The Life of Horatio Lord Nelson

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Nelson, who used to say, that in sea affairs nothing is impossible, and
nothing improbable, feared the more that this Frenchman might get
out and elude his vigilance; because he was so especially desirous
of catching him, and administering to him his own lying letter in a
sandwich. M. Latouche, however, escaped him in another way. He died,
according to the French papers, in consequence of walking so often up
to the signal-post upon Sepet, to watch the British fleet. "I always
pronounced that would be his death," said Nelson. "If he had come out
and fought me, it would at least have added ten years to my life." The
patience with which he had watched Toulon, he spoke of, truly, as a
perseverance at sea which had never been surpassed. From May, 1803, to
August, 1805, he himself went out of his ship but three times; each of
those times was upon the king's service, and neither time of absence
exceeded an hour. In 1804 the SWIFT cutter going out with despatches
was taken, and all the despatches and letters fell into the hands of the
enemy. "A very pretty piece of work," says Nelson; "I am not surprised
at the capture, but am very much so that any despatches should be sent
in a vessel with twenty-three men, not equal to cope with any row-boat
privateer. The loss of the HINDOSTAN was great enough; but for
importance it is lost in comparison to the probable knowledge the enemy
will obtain of our connexions with foreign countries. Foreigners for
ever say, and it is true, we dare not trust England: one way or other we
are sure to be committed." In a subsequent letter he says, speaking of
the same capture: "I find, my dearest Emma, that your picture is very
much admired by the French Consul at Barcelona, and that he has not
sent it to be admired, which I am sure it would be, by Buonaparte. They
pretend that there were three pictures taken. I wish I had them; but
they are all gone as irretrievably as the despatches, unless we may read
them in a book, as we printed their correspondence from Egypt. But from
us what can they find out? That I love you most dearly, and hate the
French most damnably. Dr. Scott went to Barcelona to try to get the
private letters, but I fancy they are all gone to Paris. The Swedish and
American Consuls told him that the French Consul had your picture and
read your letters; and the Doctor thinks one of them, probably, read the
letters. By the master's account of the cutter, I would not have trusted
an old pair of shoes in her. He tells me she did not sail, but was a
good sea-boat. I hope Mr. Marsden will not trust any more of my private
letters in such a conveyance: if they choose to trust the affairs of the
public in such a thing, I cannot help it."

While he was on this station, the weather had been so unusually severe
that he said the Mediterranean seemed altered. It was his rule never to
contend with the gales; but either run to the southward to escape their
violence, or furl all the sails, and make the ships as easy as possible.
The men, though he said flesh and blood could hardly stand it, continued
in excellent health, which he ascribed, in great measure, to a plentiful
supply of lemons and onions. For himself, he thought he could only last
till the battle was over. One battle more it was his hope that he might
fight. "However," said he, "whatever happens, I have run a glorious
race." "A few months rest," he says, "I must have very soon. If I am in
my grave, what are the mines of Peru to me? But to say the truth, I have
no idea of killing myself. I may, with care, live yet to do good service
to the state. My cough is very bad, and my side, where I was struck on
the 14th of February, is very much swelled: at times a lump as large
as my fist, brought on occasionally by violent coughing. But I hope and
believe my lungs are yet safe." He was afraid of blindness and this was
the only evil which he could not contemplate without unhappiness. More
alarming symptoms he regarded with less apprehension, describing his own
"shattered carcass" as in the worst plight of any in the fleet; and he
says, "I have felt the blood gushing up the left side of my head; and,
the moment it covers the brain, I am fast asleep." The fleet was in
worse trim than the men; but when he compared it with the enemy's, it
was with a right English feeling. "The French fleet yesterday," said he,
in one of his letters, "was to appearance in high feather, and as fine
as paint could make them; but when they may sail, or where they may
go, I am very sorry to say is a secret I am not acquainted with. Our
weather-beaten ships, I have no fear, will make their sides like
a plum-pudding." "Yesterday," he says, on another occasion, "a
rear-admiral and seven sail of ships put their nose outside the harbour.
If they go on playing this game, some day we shall lay salt on their
tails."

