(1758-1805)
[Illustration: Lord Nelson. [TN]]
Horatio Nelson was born at Burnham Thorpe, in Norfolk, September 29,
1758. His father, the rector of that parish, was burdened with a
numerous family; and it is said to have been more with a view to
lighten that burden than from predilection for the service, that at
the age of twelve he expressed a wish to go to sea, under the care of
his uncle, Captain Suckling. Of his early adventures it is unnecessary
to speak in detail. In 1773 he served in Captain Phipps's voyage of
discovery in the Northern Polar seas. His next station was the East
Indies; from which, at the end of eighteen months, he was compelled to
return by a very severe and dangerous illness. In April, 1777, he
passed his examination, and was immediately commissioned as second
lieutenant of the Lowestoffe frigate, then fitting out for Jamaica.
Fortunate in conciliating the good-will and esteem of those with whom
he served, he passed rapidly through the lower ranks of his
profession, and was made post-captain, with the command of the
Hinchinbrook, of twenty-eight guns, June 11, 1779, when not yet of
age. In 1782 he was appointed to the Albemarle, twenty-eight; and in
1784 to the Boreas, twenty-eight, in which he served for three years
in the West Indies, and though in time of peace, gave signal proof of
his resolution and strict sense of duty, by being the first to insist
on the exclusion of the Americans from direct trade with the British
colonies, agreeably to the terms of the Navigation Act. He had no
small difficulties to contend with; for the planters and the colonial
authorities were united against him, and even the admiral on the
station coincided with their views, and gave orders that the Americans
should be allowed free access to the islands. Still Nelson persevered.
Transmitting a respectful remonstrance to the admiral, he seized four
of the American ships, and after a long and tedious process at law, in
which he incurred much anxiety and expense, he succeeded in procuring
their condemnation by the Admiralty Court. Neither his services in
this matter, nor his efforts to expose and remedy the peculations and
dishonesty of the government agents, in almost all matters connected
with naval affairs in the West Indies, were duly acknowledged by the
Government at home; and in moments of spleen when suffering under
inconveniences which a conscientious discharge of his duty had brought
on him, he talked of quitting the service of an ungrateful country. In
March, 1787, he married Mrs. Nisbet, a West-Indian lady, and in the
same year returned to England. He continued unemployed till January,
1793; when, on the breaking out of the French wars, he was appointed
to the Agamemnon, sixty-four, and ordered to serve in the
Mediterranean under the command of Lord Hood.
An ample field for action was now open to him. Lord Hood, who had
known him in the West Indies, and appreciated his merits, employed him
to co-operate with Paoli in delivering Corsica from its subjection to
France; and most laboriously and ably did he perform the duty
intrusted to him. The siege and capture of Bastia was entirely owing
to his efforts; and at the siege of Calvi, during which he lost an
eye, and throughout the train of successes which brought about the
temporary annexation of Corsica to the British crown, his services,
and those of the brave crew of the Agamemnon, were conspicuous. In
1795 Nelson was selected to co-operate with the Austrian and Sardinian
troops in opposing the progress of the French in the north of Italy.
The incapacity, if not dishonesty, and the bad success of those with
whom he had to act, rendered this service irksome and inglorious; and
his mortification was heightened when orders were sent out to withdraw
the fleet from the Mediterranean, and evacuate Corsica and Elba. These
reverses, however, were the prelude to a day of glory. On February 13,
1797, the British fleet, commanded by Sir John Jervis, fell in with
the Spanish fleet off Cape St. Vincent. In the battle which ensued,
Nelson, who had been raised to the rank of Commodore, and removed to
the Captain, seventy-four, bore a most distinguished part.
Apprehensive lest the enemy might be enabled to escape without
fighting, he did not hesitate to disobey signals, and executed a
manoeuvre which brought the Captain into close action at once with
three first-rates, an eighty, and two seventy-four gun ships. Captain
Trowbridge, in the Culloden, immediately came to his support, and they
maintained the contest for near an hour against this immense disparity
of force. One first-rate and one seventy-four dropped astern disabled;
but the Culloden was also crippled, and the Captain was fired on by
five ships of the line at once; when Captain Collingwood, in the
Excellent, came up and engaged the huge Santissima Trinidad, of one
hundred and thirty-six guns. By this time the Captain's rigging was
all shot away; and she lay unmanageable abreast of the eighty-gun
ship, the San Nicolas. Nelson seized the opportunity to board, and was
himself among the first to enter the Spanish ship. She struck after a
short struggle; and, sending for fresh men, he led the way from his
prize to board the San Josef, of one hundred and twelve guns,
exclaiming, "Westminster Abbey or victory." The ships immediately
surrendered. Nelson received the most lively and public thanks for his
services from the admiral, who was raised to the peerage by the title
of Earl St. Vincent. Nelson received the Order of the Bath; he had
already been made Rear-Admiral, before tidings of the battle reached
England.
