The Boys' Nelson

“On the 22nd, in the morning,” he states in a despatch to the Admiralty, “a strong southerly wind blew, with squally weather, which, however, did not prevent the activity of the officers and seamen of such ships as were manageable from getting hold of many of the prizes (thirteen or fourteen), and towing them off to the westward, where I ordered them to rendezvous round the Royal Sovereign, in tow by the Neptune. But on the 23rd the gale increased, and the sea ran so high that many of them broke the tow-rope, and drifted far to leeward before they were got hold of again; and some of them, taking advantage of the dark and boisterous night, got before the wind, and have perhaps drifted upon the shore and sunk. On the afternoon of that day, the remnant of the combined fleet, ten sail of ships,74 which had not been much engaged, stood up to leeward of my shattered and straggling charge, as if meaning to attack them, which obliged me to collect a force out of the least injured ships, and form to leeward for their defence. All this retarded the progress of the hulks; and the bad weather continuing, determined me to destroy all the leewardmost that could be cleared of the men, considering that keeping possession of the ships was a matter of little consequence, compared with the chance of their falling again into the hands of the enemy; but even this was an arduous task in the high sea which was running. I hope, however, it has been accomplished to a considerable extent. I intrusted it to skilful officers, who would spare no pains to execute what was possible. The Captains of the Prince and Neptune cleared the Trinidad, and sunk her. Captains Hope, Bayntun, and Malcolm, who joined the fleet this morning, from Gibraltar, had the charge of destroying four others. The Redoutable sunk astern of the Swiftsure, while in tow. The Santa Ana I have no doubt is sunk, as her side is almost entirely beat in; and such is the shattered condition of the whole of them, that, unless the weather moderates, I doubt whether I shall be able to carry a ship of them into port....”

In a later letter Collingwood says, “There never was such a combat since England had a fleet.” Three of the prizes, the Santa Ana, the Neptuno, and the Algéçiras escaped in the gale and entered Cadiz harbour, the former two having been retaken by Cosmao Kerjulien, who lost three ships over the transaction. The Swiftsure (French), the San Ildefonso, the San Juan Nepomuceno, and the Bahama were the only Trafalgar prizes saved; these were taken to Gibraltar.

Villeneuve was sent to England and afterwards exchanged, Alava was fortunate enough to reach Cadiz on board the shattered Santa Ana. Although severely wounded, he recovered and lived for many years. Cisneros, after a gallant resistance, also escaped, and was promoted Vice-Admiral in return for his distinguished services, later taking up the important positions of Captain-General and Minister of Marine. Magon, who fought his flagship the Algéçiras until he was struck dead after receiving several wounds, is one of the most glorious names in the naval annals of France. Three officers in turn were dangerously wounded before the tattered flag of the battered hulk was finally lowered. Of the other admirals, Cosmao retook the Santa Ana and the Neptuno, already noted, Dumanoir was court-martialed, and Gravina succumbed to his wounds as these words formed themselves on his almost nerveless lips: “I am a dying man, but I die happy; I am going, I hope and trust, to join Nelson, the greatest hero that the world perhaps has produced.”75 Escano was injured in the leg, but reached Spain safely. Napoleon’s officers paid dearly for the fight in Trafalgar Bay, but Villeneuve was the scapegoat of Napoleon’s ambition. On his return to France he took his own life.

Collingwood gave the number of prisoners as 20,000, and the monetary loss of the enemy nearly £4,000,000, “most of it gone to the bottom.” The British loss was 1690 killed and wounded; that of the allies 5860, although no exact figures are obtainable. The captives were taken to England, and the officers allowed on parole, but the seamen and soldiers of the extinguished Allied Fleet were sent to the prisons of Porchester, Forton, Weedon, Norman Cross, Mill Bay, and Stapleton, locked up in local gaols, or interned in hulks. By a cruel fate the Bahama and the Swiftsure were added to the number of the latter. Few exchanges were made, and so the poor fellows either died in exile or remained until the downfall of Napoleon secured them liberty.

Thus ended the battle of Trafalgar—Napoleon’s maritime Waterloo. The idea of a great military commander conducting operations at sea was proved to be impracticable, while the superior qualities of British seamanship were once more evident. The method of warfare practised by the combined fleet, that of aiming at the rigging and picking off combatants by sharp-shooting, was less successful than our own principle of aiming at the vital parts of the hull. Whereas the British succeeded in firing a gun nearly once a minute, it took three minutes for the Allied Fleet to do so. The total armament on the English vessels numbered 2148 guns, while the French had 1356, and the Spanish 1270, bringing the combined force to 2626.

Great Britain gained enormously in prestige as a result of Nelson’s overwhelming victory. Amongst other important consequences Trafalgar led Napoleon to enforce his disastrous Continental System, by means of which he hoped to exclude from the Continent the goods of his persistent enemy. This, in its turn, brought on the war with Russia, a big step towards the final catastrophe of Waterloo.