Hostilities at length commenced between Great Britain and Spain. That
country, whose miserable government made her subservient to France, was
once more destined to lavish her resources and her blood in furtherance
of the designs of a perfidious ally. The immediate occasion of the
war was the seizure of four treasure-ships by the English. The act was
perfectly justifiable, for those treasures were intended to furnish
means for France; but the circumstances which attended it were as
unhappy as they were unforeseen. Four frigates had been despatched to
intercept them. They met with an equal force. Resistance, therefore,
became a point of honour on the part of the Spaniards, and one of their
ships soon blew up with all on board. Had a stronger squadron been sent,
this deplorable catastrophe might have been spared: a catastrophe which
excited not more indignation in Spain than it did grief in those who
were its unwilling instruments, in the English government, and in the
English people. On the 5th of October this unhappy affair occurred, and
Nelson was not apprised of it till the twelfth of the ensuing month.
He had, indeed, sufficient mortification at the breaking out of this
Spanish war; an event which, it might reasonably have been supposed,
would amply enrich the officers of the Mediterranean fleet, and repay
them for the severe and unremitting duty on which they had been so long
employed. But of this harvest they were deprived; for Sir John Orde was
sent with a small squadron, and a separate command, to Cadiz. Nelson's
feelings were never wounded so deeply as now. "I had thought," said he,
writing in the first flow and freshness of indignation; "Fancied--but
nay; it must have been a dream, an idle dream; yet I confess it, I DID
fancy that I had done my country service; and thus they use me! And
under what circumstances, and with what pointed aggravation? Yet, if
I know my own thoughts, it is not for myself, or on my own account
chiefly, that I feel the sting and the disappointment. No! it is for my
brave officers: for my noble minded friends and comrades. Such a gallant
set of fellows! Such a band of brothers! My heart swells at the thought
of them."

War between Spain and England was now declared; and on the eighteenth of
January, the Toulon fleet, having the Spaniards to co-operate with them,
put to sea. Nelson was at anchor off the coast of Sardinia, where the
Madelena islands form one of the finest harbours in the world, when,
at three in the afternoon of the nineteenth, the ACTIVE and SEAHORSE
frigates brought this long-hoped-for intelligence. They had been close
to the enemy at ten on the preceding night, but lost sight of them in
about four hours. The fleet immediately unmoored and weighed, and at
six in the evening ran through the strait between Biche and Sardinia:
a passage so narrow that the ships could only pass one at a time, each
following the stern-lights of its leader. From the position of the
enemy, when they were last seen, it was inferred that they must be bound
round the southern end of Sardinia. Signal was made the next morning to
prepare for battle. Bad weather came on, baffling the one fleet in its
object, and the other in its pursuit. Nelson beat about the Sicilian
seas for ten days, without obtaining any other information of the enemy
than that one of their ships had put into Ajaccio, dismasted; and having
seen that Sardinia, Naples, and Sicily were safe, believing Egypt to
be their destination, for Egypt he ran. The disappointment and distress
which he had experienced in his former pursuits of the French through
the same seas were now renewed; but Nelson, while he endured these
anxious and unhappy feelings, was still consoled by the same confidence
as on the former occasion--that, though his judgment might be erroneous,
under all circumstances he was right in having formed it. "I have
consulted no man," said he to the Admiralty; "therefore the whole blame
of ignorance in forming my judgment must rest with me. I would allow no
man to take from me an atom of my glory had I fallen in with the French
fleet; nor do I desire any man to partake any of the responsibility.
All is mine, right or wrong." Then stating the grounds upon which he had
proceeded, he added, "At this moment of sorrow, I still feel that I have
acted right." In the same spirit he said to Sir Alexander Ball: "When
I call to remembrance all the circumstances, I approve, if nobody else
does, of my own conduct."

