"When I came home from the Baltic, I and others were landed at Yarmouth,
and sent to the hospital. I was some time in getting well. I'll tell
you what set me on my legs again. One day as I was lying on my bed in
the crowded ward, thinking if I should ever recover, and be fit for sea
again, the news came that a brig of war had entered the harbour with
Lord Nelson on board. Would you believe it, I was thanking Heaven that
our brave admiral had come back safe, and was in a half dreamy, dozing
state, when I heard a cheer, and opening my eyes there he was himself
going round from bed to bed, and talking to each of the men. He knew me
at once, and told me that I must make haste and get well and join his
ship, as it wouldn't be long probably before he again hoisted his flag.
"`You shall have any rating you like, remember that,' said he, taking my
hand. `We must have medals and prize-money for you; you have gallantly
won them, all of you.'
"He passed on, for he had a kind word to say to many hundred poor
fellows that day. When I got well I went home for a spell; but before
long I heard that Lord Nelson had hoisted his flag as commander-in-chief
of the channel squadron on hoard the `Medusa' frigate. I went on board,
and the admiral instantly rated me as quartermaster. We had plenty of
work before us, for General Bonaparte, who was now Emperor of France,
wanted to come and invade England. He had got a flotilla of gunboats
all ready to carry over his army, and he had a large fleet besides.
Many people thought he would succeed. We knew that the wooden walls of
old England were her best defence, and so we afloat never believed that
a French soldier would ever set foot on our shores.
"They had, however, a large flotilla in Boulogne harbour, and it was
determined to destroy it with the boats of the squadron. I volunteered
for one of out boats. The boats were in three divisions. We left the
ships a little before midnight. It was very dark, and the divisions got
separated. We knew that it was desperate work we were on. Ours was the
only division which reached the harbour. There were batteries defending
the place, and troops on the shore, and soldiers on board the flotilla,
and the outer vessels were guarded with iron spikes, and had boarding
nets triced up, and were lashed together. In we darted. It was
desperate work, and the fire of the great guns and musketry soon showed
our enemies to us, and us to them.
"`Just keep off, you brave Englishmen, you can do nothing here,' sung
out a French officer in very plain English.
"`We'll try that!' was our reply, as we dashed on board, in spite of
iron spikes and boarding nettings. On we went; we cut out several of
the vessels, and were making off with them with loads of Frenchmen on
board, when, would you believe it, if the enemy didn't open their fire
on the boats, killing their own people as well as us. To my mind, those
French, in war, are as bad as cannibals--that's what Lord Nelson always
said of them. If it hadn't been for this we should have burned or
captured most of them. While I was just springing on board another
vessel, among the flashes from the guns, the flames and smoke, the
hissing and rattling shot, I got a knock on my head which sent me back
into the bottom of the boat. I knew nothing more till I found myself on
board my own ship, and heard that we had lost some hundred and seventy
poor fellows. I was sent to the hospital, where one of our gallant
leaders, Captain Parker, died of his wounds.
"The next ship I found myself on board was the `Victory.' There wasn't
a finer ship in the navy, more weatherly or more handy--steered like a
duck, and worked like a top. Lord Nelson himself got me appointed to
her. Away we sailed for the Mediterranean. While Admiral Cornwallis
watched the French fleet at Brest, we kept a look-out over that at
Toulon under the command of Admiral La Touche Treville, who had
commanded at Boulogne, and boasted that he had beat off Lord Nelson from
that port. He could not boast, though, that he beat him off from
Toulon; for, for eighteen long months, from the 1st of July, 1803, to
the 11th of January, 1805, did we keep watch off that harbour's mouth.
If such a gale sprung up as would prevent the French getting out, we
went away, only leaving a frigate or so to watch what took place; but we
were soon to be back again. Thus the time passed on. We saw the shore,
but were not the better for it; for few of us, from the admiral
downwards, ever set foot on it. At last the French admiral, La Touche
Treville, died, and a new one, Admiral Villeneuve, was appointed. We
now began to hope that the French would come out and fight us; for you
see Lord Nelson did not want to keep them in--only to get at them when
they came out. If it hadn't been for the batteries on shore, we should
have gone in and brought them out. We had gone away to the coast of
Sardinia, when news was brought that the French fleet was at sea.
Instantly we got under weigh, passing at night through a passage so
narrow that only one ship could pass at a time, and fully expecting the
next morning to be engaged with the enemy. First we looked for them
about Sicily; then after them we ran towards Egypt, and then back to
Malta, where we heard that they had put into Toulon. Now, we kept
stricter watch than ever, without a bulkhead up, and all ready for
battle.
