it enabled him to complete his supply of water, and to receive a
reinforcement, which Earl St. Vincent, being himself reinforced from
England, was enabled to send him. It consisted of the best ships of his
fleet: the _Culloden_, seventy-four, Captain T. Trowbridge; _Goliath_,
seventy-four, Captain T. Foley; _Minotaur_, seventy-four, Captain T.
Louis; _Defence_, seventy-four, Captain John Peyton; _Bellerophon_,
seventy-four, Captain H. D. E. Darby; _Majestic_, seventy-four, Captain
G. B. Westcott; _Zealous_, seventy-four, Captain S. Hood; _Swiftsure_,
seventy-four, Captain B. Hallowell; _Theseus_, seventy-four, Captain R.
W. Miller; _Audacious_, seventy-four, Captain Davidge Gould. The
_Leander_, fifty, Captain T. B. Thompson, was afterwards added. These
ships were made ready for the service as soon as Earl St. Vincent
received advice from England that he was to be reinforced. As soon as
the reinforcement was seen from the masthead of the admiral's ship, off
Cadiz Bay, signal was immediately made to Captain Trowbridge to put to
sea; and he was out of sight before the ships from home cast anchor in
the British station. Trowbridge took with him no instructions to Nelson
as to the course he was to steer, nor any certain account of the enemy's
destination: everything was left to his own judgment. Unfortunately, the
frigates had been separated from him in the tempest, and had not been
able to rejoin: they sought him unsuccessfully in the Bay of Naples,
where they obtained no tidings of his course, and he sailed without
them.
The first news of the enemy's armament was, that it had surprised Malta.
Nelson formed a plan for attacking it while at anchor at Gozo; but on
June 22nd intelligence reached him that the French had left that island
on the 16th, the day after their arrival. It was clear that their
destination was eastward--he thought for Egypt--and for Egypt,
therefore, he made all sail. Had the frigates been with him he could
scarcely have failed to gain information of the enemy: for want of them,
he only spoke three vessels on the way; two came from Alexandria, one
from the Archipelago; and neither of them had seen anything of the
French. He arrived off Alexandria on the 28th, and the enemy were not
there, neither was there any account of them; but the governor was
endeavouring to put the city in a state of defence, having received
advice from Leghorn that the French expedition was intended against
Egypt, after it had taken Malta. Nelson then shaped his course to the
northward, for Caramania, and steered from thence along the southern
side of Candia, carrying a press of sail, both night and day, with a
contrary wind.
Baffled in his pursuit, he returned to Sicily. The Neapolitan ministry
had determined to give his squadron no assistance, being resolved to do
nothing which could possibly endanger their peace with the French
Directory; by means, however, of Lady Hamilton's influence at court, he
procured secret orders to the Sicilian governors; and, under those
orders, obtained everything which he wanted at Syracuse--a timely
supply, without which, he always said, he could not have recommenced his
pursuit with any hope of success. "It is an old saying," said he in his
letter, "that the devil's children have the devil's luck. I cannot to
this moment learn, beyond vague conjecture, where the French fleet are
gone to; and having gone a round of six hundred leagues at this season
of the year, with an expedition incredible, here I am, as ignorant of
the situation of the enemy as I was twenty-seven days ago."
On July 25th he sailed from Syracuse for the Morea. Anxious beyond
measure, and irritated that the enemy should so long have eluded him,
the tediousness of the nights made him impatient; and the officer of the
watch was repeatedly called on to let him know the hour, and convince
him, who measured time by his own eagerness, that it was not yet
daybreak. The squadron made the gulf of Coron on the 28th. Trowbridge
entered the port, and returned with the intelligence that the French had
been seen about four weeks before steering to the south-east from
Candia. Nelson then determined immediately to return to Alexandria; and
the British fleet accordingly, with every sail set, stood once more for
the coast of Egypt. On August 1st, about ten in the morning, they came
in sight of Alexandria. The port had been vacant and solitary when they
saw it last; it was now crowded with ships, and they perceived with
exultation that the tri-colour flag was flying upon the walls. At four
in the afternoon, Captain Hood in the _Zealous_ made the signal for the
enemy's fleet. For many preceding days Nelson had hardly taken either
sleep or food: he now ordered his dinner to be served, while
preparations were making for battle, and when his officers rose from the
table and went to their separate stations, he said to them: "Before this
time to-morrow I shall have gained a peerage or Westminster Abbey."