Baffled thus, he bore up for Malta, and met intelligence from Naples
that the French, having been dispersed in a gale, had put back to
Toulon. From the same quarter he learned that a great number of saddles
and muskets had been embarked; and this confirmed him in his opinion
that Egypt was their destination. That they should have put him back in
consequence of storms which he had weathered, gave him a consoling sense
of British superiority. "These gentlemen," said he, "are not accustomed
to a Gulf of Lyons gale: we have buffeted them for one-and-twenty
months, and not carried away a spar." He, however, who had so often
braved these gales, was now, though not mastered by them, vexatiously
thwarted and impeded; and on February 27th he was compelled to anchor in
Pula Bay in the Gulf of Cagliari. From the 21st of January the fleet
had remained ready for battle, without a bulk-head up night or day. He
anchored here that he might not be driven to leeward. As soon as the
weather moderated he put to sea again; and after again beating about
against contrary winds, another gale drove him to anchor in the Gulf of
Palma on the 8th of March. This he made his rendezvous: he knew that the
French troops still remained embarked; and wishing to lead them into
a belief that he was stationed upon the Spanish coast, he made his
appearance off Barcelona with that intent. About the end of the month he
began to fear that the plan of the expedition was abandoned; and sailing
once more towards his old station off Toulon on the 4th of April, he
met the PHOEBE, with news that Villeneuve had put to sea on the last
of March, with eleven ships of the line, seven frigates, and two brigs.
When last seen they were steering towards the coast of Africa. Nelson
first covered the channel between Sardinia and Barbary, so as to satisfy
himself that Villeneuve was not taking the same route for Egypt
which Gantheaume had taken before him, when he attempted to carry
reinforcements thither. Certain of this, he bore up on the 7th for
Palermo, lest the French should pass to the north of Corsica, and he
despatched cruisers in all directions. On the 11th he felt assured that
they were not gone down the Mediterranean; and sending off frigates
to Gibraltar, to Lisbon, and to Admiral Cornwallis, who commanded the
squadron off Brest, he endeavoured to get to the westward, beating
against westerly winds. After five days a neutral gave intelligence that
the French had been seen off Cape de Gatte on the 7th. It was soon after
ascertained that they had passed the Straits of Gibraltar on the day
following; and Nelson, knowing that they might already be half way to
Ireland or to Jamaica, exclaimed that he was miserable. One gleam of
comfort only came across him in the reflection, that his vigilance
had rendered it impossible for them to undertake any expedition in the
Mediterranean.

Eight days after this certain intelligence had been obtained, he
described his state of mind thus forcibly in writing to the governor of
Malta: "My good fortune, my dear Ball, seems flown away. I cannot get
a fair wind, or even a side-wind. Dead foul!--Dead foul! But my mind is
fully made up what to do when I leave the supposing there is no certain
account of the enemy's destination. I believe this ill-luck will go
near to kill me; but as these are times for exertion, I must not be cast
down, whatever I may feel." In spite of every exertion which could be
made by all the zeal and all the skill of British seamen, he did not get
in sight of Gibraltar till the 30th of April; and the wind was then so
adverse that it was impossible to pass the Gut. He anchored in Mazari
Bay, on the Barbary shore; obtained supplies from Tetuan; and when, on
the 5th, a breeze from the eastward sprang up at last, sailed once more,
hoping to hear of the enemy from Sir John Orde, who commanded off Cadiz,
or from Lisbon. "If nothing is heard of them," said he to the Admiralty,
"I shall probably think the rumours which have been spread are true,
that their object is the West Indies; and, in that case, I think it my
duty to follow them--or to the Antipodes, should I believe that to be
their destination." At the time when this resolution was taken, the
physician of the fleet had ordered him to return to England before the
hot months.

Nelson had formed his judgment of their destination, and made up his
mind accordingly, when Donald Campbell, at that time an admiral in the
Portuguese service, the same person who had given important tidings to
Earl St. Vincent of the movements of that fleet from which he won his
title, a second time gave timely and momentous intelligence to the flag
of his country. He went on board the VICTORY, and communicated to Nelson
his certain knowledge that the combined Spanish and French fleets were
bound for the West Indies. Hitherto all things had favoured the enemy.
While the British commander was beating up again strong southerly and
westerly gales, they had wind to their wish from the N.E., and had done
in nine days what he was a whole month in accomplishing. Villeneuve,
finding the Spaniards at Carthagena were not in a fit state of equipment
to join him, dared not wait, but hastened on to Cadiz. Sir John Orde
necessarily retired at his approach. Admiral Gravina, with six Spanish
ships of the line and two French, come out to him, and they sailed
without a moment's loss of time. They had about three thousand French
troops on board, and fifteen hundred Spanish: six hundred were under
orders, expecting them at Martinique, and one thousand at Guadaloupe.
General Lauriston commanded the troops. The combined fleet now consisted
of eighteen sail of the line, six forty-four gun frigates, one
of twenty-six guns, three corvettes, and a brig. They were joined
afterwards by two new French line-of-battle ships, and one forty-four.
Nelson pursued them with ten sail of the line and three frigates. "Take
you a Frenchman apiece," said he to his captains, "and leave me the
Spaniards: when I haul down my colours, I expect you to do the same, and
not till then."