"It was on the 4th of April, that the `Phoebe' brought us news that
Admiral Villeneuve, with his squadron, had again slipped out of Toulon,
and was steering for the coast of Africa. Frigates were sent out in
every direction, to make sure that he had not gone eastward; and then
after him we stood, towards the Straits of Gibraltar, but the wind was
dead against us, and we had hard work to get there. I had never seen
the admiral in such a taking before. We beat backwards and forwards
against the head-wind, but all to no purpose--out of the Gut we could
not get without a leading-wind, and so we had to anchor off the Barbary
coast; there we got supplies.
"At last, on the 5th of May, an easterly breeze sprung up, and away we
went, with a flowing sheet, through the Straits. We called off Cadiz,
and the coast of Portugal, and then bore away for the West Indies, where
we heard the French had gone. We sighted Madeira, and made Barbadoes,
then sailed for Tobago; and next we were off for the Gulf of Paria, all
cleared for action, making sure that we should find the enemy there. We
thought it would have killed the admiral when he found that he had been
deceived. Back we sailed, and heard that the French had captured the
Diamond Rock. You've heard about it. It's a curious place, and was
commissioned like a man-of-war. If it hadn't been for false
information, and if Lord Nelson had stuck to his own intentions, we
should have caught the French up off Port Royal, and thrashed them just
at the spot Lord Rodney thrashed Admiral de Grasse--so I've heard say.
Well, at last, we found that the French had left the West Indies for
Europe, so back across the Atlantic we steered, but though we knew we
were close astern of them, they kept ahead of us, and at last we sighted
Cape Spartel, and anchored the next day at Gibraltar.
"I know it for a fact, that it only wanted ten days of two years since
Lord Nelson himself had last set his foot on shore. It was much longer
than that since I and most on board had trod dry ground. That was
serving our country, you'll allow--most of the time, too, under weigh,
battling with tempests, and broiling under the sun of the tropics.
"We victualled and watered at Tetuan, then once more stood to the
west'ard--then back to Cadiz, and once more crossed the Bay of Biscay,
thinking the enemy were bound for Ireland. Foul winds made the passage
long. Once more the enemy had baffled us, and at last, when off Ushant,
we received orders to return to Portsmouth to refit.
"That very fleet Sir Robert Calder fell in with on the 22nd of July,
just thirty leagues westward of Cape Finisterre, and, although his force
was much smaller, he captured two of their line-of-battle ships. It was
a very gallant affair; but people asked, `What would Nelson have done?'
While the admiral was on shore we were busily employed in refitting the
`Victory,' while a number of other ships he had wished to have with him
were got ready for sea. On the 14th of September he once more came
aboard the `Victory,' and hoisted his flag. The next day, we sailed for
Cadiz. We arrived off that place on the 29th, where we found the
squadron of Admiral Collingwood blockading the French and Spanish fleets
under Admiral Villeneuve.
"What Lord Nelson wanted, you see, was to get the enemy out to fight
him. He wanted also, not only to win a victory, but to knock the
enemy's ships to pieces, so that they could do no more harm. To get
them out we had to cut off their supplies; so we had to capture all the
neutral vessels which were carrying them in. You must understand we in
the `Victory' with the fleet did not go close into Cadiz, but kept some
fifty or sixty miles off, so that the enemy might not know our strength.
We had some time to wait, however. Lord Nelson had already given the
French and Spaniards such a taste of his way of going to work, that they
were in no hurry to try it again. You'll understand that there was a
line of frigates, extending, like signal-posts, all the way from the
fleet to the frigate cruising just off the mouth of the harbour--that is
to say, near enough to watch what was going on there.
"Early in the morning on the 19th of October, the `Mars,' the ship
nearest the chain of frigates, repeated the signal that the enemy were
leaving port, and, at two p.m., that they were steering south-east. On
this Lord Nelson gave orders for the fleet to chase in that direction,
but to keep out of sight of the enemy, fearful of frightening them back
into port. Still, you'll understand, the frigates kept in sight of
them, and gave notice to the admiral of all their movements. The enemy
had thirty-three sail of the line, and seven frigates, with above 4000
riflemen on board. Our fleet numbered only twenty-seven sail of the
line, and four frigates. We were formed in two lines. Admiral
Collingwood, in the `Royal Sovereign,' led fourteen ships, and Lord
Nelson, in the `Victory,' eleven.
"On the morning of the 21st of October, 1805--you'll not forget that
day, it was a glorious one for England, let me tell you--we sighted the
French and Spanish fleet from the deck of the `Victory' off Cape
Trafalgar. They were formed in a double line in a curve, one ship in
the further line filling up the space left between the ships of the
nearest line. They also were trying to keep the port of Cadiz under
their lee, that they might escape to it. Lord Nelson determined to
break the line in two places. We led the northern line with a light
wind from the south-west. Admiral Collingwood led the southern, and got
into action first, just astern of the `Santa Anna.' We steered so as to
pass between the `Bucentaur' and the `Santissima Trinidade.'