During the spring, Sir Horatio Nelson commanded the inner squadron
employed in the blockade of Cadiz. He was afterward despatched on an
expedition against Teneriffe, which was defeated with considerable
loss to the assailants. The admiral himself lost his right arm, and
was obliged to return to England, where he languished more than four
months before the cure of his wound was completed. His services were
rewarded by a pension of L1,000. On this occasion he was required by
official forms to present a memorial of the services in which he had
been engaged; and as our brief account can convey no notion of the
constant activity of his early life, we quote the abstract of this
paper given by Mr. Southey. "It stated that he had been in four
actions with the fleets of the enemy, and in three actions with boats
employed in cutting out of harbor, in destroying vessels, and in
taking three towns; he had served on shore with the army four months,
and commanded the batteries at the sieges of Bastia and Calvi; he had
assisted at the capture of seven sail of the line, six frigates, four
corvettes, and eleven privateers; taken and destroyed near fifty sail
of merchant vessels, and actually been engaged against the enemy
upward of a hundred and twenty times; in which service he had lost his
right eye and right arm, and been severely wounded and bruised in his
body."
Early in 1798 Nelson went out in the Vanguard to rejoin Lord St.
Vincent off Cadiz. He was immediately despatched with a squadron, into
the Mediterranean, to watch an armament known to be fitting out at
Toulon, the destination of which excited much anxiety. It sailed May
20th, attacked and took Malta, and then proceeded, as Nelson supposed,
to Egypt. Strengthened by a powerful reinforcement, he made all sail
for Alexandria; but there no enemy had been seen or heard of. He
returned in haste along the north coast of the Mediterranean to
Sicily, refreshed the fleet, and again sailed to the eastward. On
nearing Alexandria the second time, August 1st, he had the pleasure of
seeing the object of his toilsome cruise moored in Aboukir Bay, in
line of battle. It appeared afterward that the two fleets must have
crossed each other on the night of June 22d.
The French fleet consisted of thirteen ships of the line and four
frigates; the British of the same number of ships of the line, and one
fifty-gun ship. In number of guns and men the French had a decided
superiority. It was evening before the British fleet came up. The
battle began at half-past six; night closed in at seven, and the
struggle was continued through the darkness--a magnificent and awful
spectacle to thousands who watched the engagement with eager anxiety.
Victory was not long doubtful. The first two ships of the French line
were dismasted in a quarter of an hour; the third, fourth, and fifth
were taken by half-past eight; about ten, the L'Orient, Admiral
Bruey's flag-ship, blew up. By daybreak the two rear ships, which had
not been engaged, cut their cables and stood out to sea, in company
with two frigates, leaving nine ships of the line in the hands of the
British, who were too much crippled to engage in pursuit. Two ships of
the line and two frigates were burnt or sunk. Three out of the four
ships which escaped were subsequently taken; and thus, of the whole
armament, only a single frigate returned to France.
This victory, the most complete and most important then known in naval
warfare, raised Nelson to the summit of glory, and presents and honors
were showered on him from all quarters. The gratitude of his country
was expressed, inadequately in comparison with the rewards bestowed on
others for less important services, by raising him to the peerage, by
the title of Baron Nelson of the Nile, with a pension of L2,000. The
Court of Naples, to which the battle of Aboukir was as a reprieve from
destruction, testified a due sense of its obligation by bestowing on
him the dukedom and domain of Bronte, in Sicily.
The autumn of 1798, the whole of 1799, and part of 1800, Nelson spent
in the Mediterranean, employed in the recovery of Malta, in protecting
Sicily, and in co-operating to expel the French from the Neapolitan
continental dominions. In 1800 various causes of discontent led him to
solicit leave to return to England, where he was received with the
enthusiasm due to his services.