The enemy had five-and-thirty days' start; but he calculated that he
should gain eight or ten days upon them by his exertions. May 15th he
made Madeira, and on June 4th reached Barbadoes, whither he had sent
despatches before him; and where he found Admiral Cochrane, with two
ships, part of our squadron in those seas being at Jamaica. He found
here also accounts that the combined fleets had been seen from St. Lucia
on the 28th, standing to the southward, and that Tobago and Trinidad
were their objects. This Nelson doubted; but he was alone in his
opinion, and yielded it with these foreboding words: "If your
intelligence proves false, you lose me the French fleet." Sir W. Myers
offered to embark here with 2000 troops; they were taken on board, and
the next morning he sailed for Tobago. Here accident confirmed the false
intelligence which had, whether from intention or error, misled him. A
merchant at Tobago, in the general alarm, not knowing whether this fleet
was friend or foe, sent out a schooner to reconnoitre, and acquaint him
by signal. The signal which he had chosen happened to be the very one
which had been appointed by Col. Shipley of the engineers to signify
that the enemy were at Trinidad; and as this was at the close of the
day, there was no opportunity of discovering the mistake. An American
brig was met with about the same time, the master of which, with that
propensity to deceive the English and assist the French in any manner
which has been but too common among his countrymen, affirmed that he
had been boarded off Granada a few days before by the French, who were
standing towards the Bocas of Trinidad. This fresh intelligence removed
all doubts. The ships were cleared for action before daylight, and
Nelson entered the Bay of Paria on the 7th, hoping and expecting to make
the mouths of the Orinoco as famous in the annals of the British navy
as those of the Nile. Not an enemy was there; and it was discovered that
accident and artifice had combined to lead him so far to leeward, that
there could have been little hope of fetching to windward of Granada
for any other fleet. Nelson, however, with skill and exertions never
exceeded, and almost unexampled, bore for that island.

Advices met him on the way, that the combined fleets, having captured
the Diamond Rock, were then at Martinique on the fourth, and were
expected to sail that night for the attack of Granada. On the 9th Nelson
arrived off that island; and there learned that they had passed to
leeward of Antigua the preceding day, and had taken a homeward-bound
convoy. Had it not been for false information, upon which Nelson had
acted reluctantly, and in opposition to his own judgment, he would have
been off Port Royal just as they were leaving; it, and the battle would
have been fought on the spot where Rodney defeated De Grasse. This he
remembered in his vexation; but he had saved the colonies, and above 200
ships laden for Europe, which would else have fallen into the enemy's
hands; and he had the satisfaction of knowing that the mere terror of
his name had effected this, and had put to flight the allied enemies,
whose force nearly doubled that before which they fled. That they were
flying back to Europe he believed, and for Europe he steered in pursuit
on the 13th, having disembarked the troops at Antigua, and taking with
him the SPARTIATE, seventy-four; the only addition to the squadron with
which he was pursuing so superior a force. Five days afterwards the
AMAZON brought intelligence that she had spoke a schooner who had
seen them on the evening of the 15th, steering to the north; and by
computation, eighty-seven leagues off. Nelson's diary at this time
denotes his great anxiety and his perpetual and all-observing vigilance.
"June 21. Midnight, nearly calm, saw three planks, which I think came
from the French fleet. Very miserable, which is very foolish." On the
17th of July he came in sight of Cape St. Vincent, and steered for
Gibraltar. "June 18th," his diary says, "Cape Spartel in sight, but no
French fleet, nor any information about them. How sorrowful this makes
me! but I cannot help myself." The next day he anchored at Gibraltar;
and on the 20th, says he, "I went on shore for the first time since June
16, 1803; and from having my foot out of the VICTORY two years, wanting
ten days."

Here he communicated with his old friend Collingwood; who, having been
detached with a squadron, when the disappearance of the combined fleets,
and of Nelson in their pursuit, was known in England, had taken his
station off Cadiz. He thought that Ireland was the enemy's ultimate
object; that they would now liberate the Ferrol squadron, which was
blocked up by Sir Robert Calder, call for the Rochefort ships, and then
appear off Ushant with 33 or 34 sail; there to be joined: by the
Brest fleet. With this great force he supposed they would make for
Ireland--the real mark and bent of all their operations; and their
flight to the West Indies, he thought, had been merely undertaken
to take off Nelson's force, which was the great impediment to their
undertaking.