The French, steering direct for Candia, had made an angular passage for
Alexandria; whereas Nelson, in pursuit of them, made straight for that
place, and thus materially shortened the distance. The two fleets must
actually have crossed on the night of June 22nd.
The French fleet arrived at Alexandria on July 1st; and Brueys, not
being able to enter the port, which time and neglect had ruined, moored
his ships in Aboukir Bay, in a strong and compact line of battle; the
headmost vessel, according to his own account, being as close as
possible to a shoal on the north-west, and the rest of the fleet forming
a kind of curve along the line of deep water, so as not to be turned by
any means in the south-west.
The advantage of numbers, both in ships, guns, and men, was in favour of
the French. They had thirteen ships of the line and four frigates,
carrying 1196 guns, and 11,230 men. The English had the same number of
ships of the line, and one fifty-gun ship, carrying 1012 guns and 8068
men. The English ships were all seventy-fours: the French had three
eighty-gun ships and one three-decker of one hundred and twenty.
During the whole pursuit it had been Nelson's practice, whenever
circumstances would permit, to have his captains on board the
_Vanguard_, and explain to them his own ideas of the different and best
modes of attack, and such plans as he proposed to execute, on falling in
with the enemy, whatever their situation might be. There is no possible
position, it is said, which he did not take into calculation. His
officers were thus fully acquainted with his principles of tactics; and
such was his confidence in their abilities, that the only thing
determined upon, in case they should find the French at anchor, was for
the ships to form as most convenient for their mutual support, and to
anchor by the stern. "First gain the victory," he said, "and then make
the best use of it you can." The moment he perceived the position of the
French, that intuitive genius with which Nelson was endowed displayed
itself; and it instantly struck him that where there was room for an
enemy's ship to swing there was room for one of ours to anchor. The
plan which he intended to pursue, therefore, was to keep entirely on the
outer side of the French line, and station his ships, as far as he was
able, one on the outer bow and another on the outer quarter, of each of
the enemy's. This plan of doubling on the enemy's ships was projected by
Lord Hood, when he designed to attack the French fleet at their
anchorage in Gourjean road. Lord Hood found it impossible to make the
attempt; but the thought was not lost upon Nelson, who acknowledged
himself on this occasion indebted for it to his old and excellent
commander. Captain Berry, when he comprehended the scope of the design,
exclaimed with transport, "If we succeed, what will the world say!"
"There is no _if_ in the case," replied the admiral; "that we shall
succeed is certain: who may live to tell the story is a very different
question."
As the squadron advanced they were assailed by a shower of shot and
shells from the batteries on the island, and the enemy opened a steady
fire from the starboard side of their whole line, within half gun-shot
distance, full into the bows of our van ships. It was received in
silence: the men on board every ship were employed aloft in furling
sails, and below in tending the braces and making ready for anchoring. A
miserable sight for the French, who, with all their skill, and all their
courage, and all their advantages of numbers and situation, were upon
that element, on which, when the hour of trial comes, a Frenchman has no
hope.
A French brig was instructed to decoy the English, by manoeuvring so as
to tempt them toward a shoal lying off the island of Bekier; but Nelson
either knew the danger or suspected some deceit, and the lure was
unsuccessful. Captain Foley led the way in the _Goliath_, outsailing the
_Zealous_, which for some minutes disputed this post of honour with him.