More than two weeks passed before the people of England received certain intelligence of the great rout of the enemy in Trafalgar Bay. On the 6th November 1805, guns at the Tower and elsewhere announced the victory, and the glad tidings flashed through the length and breadth of the land—

The heart of England throbbed from sea to sea.

But, alas! the idol of the nation lay dead in the keeping of his comrades and sorrowing England could never again greet in life the son who had loved her so well.

Nelson had touched the imagination of high and low, and only the sad circumstance of an early death in the moment of glorious victory was wanted to ensure him the proudest place in all the long annals of British naval history.

Mr William Canton has written an exquisite poem76 which well expresses the mingled feelings of elation and grief with which the nation received the great news. He imagines a “glittering autumn morning” in Chester, the Cathedral bells clashing a jubilant peal for the victory. But while yet the air is filled with the glad tongues of the joy-bells—

Hark, in pauses of the revel—sole and slow—Old St Werburgh swung a heavy note of woe!Hark, between the jocund peals a single toll,Stern and muffled, marked the passing of a soul!English hearts were sad that day as sad could be;English eyes so filled with tears they scarce could see;And all the joy was dashed with grief in ancient Chester on the Dee!

After Nelson’s remains had been embalmed at Gibraltar they were conveyed in the Victory to Portsmouth, which was reached on the 2nd December 1805. In the early days of the New Year there was a lying-in-state in the beautiful Painted Hall of Greenwich Hospital, but comparatively few of the many thousands of people who wished to pay a last tribute of respect to the Admiral’s memory were able to do so. The coffin, made out of the mainmast of the famous l’Orient which blew up at the Nile, enclosed in an outer case, was then removed to the Admiralty, where it remained until the 9th January 1806, the day of the public funeral. The Prince of Wales, Dukes of the realm, prelates, statesmen, admirals, aristocrats and plebeians crowded into St Paul’s Cathedral, a fitting shrine for the dust of the greatest sailor of the country—

Whose flag has braved a thousand yearsThe battle and the breeze.

An Earldom was conferred upon the Rev. William Nelson, a large sum of money was voted by Parliament for the purchase of an estate to be named after Trafalgar, and certain monies were given to the dead Admiral’s two sisters. By such means the country sought to discharge its heavy debt to the glorious memory of Nelson. Nothing was done for Lady Hamilton, and although, at the time of Nelson’s death, her income amounted to about £2000 a year she died in very reduced circumstances at Calais in the year of Waterloo. Her daughter, and in all probability Nelson’s, was married on the 24th February 1822 at Burnham, Norfolk, to the Rev. Phillip Ward, M.A. She is described as both witty and fascinating, and her portrait by Sir William Charles Ross makes one believe that she was so.

More than a century has passed since the great battle was fought “in Trafalgar’s Bay,” but the memory of the little, one-eyed, one-armed man is still treasured by those who believe, as he believed, that the strength of Great Britain rests upon her command of the sea.

For he is England’s admiral,Till setting of her sun.

1

 Robert Browning.

2

 The Report is given in full in Laughton’s edition of “Nelson’s Letters and Despatches,” pp. 409–11. The editor discovered it in the Record Office, Admiral’s Despatches, Mediterranean, xxxi. 272.

3

 See lines on page opposite.

4

 A Chippendale arm-chair, which was given to Nelson by his great grandfather, was presented by the boy to Mrs Luckins, his nurse, when he left home to join the Navy. It appeared in an auction room so recently as 1908.

5

 In other words, tow the vessels.

6

 Ships of war sent to accompany merchantmen during hostilities so as to protect them from the enemy.

7

 A private vessel commissioned to attack and capture the vessels of an enemy.

8

 See post, Chapter xix.

9

 Nelson’s successor and friend.

10

 Sir Richard Bickerton (1727–92) sailed from England with a convoy on the 6th February 1782. He took part in an indecisive engagement with Suffrein, off Pondicherry, on the 20th June 1783. Not more than two-thirds of the British crews were effective owing to scurvy.

11

 In his Autobiography Nelson gives the number as three.

12

 More detailed particulars of this thrilling siege will be found in the author’s companion volume, “The Story of Napoleon,” pp. 60–64.

13

 See ante, page 43.

14

 Captain Benjamin Hallowell (1760–1834). He afterwards assumed the name of Carew, and became a Vice-Admiral in 1819.

15

 “The Royal Navy,” by Wm. Laird Clowes, vol. iv., p. 153, vol. v., pp. 9–10.

16

 “The Navy League Annual, 1910–11,” p. 226.

17

 Parsons gives Nelson the title which he had not then won. See post, p. 85.

18

 “Larboard” has now been superseded by “port,” i.e. the left.

19

 See post p. 224.

20

 See ante, p. 90.

21

 The Earl of St Vincent appointed him a Master and Commander.

22

 Captain Richard Bowen, of H.M.S. Terpsichore, who was killed at Santa Cruz.

23

 This is in marked contrast to the generous words he wrote to the Earl of St Vincent on the 24th July.—See ante, p. 90.

24

 To bring the vessel round with her stern to the wind.

25

 i.e. the Toulon fleet.