"`Well, there are a lot of the enemy,' exclaimed Tom Collins to me, as I
was standing near the gun he served.
"`Yes, mate,' said I; `and a pretty spectacle they will make at Spithead
when we carry them there.'
"`Ay, that they will,' cried all who heard me, and I believe every man
in the fleet felt as we did.
"We were watching all this time the magnificent way in which the brave
and good Admiral Collingwood stood into action and opened his fire.
That was about noon. There was a general cheer on board our ship and
all the ships of the fleet. At our masthead flew a signal. We soon
knew what it meant. It was--`England expects that every man will do his
duty.' For nearly half an hour the noble Collingwood was alone among
the ships of the enemy before any of his followers could come up. We,
at the same time, had got within long range of the enemy. On we floated
slowly, for the wind was very light, till at last our mainyard-arm was
touching the gaff of the `Bucentaur,' which ship bore the flag of
Admiral Villeneuve; and though our guns were raking her and tearing her
stern to pieces, we had ahead of us in the second line the `Neptune,'
which poured a heavy fire into our bows. Our helm was then put up, and
we fell aboard the `Redoubtable,' while the `Temeraire,' Captain
Blackwood, ranged up on the other side of her, and another French ship
got alongside the `Temeraire.' There we were all four locked together,
pounding away at each other, while with our larboard guns we were
engaging the `Bucentaur,' and now and then getting a shot at the big
Spaniard, the `Santissima Trinidade'. Meantime our other ships had each
picked out one or more of the enemy, and were hotly engaged with them.
At the tops of all the enemy's ships marksmen were stationed. The
skylight of the admiral's cabin had been boarded over. Here Lord Nelson
and Captain Hardy were walking. More than one man had fallen near them.
Mr Scott, the admiral's secretary, had been struck down after we had
been in action little more than an hour. Suddenly as I turned my head I
saw a sight which I would rather have died than have seen. Lord Nelson
was just falling. He went on his knees, then rested on his arm for a
moment, and it, too, giving way, he rolled over on his left side, before
even Captain Hardy could run to save him. Captain Hardy had to remain
on deck. I, with a sergeant of marines and another seaman, carried him
below, covering his face with a handkerchief. We placed him in one of
the midshipmen's berths. Then the surgeons came to him. We feared the
worst, but it was not generally known what had happened. I can tell you
I was glad enough to get on deck again. It was bad enough there to see
poor fellows struck down alongside one, but the sights and sounds in the
cockpit were enough to overcome the stoutest heart--to see fine strong
fellows mangled and torn, struggling in their agony--to watch limb after
limb cut off--to hear their groans and shrieks, and often worse, the
oaths and imprecations of the poor fellows maddened by the terrible
pain; and there lay our beloved chief mortally wounded in the spine,
parched with thirst and heat, crying out for air and drink to cool the
fever raging within. For two hours and a half there he lay suffering
dreadful pain, yet eagerly inquiring how the battle was going. Twice
Captain Hardy went below to see him; the first time, to tell him that
twelve of the enemy had struck; the last time that still more had given
in, and that a few were in full flight, after whom our guns were still
sending their shot. Thus Lord Nelson died at the moment the
ever-to-be-remembered battle of Trafalgar was won.
"It was a sad voyage we had home, and great was the sorrow felt by all,
from the highest to the lowest in the land, for the death of our beloved
leader. I will not describe his funeral. It was very grand, that I
know. Many of the old `Victory's' attended his coffin to his grave in
Saint Paul's Cathedral. When they were lowering his flag into the
tomb--that flag which had truly so long and so gloriously waved in the
battle and the breeze--we seized on it and tearing it in pieces, vowed
to keep it as long as we lived, in remembrance of our noble chief. Here
is my bit--see, I keep it safe in this case near my heart."
England's greatest military chief now lies by the side of one who had no
equal on the ocean, in the heart of her metropolis. Within the walls of
her finest cathedral, what more appropriate mausoleum could be found for
Britain's two most valiant defenders, Heaven-sent surely in the time of
her greatest need to defend her from the hosts of her vaunting foes.
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Note 1. Lord Hood was commander-in-chief. The object of the attack was
to co-operate with the patriot Corsicans, who, under their well-known
gallant general Paoli, desired to liberate themselves from the yoke of
France, then ruled by the tyrannical and cruel Convention. The story of
the struggles of Corsica to gain her independence is deeply interesting.