He had long conceived that if the enemy were moored in line of battle in
with the land the best plan of attack would be to lead between them and
the shore, because the French guns on that side were not likely to be
manned, nor even ready for action. Intending, therefore, to fix himself
on the inner bow of the _Guerrier_, he kept as near the edge of the bank
as the depth of water would admit; but his anchor hung, and having
opened his fire, he drifted to the second ship, the _Conquerant_, before
it was clear, then anchored by the stern, inside of her, and in ten
minutes shot away her mast. Hood, in the _Zealous_, perceiving this,
took the station which the _Goliath_ intended to have occupied, and
totally disabled the _Guerrier_ in twelve minutes. The third ship which
doubled the enemy's van was the _Orion_, Sir J. Saumarez; she passed to
windward of the _Zealous_, and opened her larboard guns as long as they
bore on the _Guerrier_, then passing inside the _Goliath_, sank a
frigate which annoyed her, hauled round toward the French line, and
anchoring inside, between the fifth and sixth ships from the _Guerrier_,
took her station on the larboard bow of the _Franklin_ and the quarter
of the _Peuple Souverain_, receiving and returning the fire of both. The
sun was now nearly down. The _Audacious_, Captain Gould, pouring a heavy
fire into the _Guerrier_ and the _Conquerant_, fixed herself on the
larboard bow of the latter; and when that ship struck, passed on to the
_Peuple Souverain_. The _Theseus_, Captain Miller, followed, brought
down the _Guerrier's_ remaining main and mizen masts, then anchored
inside of the _Spartiate_, the third in the French line.
While these advanced ships doubled the French line the _Vanguard_ was
the first that anchored on the outer side of the enemy, within half
pistol-shot of their third ship, the _Spartiate_. Nelson had six colours
flying in different parts of his rigging, lest they should be shot
away;--that they should be struck, no British admiral considers as a
possibility. He veered half a cable, and instantly opened a tremendous
fire; under cover of which the other four ships of his division, the
_Minotaur_, _Bellerophon_, _Defence_, and _Majestic_, sailed on ahead of
the admiral. In a few minutes every man stationed at the first six guns
in the fore part of the _Vanguard's_ deck was killed or wounded--these
guns were three times cleared. Captain Louis, in the _Minotaur_,
anchored next ahead, and took off the fire of the _Aquilon_, the fourth
in the enemy's line. The _Bellerophon_, Captain Darby, passed ahead, and
dropped her stern anchor on the starboard bow of the _Orient_, seventh
in the line, Brueys' own ship, of one hundred and twenty guns, whose
difference of force was in proportion of more than seven to three, and
whose weight of ball, from the lower deck alone, exceeded that from the
whole broadside of the _Bellerophon_. Captain Peyton, in the _Defence_,
took his station ahead of the _Minotaur_, and engaged the _Franklin_,
the sixth in the line; by which judicious movement the British line
remained unbroken. The _Majestic_, Captain Westcott, got entangled with
the main rigging of one of the French ships astern of the _Orient_, and
suffered dreadfully from that three-decker's fire; but she swung clear,
and closely engaging the _Heureux_, the ninth ship on the starboard bow,
received also the fire of the _Tonnant_, which was the eighth in the
line. The other four ships of the British squadron, having been detached
previous to the discovery of the French, were at a considerable distance
when the action began. It commenced at half-past six; about seven, night
closed, and there was no other light than that from the fire of the
contending fleets.
Trowbridge, in the _Culloden_, then foremost of the remaining ships, was
two leagues astern. He came on sounding, as the others had done: as he
advanced, the increasing darkness increased the difficulty of the
navigation, and suddenly, after having found eleven fathoms water,
before the lead could be hove again, he was fast aground; nor could all
his own exertions, joined to those of the _Leander_ and the _Mutine_
brig, which came to his assistance, get him off in time to bear a part
in the action. His ship, however, served as a beacon to the _Alexander_
and _Swiftsure_, which would else, from the course which they were
holding, have gone considerably farther on the reef, and must inevitably
have been lost. These ships entered the bay, and took their stations, in
the darkness, in a manner long spoken of with admiration by all who
remembered it. Captain Hallowell, in the _Swiftsure_, as he was bearing
down, fell in with what seemed to be a strange sail; Nelson had
directed his ships to hoist four lights horizontally at the mizen peak,
as soon as it became dark, and this vessel had no such distinction.
Hallowell, however, with great judgment, ordered his men not to fire: if
she was an enemy, he said, she was in too disabled a state to escape;
but, from her sails being loose, and the way in which her head was, it
was probable she might be an English ship. It was the _Bellerophon_,
overpowered by the huge _Orient_: her lights had gone overboard, nearly
two hundred of her crew were killed or wounded; all her masts and cables
had been shot away; and she was drifting out of the line, towards the
lee side of the bay. Her station, at this important time, was occupied
by the _Swiftsure_, which opened a steady fire on the quarter of the
_Franklin_ and the bows of the French admiral. At the same instant,
Captain Ball, with the _Alexander_, passed under his stern, and anchored
within side on his larboard quarter, raking him, and keeping up a severe
fire of musketry upon his decks. The last ship which arrived to complete
the destruction of the enemy was the _Leander_. Captain Thompson,
finding that nothing could be done that night to get off the _Culloden_,
advanced with the intention of anchoring athwart-hawse of the _Orient_.