Collingwood was gifted with great political penetration. As yet,
however, all was conjecture concerning the enemy; and Nelson, having
victualled and watered at Tetuan, stood for Ceuta on the 24th, still
without information of their course. Next day intelligence arrived that
the CURIEUX brig had seen them on the 19th, standing to the northward.
He proceeded off Cape St. Vincent, rather cruising for intelligence than
knowing whither to betake himself; and here a case occurred that more
than any other event in real history resembles those whimsical proofs of
sagacity which Voltaire, in his Zadig, has borrowed from the Orientals.
One of our frigates spoke an American, who, a little to the westward
of the Azores, had fallen in with an armed vessel, appearing to be a
dismasted privateer, deserted by her crew, which had been run on board
by another ship, and had been set fire to; but the fire had gone out. A
log-book and a few seamen's jackets were found in the cabin; and these
were brought to Nelson. The log-book closed with these words: "Two large
vessels in the W.N.W.:" and this led him to conclude that the vessel had
been an English privateer, cruising off the Western Islands. But there
was in this book a scrap of dirty paper, filled with figures. Nelson,
immediately upon seeing it, observed that the figures were written by a
Frenchman; and after studying this for a while, said, "I can explain
the whole. The jackets are of French manufacture, and prove that the
privateer was in possession of the enemy. She had been chased and taken
by the two ships that were seen in the W.N.W. The prizemaster, going on
board in a hurry, forgot to take with him his reckoning: there is none
in the log-book; and the dirty paper contains her work for the number of
days since the privateer last left Corvo; with an unaccounted-for run,
which I take to have been the chase, in his endeavour to find out her
situation by back reckonings. By some mismanagement, I conclude she was
run on board of by one of the enemy's ships, and dismasted. Not liking
delay (for I am satisfied that those two ships were the advanced ones
of the French squadron), and fancying we were close at their heels,
they set fire to the vessel, and abandoned her in a hurry. If this
explanation be correct, I infer from it that they are gone more to the
northward; and more to the northward I will look for them." This course
accordingly he held, but still without success. Still persevering, and
still disappointed, he returned near enough to Cadiz to ascertain that
they were not there; traversed the Bay of Biscay; and then, as a last
hope, stood over for the north-west coast of Ireland against adverse
winds, till, on the evening of the 12th of August, he learned that they
had not been heard of there. Frustrated thus in all his hopes, after
a pursuit, to which, for its extent, rapidity, and perseverance, no
parallel can be produced, he judged it best to reinforce the Channel
fleet with his squadron, lest the enemy, as Collingwood apprehended,
should bear down upon Brest with their whole collected force. On the
15th he joined Admiral Cornwallis off Ushant. No news had yet been
obtained of the enemy; and on the same evening he received orders to
proceed, with the VICTORY and SUPERB, to Portsmouth.




CHAPTER IX

1805

Sir Robert Calder falls in with the combined Fleets--They form a
Junction with the Ferrol Squadron, and get into Cadiz--Nelson is
reappointed to the Command--Battle of Trafalgar--Victory, and Death of
Nelson.


At Portsmouth, Nelson at length found news of the combined fleet. Sir
Robert Calder, who had been sent out to intercept their return,
had fallen in with them on the 22nd of July, sixty leagues off Cape
Finisterre. Their force consisted of twenty sail of the line, three
fifty-gun ships, five frigates, and two brigs: his, of fifteen
line-of-battle ships, two frigates, a cutter, and a lugger. After an
action of four hours he had captured an eighty-four and a seventy-four,
and then thought it necessary to bring-to the squadron, for the purpose
of securing their prizes. The hostile fleets remained in sight of each
other till the 26th, when the enemy bore away. The capture of two ships
from so superior a force would have been considered as no inconsiderable
victory, a few years earlier; but Nelson had introduced a new era in our
naval history; and the nation felt respecting this action as he had felt
on a somewhat similar occasion. They regretted that Nelson, with his
eleven ships, had not been in Sir Robert Calder's place; and their
disappointment was generally and loudly expressed.