26

 His “Authentic Narrative” of the battle was published in 1798, and is a plain, straightforward account of Nelson’s first great naval action without a superior in command. We shall have occasion to quote it freely in this chapter. Berry was Nelson’s captain.

27

 See “Deeds that Won the Empire,” p. 100.

28

 Ibid. p. 103.

29

 See Comment, ii. 341–2, also Mahan’s “Sea Power,” i. 269.

30

 Among those who perished were Commodore Casabianca and his young son, whose bravery is immortalised in the well-known poem by Mrs Hemans.

31

 Battle of the Nile.

32

 Miss Knight is referring to the Earl of St Vincent’s flagship, and not to a vessel named after him.

33

 See ante, pp. 72–3.

34

 He had held the position since 1765.

35

 In 1804.

36

 Maria Theresa (1717–1780), Archduchess of Austria, Queen of Hungary and Bohemia, and Empress of Germany. She crossed swords with Frederick the Great on more than one occasion, and participated in the partition of Poland, 1772.

37

 Parthenopeia was the ancient name of Naples.

38

 Prime Minister of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies.

39

 After the fall of the Bastille on the 14th July 1789, many of the French nobility left the country. In 1790, hereditary nobility was abolished by the National Assembly. Émigrés who had not returned to France by the 1st January 1792 were declared traitors.

40

 See post, pp. 131–8.

41

 See post, Chapters xiv. and xv.

42

 This additional corroborative evidence has not been noticed by many of Nelson’s recent biographers.

43

 The squadron in Naples Bay was placed under Troubridge.

44

 Pius VI.

45

 See ante, p. 24.

46

 The arrival of La Marguerite on the 14th June, with provisions for the French garrison. Keith’s letters are printed as he wrote them.

47

 Vol. i., pp. 212–7. Dated Palermo, May 13, 1800.

48

 Compare this statement with that of Paget, given on p. 154.

49

 Lady Hamilton’s mother.

50

 Miss Knight and Mrs Cadogan sailed on one of the frigates, commanded by Captain Messer, an Englishman.

51

 She was the daughter of a domestic servant, and at the age of thirteen became a children’s nurse.

52

 Afterwards increased to eighteen.

53

 Subsequently Lord Bexley.

54

 Parker’s flag-ship.

55

 This incident is bereft of much of its romance by the knowledge that Sir Hyde Parker sent a verbal message to the effect that the question of discontinuing the action was left to the discretion of Nelson.

56

 To the Government of Denmark. Elephant, 2nd April, 1801: Lord Nelson’s object in sending on shore a Flag of Truce is humanity: he, therefore, consents that hostilities shall cease till Lord Nelson can take his prisoners out of the Prizes, and he consents to land all the wounded Danes, and to burn or remove his Prizes. Lord Nelson, with humble duty to His Royal Highness, begs leave to say, that he will ever esteem it the greatest victory he ever gained, if this Flag of Truce may be the happy forerunner of a lasting and happy union between my most gracious Sovereign and his Majesty the King of Denmark.

57

 To the Brothers of Englishmen, the Danes. Lord Nelson has directions to spare Denmark, when no longer resisting; but if the firing is continued on the part of Denmark, Lord Nelson will be obliged to set on fire all the Floating-batteries he has taken, without having the power of saving the brave Danes who have defended them. Dated on board his Britannic Majesty’s ship Elephant, Copenhagen Roads, April 2nd, 1801.

58

 Nelson afterwards found it necessary to address the Rt. Hon. Henry Addington, then Prime Minister, on the subject. In a letter written on the 8th May 1801, he refers to those who thought the sending of a flag of truce a ruse de guerre, to others who “attributed it to a desire to have no more fighting, and few, very few, to the cause that I felt, and which I trust in God I shall retain to the last moment, humanity.”

59

 The letter will be found in full in footnote 1, p. 175.

60

 See “Napoleon and the Invasion of England,” by H. F. B. Wheeler and A. M. Broadley, especially vol. i. pp. 159–194.

61

 A volunteer corps enrolled for the purpose of defending the coast.

62

 See “Annual Register,” for 1801, p. 269.

63

 The Aigle had taken refuge in Cadiz harbour.

64

 The despatch is quoted in French by Professor Sir W. Knox Laughton in his edition of Sir N. Harris Nicolas’s great work (pp. 354–5).

65

 See Mahan’s “Nelson,” p. 661, and Laughton, p. 202.

66

 These were crippled ships detached by Villeneuve.

67

 Mahan accepts this, but Laughton discredits it.

68

 The total British broadside was 1000 lbs. less.

69

 Not by telegraph as we understand it, but by semaphore.

70

 De la Gravière, p. 252.

71

 Blackwood is, of course, generalising.

72

 “Seadrift,” p. 253.

73

 “The Three Dorset Captains at Trafalgar.” By A. M. Broadley and R. G. Bartelot, M.A., p. 286.

74

 Eleven ships in all escaped into Cadiz.

75

 “Diary of the first Earl of Malmesbury,” vol. iv., p. 354.

76

 Trafalgar in “W. V. Her Book and Various Verses.”