS, D-FR/45/2.

  92. These cases involved John Clark and Richard Parke (June 1796), Alexander Ross (August), Hugh Griffiths and John Gourly (October), and John Seymour, James Wilson, Thomas Upton and Edward Tyrrell (December). See ADM 1/5336–37, and Jervis to Nelson, 18/6/1796, 6/8/1796, Add. MSS 31175.

  93. Jervis to Nelson, 10/9/1796, Add. MSS 31176.

  94. Court martial records, ADM 1/5337–38 and Add. MSS 34905; Jervis to Nelson, 14/12/1796, Add. MSS 31159; petition of Robert Major, 10/1/1797, Western MSS 3676, Wellcome Library, London. A useful discussion of the Dromedary case is Nick Slope, ‘The Trials of Nelson: Nelson’s Camel’.

  95. De Burgh to Hamilton, 29/1/1797, BL: A. M. Broadley, ‘Nelsoniana’, 3, facing p. 340.

  96. Nelson to Jervis, 25/1/1797, ADM 1/396; John Drinkwater-Bethune, Narrative of the Battle, p. 8. Letters relating to the evacuation of Porto Ferraio, with sailing directions for convoys, are contained in Monmouth MSS, E988.

  97. Jervis to Nelson, 13/1/1797, Add. MSS 31159; Jervis to Parker, 14/1/1797, Add. MSS 31159.

  98. Nelson to Pollard, 25/1/1797, William L. Clements Library, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.

  XXIV The Happy Moment (pp. 684–718)

  1. John Drinkwater-Bethune, Narrative of the Battle, p. 13. For this voyage see Drinkwater-Bethune, Narrative of the Battle, pp. 12–15, and the logs of La Minerve, ADM 51/1204, ADM 52/3223 and NMM: ADM/L/M292.

  2. Jervis to Nepean, 9/6/1797, Add. MSS 31171.

  3. The logs of the ships of the fleet supply many of the details in this account, but for the Victory see also Jervis’s journal, Add. MSS 31186: 159–61, and for the Captain the log of Oliver Davis, NMM: WAL/21B.

  4. G. S. Parsons, Nelsonian Reminiscences, pp. 168–9. Jervis’s dispatches of the battle (ADM 1/396: no. 21) are in D&L, 2, pp. 333–6, and many of the British logs were published in T. Sturges-Jackson, ed., Logs, 1, pp. 197–254. Cordoba’s dispatch, and some analogous documents, were given in Julian S. Corbett, ed., Spencer, 1, pp. 340 ff. The historiography of the battle of Cape St Vincent may be traced in John Drinkwater (later Drinkwater-Bethune), Proceedings of the British Fleet, the original unadorned version of this most valuable of contemporary accounts; Charles Ekins, Naval Battles, pp. 239–50; William James, Naval History, 2, pp. 29–53; A. T. Mahan, Life of Nelson, chap. 8; ‘Battle of Cape St Vincent’, Journal of the Royal United Service Institution, which contains the papers of Lt William Bryan Wyke and other documents; A. H. Taylor, ‘Battle of Cape St Vincent’, which considers Spanish evidence; Russell Grenfell, Horatio Nelson, chap. 5; Christopher Lloyd, St Vincent and Camperdown; John Creswell, British Admirals, pp. 214–28; M. A. J. Palmer, ‘Sir John’s Victory’; Brian Tunstall and Nicholas Tracy, Naval Warfare, pp. 216–19; David Davies, Fighting Ships, chap. 5; Colin White, 1797; and Stephen Howarth, ed., Battle of Cape St Vincent. Of these, Palmer and White are particularly instructive.

  5. Colin White, ‘The Midshipman and the Commodore’, argues that the Captain took her place between the Barfleur and Namur, and was fourth from the end of the line, but both Nelson and Miller, among other important witnesses, are clear that their ship was third from the rear. Evidence exists for both positions. Compare, for example, the note in the Spencer papers, Add. MSS 75802, with the contemporary plan of the battle in NMM: MKH/102.

  6. John Wilkie’s account, ‘Battle of Cape St Vincent’, p. 334; Drinkwater, Proceedings of the British Fleet, p. 22; Corbett, Spencer, 1, p. 346.

  7. Reminiscences of John Griffiths, first lieutenant of Culloden, in Jedediah S. Tucker, St Vincent, 1, pp. 256–7.

  8. Drinkwater, Proceedings of the British Fleet, p. 26.

  9. Clear statements of the repulse of the Spanish leeward division can be found in the admiral’s journal, Add. MSS 31186: 160; the narrative of Lieutenant Lewis Stephen Davis, NMM: HIS/35; and Mundy’s journal from the Blenheim, NMM: 85/015.

  10. The story about Jervis on the poop (Tucker, St Vincent, 1, p. 259) may have come from the admiral’s secretary, father of the author.