The _Franklin_ was so near her ahead that there was not room for him to
pass clear of the two; he, therefore, took his station athwart-hawse of
the latter, in such a position as to rake both.
The two first ships of the French line had been dismasted within a
quarter of an hour after the commencement of the action; and the others
had in that time suffered so severely, that victory was already certain.
The third, fourth, and fifth were taken possession of at half-past
eight.
Meantime, Nelson received a severe wound on the head from a piece of
langrage shot. Captain Berry caught him in his arms as he was falling.
The great effusion of blood occasioned an apprehension that the wound
was mortal. Nelson himself thought so: a large flap of the skin of the
forehead, cut from the bone, had fallen over one eye, and the other
being blind, he was in total darkness. When he was carried down, the
surgeon--in the midst of a scene scarcely to be conceived by those who
have never seen a cock-pit in time of action, and the heroism which is
displayed amid its horrors,--with a natural and pardonable eagerness
quitted the poor fellow then under his hands, that he might instantly
attend the admiral. "No!" said Nelson, "I will take my turn with my
brave fellows." Nor would he suffer his own wound to be examined till
every man who had been previously wounded was properly attended to.
Fully believing that the wound was mortal, and that he was about to die,
as he had ever desired, in battle and in victory, he called the
chaplain, and desired him to deliver what he supposed to be his dying
remembrance to Lady Nelson: he then sent for Captain Louis on board from
the _Minotaur_, that he might thank him personally for the great
assistance which he had rendered to the _Vanguard_; and, ever mindful of
those who deserved to be his friends, appointed Captain Hardy from the
brig to the command of his own ship, Captain Berry having to go home
with the news of the victory. When the surgeon came in due time to
examine his wound (for it was in vain to entreat him to let it be
examined sooner) the most anxious silence prevailed; and the joy of the
wounded men, and of the whole crew, when they heard that the hurt was
merely superficial, gave Nelson deeper pleasure than the unexpected
assurance that his life was in no danger. The surgeon requested, and as
far as he could, ordered him to remain quiet; but Nelson could not rest.
He called for his secretary, Mr. Campbell, to write the despatches.
Campbell had himself been wounded, and was so affected at the blind and
suffering state of the admiral, that he was unable to write. The
chaplain was then sent for; but, before he came, Nelson, with his
characteristic eagerness, took the pen, and contrived to trace a few
words, marking his devout sense of the success which had already been
obtained. He was now left alone; when suddenly a cry was heard on the
deck that the _Orient_ was on fire. In the confusion, he found his way
up, unassisted and unnoticed; and, to the astonishment of every one,
appeared on the quarter-deck, where he immediately gave orders that
boats should be sent to the relief of the enemy.
It was soon after nine that the fire on board the _Orient_ broke out.
Brueys was dead: he had received three wounds, yet he would not leave
his post; a fourth cut him almost in two. He desired not to be carried
below, but to be left to die upon deck. The flames soon mastered his
ship. Her sides had just been painted, and the oil-jars and
paint-buckets were lying on the poop. By the prodigious light of this
conflagration the situation of the two fleets could now be perceived,
the colours of both being clearly distinguishable. About ten o'clock the
ship blew up, with a shock which was felt to the very bottom of every
vessel. Many of her officers and men jumped overboard, some clinging to
the spars and pieces of wreck, with which the sea was strewn, others
swimming to escape from the destruction which they momentarily dreaded.
Some were picked up by our boats; and some even in the heat and fury of
the action were dragged into the lower ports of the nearest British
vessel by the British sailors. The greater part of her crew, however,
stood the danger till the last, and continued to fire from the lower
deck. This tremendous explosion was followed by a silence not less
awful: the firing immediately ceased on both sides, and the first sound
which broke the silence was the dash of her shattered masts and yards
falling into the water from the vast height to which they had been
exploded. It is upon record that a battle between two armies was once
broken off by an earthquake:--such an event would be felt like a
miracle; but no incident in war, produced by human means, has ever
equalled the sublimity of this co-instantaneous pause, and all its
circumstances.