Soon afterward he separated himself formally from Lady Nelson. In
March, 1801, he sailed as second in command of the expedition against
Copenhagen, led by Sir Hyde Parker. The dilatoriness with which it was
conducted increased the difficulties of this enterprise, and might
have caused it to fail, had not Nelson's energy and talent been at
hand to overcome the obstacles occasioned by this delay. The attack
was intrusted to him by Sir Hyde Parker, and executed April 2d, with
his usual promptitude and success. After a fierce engagement, with
great slaughter on both sides, the greater part of the Danish line of
defence was captured or silenced. Nelson then sent a flag of truce on
shore, and an armistice was concluded. He bore honorable testimony to
the gallantry of his opponents. "The French," he said, "fought
bravely, but they could not have supported for one hour the fight
which the Danes had supported for four." May 5th Sir Hyde Parker was
recalled, and Nelson appointed Commander-in-chief; but no further
hostilities occurred, and suffering greatly from the climate, he
almost immediately returned home. For this battle he was raised to the
rank of Viscount.
At this time much alarm prevailed with respect to the meditated
invasion of England; and the command of the coast from Orfordness to
Beachy Head was offered to him, and accepted. But he thought the alarm
idle; he felt the service to be irksome; and gladly retired from it at
the peace of Amiens. When war was renewed in 1803, he took the command
of the Mediterranean fleet. For more than a year he kept his station
off Toulon, eagerly watching for the French fleet. In January, 1805,
it put to sea, and escaped the observation of his lookout ships. He
made for Egypt, and failing to meet with them, returned to Malta,
where he found information that they had been dispersed in a gale, and
forced to put back to Toulon. Villeneuve put to sea again, March 31st,
formed a junction with the Spanish fleet in Cadiz, and sailed for the
West Indies. Thither Nelson followed him, after considerable delay for
want of information and from contrary winds; but the enemy still
eluded his pursuit, and he was obliged to retrace his anxious course
to Europe, without the longed-for meeting, and with no other
satisfaction than that of having frustrated by his diligence their
designs on the English colonies. June 20, 1805, he landed at
Gibraltar, that being the first time that he had set foot ashore
since June 16, 1803. After cruising in search of the enemy till the
middle of August, he was ordered to Portsmouth, where he learned that
an indecisive action had taken place between the combined fleets
returning from the West Indies, and the British under Sir Robert
Calder.
[Illustration: Nelson at Trafalgar.]
He had not been many days established at home before certain news
arrived that the French and Spanish fleets had entered Cadiz. Eager to
gain the reward of his long watchings, and laborious pursuit, he again
offered his services, which were gladly accepted. He embarked at
Portsmouth, September 14, 1805, on board the Victory, to take the
command of the fleet lying off Cadiz, under Admiral Collingwood, his
early friend and companion in the race of fame. The last battle in
which Nelson was engaged was fought off Cape Trafalgar, October 21,
1805. The enemy were superior in number of ships, and still more in
size and weight of metal. Nelson bore down on them in two lines,
heading one himself, while Collingwood, in the Royal Sovereign, led
the other, which first entered into action. "See," cried Nelson, as
the Royal Sovereign cut through the centre of the enemy's line, and
muzzle to muzzle engaged a three-decker, "see how that noble fellow
Collingwood carries his ships into action." Collingwood, on the other
hand, said to his captain, "Rotherham, what would Nelson give to be
here?" As the Victory approached an incessant raking fire was directed
against her, by which fifty of her men were killed and wounded before
a single gun was returned. Nelson steered for his old opponent at Cape
St. Vincent, the Santissima Trinidad, distinguished by her size, and
opened his fire at four minutes after twelve, engaging the Redoubtable
with his starboard, the Santissima Trinidad and Bucentaur with his
larboard guns.
About a quarter past one, a musket-ball, fired from the mizzen-top of
the Redoubtable, struck him on the left shoulder, and he fell. From
the first he felt the wound to be mortal. He suffered intense pain,
yet still preserved the liveliest interest in the fate of the action;
and the joy visible in his countenance as often as the hurrahs of the
crew announced that an enemy had struck, testified how near his heart,
even in the agonies of death, was the accomplishment of the great work
to which his life had been devoted. He lived to know that his victory
was complete and glorious, and expired tranquilly at half-past four.
His last words were, "Thank God, I have done my duty."
He had indeed done his duty, and completed his task; for thenceforth
no hostile fleet presumed to contest the dominion of the sea. It may
seem mournful that he did not survive to enjoy the thanks and honors
with which a grateful country would have rejoiced to recompense this
crowning triumph. But he had reached the pinnacle of fame; and his
death in the hour of victory has tended far more than a few years of
peaceful life, to keep alive his memory in the hearts of a people
which loved, and a navy which adored him.