  11. I do not accept James’s view (2, p. 37) that Nelson wore out of line in response to Jervis’s signal no. forty-one, flown at 12.51. James may have been misled by the log of the Prince George, which erroneously interpreted signal forty-one as an instruction to ‘form the line as was most convenient’ (Sturges-Jackson, Logs, 1, p. 218). The correct meaning – that ships were to ‘take suitable stations and engage as arrive up in succession’ – shows that it supplemented signal eighty, flown immediately before and directed to the Britannia. Together, the signals directed captains in the rear of the fleet to tack to starboard in succession, and then to use discretion in
placing their ships as they came up with the enemy. They did not authorise Nelson to wear his ship out of line to larboard, ‘without waiting our turn’ (Miller to his father, 3/3/1797, in White, 1797, p. 152). White’s 1797 gives a convincing reconstruction of this phase of the battle.

  12. Wilkie’s account, p. 335, records Nelson’s position a little to windward of the British line.

  13. Nelson to Spencer, 28/3/1797, D&L, 7, p. cxxxi. For Nelson’s willingness to modify Jervis’s orders see Jervis to Nelson, 8, 19/8/1796, Add. MSS 31159.

  14. Tunstall and Tracy, Naval Warfare, pp. 213–14.

  15. Nelson’s own statement (‘Remarks Relative to Myself in the Captain’) that he first engaged ‘the headmost, and of course leeward-most’ of the Spaniards, and that these ships ‘from not wishing (I suppose) to have a decisive battle, hauled to the wind . . . which brought the ships afore-mentioned to be the leewardmost and sternmost ships in their fleet’ (Add. MSS 34902: 119) may have fathered the legend of the Captain being thrown across the path of the Spanish van, instead of attacking the ships towards their centre or rear. A contemporary map of uncertain origin in the Samuel Hood papers also has Nelson attacking the enemy van (NMM: MKH/102). This contradicts Drinkwater (Proceedings of the British Fleet, p. 13), who had a perfect view of that quarter and located Nelson’s attack at the sixth ship from the Spanish rear; Miller (NMM: ADM/L/C51), who has the Captain crossing enemy bows to reach the Spanish flagship ninth from the rear; and Cordoba himself. The latter’s flagship, Santissima Trinidad, which Nelson attacked, was a slow sailer, and in bearing up had already fallen to the rear before Nelson engaged (Corbett, Spencer, pp. 343, 345). The subsequent action certainly enveloped the rearmost Spaniards, including Santissima Trinidad (130 guns), San Josef, Salvador del Mundo and Mexicano (all 112 guns), San Nicolas (eighty-four guns), and San Ysidro and Soberano (both seventy-four guns).

  16. Drinkwater-Bethune, Narrative of the Battle, p. 79; Collingwood to his wife, 17/2/1797, G. L. Newnham Collingwood, ed., Correspondence, 1, p. 37; Foote, enclosed in ADM 1/396: no. 25. There is doubt about whether the Captain or the Culloden opened fire first. Nelson said that Culloden ‘immediately’ supported him astern (‘Remarks Relative’ Add. MSS 34902: 119), while Miller thought Troubridge might actually have began firing on the hindmost Spaniards ‘about two minutes before’ (NMM: ADM/L/C51). Other evidence is inconclusive. Saumarez of the Orion described the Captain as ‘the leading ship’ and the Culloden and others ‘the next that came up’ (Saumarez to his brother, 15/2/1797, in Sir John Ross, Saumarez, 1, p. 170). The ‘Journal of the Proceedings of H.M. Fleet on the 14th of February 1797, by an Officer on Board one of the Ships’ (Ekins, Naval Battles, p. 245) adopted the popular course of bracketing the ships together: ‘the Captain took her station in the van, ahead of the Culloden, and both engaged the centre of the enemy . . .’. However, the Prince George has both the Culloden and the Blenheim engaging before the Captain. Her log reports the Culloden firing at one-twenty or one-twenty-five, the Blenheim at about one-thirty and the Captain ‘a few minutes after’ (Prince George log, ADM 51/1197). This, like other comments from the Prince George, seems ill sustained. While the Culloden probably opened fire at about the same time as the Captain, the Blenheim certainly entered the action later. Mundy’s Blenheim journal reports that his ship fell half a mile behind the Culloden after tacking at the head of the British line, and that Troubridge had been ‘closely engaged by five or six of the enemy for fifteen minutes before we arrived up with her’. However, the Captain had come under the Culloden’s lee bow and ‘in some measure assisted her tho’ at random shot’. Mundy’s view of the Captain was probably obscured by the Culloden, which was firing between them, but it establishes that she engaged before the Blenheim. Miller’s log also records that the Culloden and Captain alone deflected the Spaniards from bearing up, ‘the rest of our van being very considerably astern of the Culloden’. See Mundy journal, NMM: 85/015, and Miller log, NMM: ADM/L/C51. On the other hand, Nelson and Miller’s belief that the Captain and Culloden were unsupported for up to an hour was greatly exaggerated.