About seventy of the _Orient's_ crew were saved by the English boats.
Among the many hundreds who perished, were the commodore, Casa-Bianca,
and his son, a brave boy, only ten years old. They were seen floating on
a shattered mast when the ship blew up. She had money on board (the
plunder of Malta) to the amount of £600,000 sterling. The masses of
burning wreck, which were scattered by the explosion, excited for some
moments apprehensions in the English which they had never felt from any
other danger. Two large pieces fell into the main and fore tops of the
_Swiftsure_, without injuring any person. A port fire also fell into the
main-royal of the _Alexander_: the fire which it occasioned was speedily
extinguished. Captain Ball had provided, as far as human foresight could
provide, against any such danger. All the shrouds and sails of his ship,
not absolutely necessary for its immediate management, were thoroughly
wetted, and so rolled up that they were as hard and as little
inflammable as so many solid cylinders.
The firing recommenced with the ships to leeward of the centre, and
continued till about three. At daybreak, the _Guillaume Tell_ and the
_Genereux_, the two rear ships of the enemy, were the only French ships
of the line which had their colours flying; they cut their cables in the
forenoon, not having been engaged, and stood out to sea, and two
frigates with them. The _Zealous_ pursued; but as there was no other
ship in a condition to support Captain Hood, he was recalled. It was
generally believed by the officers that if Nelson had not been wounded,
not one of these ships could have escaped: the four certainly could not,
if the _Culloden_ had got into action, and if the frigates belonging to
the squadron had been present, not one of the enemy's fleet would have
left Aboukir Bay. These four vessels, however, were all that escaped;
and the victory was the most complete and glorious in the annals of
naval history. "Victory," said Nelson, "is not a name strong enough for
such a scene;" he called it a conquest. Of thirteen sail of the line,
nine were taken and two burnt; of the four frigates, one was sunk,
another, the _Artimese_, was burnt by her captain, who, having fired a
broadside at the _Theseus_, struck his colours, then set fire to his
ship and escaped with most of his crew to shore. The British loss in
killed and wounded amounted to 895. Westcott was the only captain who
fell; 3105 of the French, including the wounded, were sent on shore, and
5225 perished.
The shore, for an extent of four leagues, was covered with wreck; and
the Arabs found employment for many days in burning on the beach the
fragments which were cast up, for the sake of the iron. Part of the
_Orient's_ main mast was picked up by the _Swiftsure_. Captain Hallowell
ordered his carpenter to make a coffin of it; the iron as well as wood
was taken from the wreck of the same ship. It was finished as well and
handsomely as the workman's skill and materials would permit, and
Hallowell then sent it to the admiral with the following letter,--"Sir,
I have taken the liberty of presenting you a coffin made from the main
mast of _L'Orient_, that when you have finished your military career in
this world you may be buried in one of your trophies. But that that
period may be far distant, is the earnest wish of your sincere friend,
Benjamin Hallowell."--An offering so strange, and yet so suited to the
occasion, was received by Nelson in the spirit with which it was sent.
As if he felt it good for him, now that he was at the summit of his
wishes, to have death before his eyes, he ordered the coffin to be
placed upright in his cabin.
Nelson was now at the summit of glory: congratulations, rewards, and
honours were showered upon him by all the states, and princes, and
powers to whom his victory gave a respite. At home he was created Baron
Nelson of the Nile and of Burnham Thorpe, with a pension of £2000 for
his own life, and those of his two immediate successors. A grant of
£10,000 was voted to Nelson by the East India Company; the Turkish
Company presented him with a piece of plate; the city of London
presented a sword to him and to each of his captains; gold medals were
distributed to the captains; and the first lieutenants of all the ships
were promoted, as had been done after Lord Howe's victory.
After the battle of the Nile, Nelson returned to Naples, where he
renewed his friendship with Sir William and Lady Hamilton. Italy
received him everywhere with open arms, and the most flattering welcome
was given him by both court and people. The story of his stay in Italy,
however, is the saddest chapter in his life, for it was here that his
domestic happiness was destroyed, and his fine chivalrous nature
received its only stain.