Admiral Collingwood
Page 31
29 Newnham-Collingwood 1837: i, 114
30 ibid p. 113
31 Newnham-Collingwood 1828: 86
32 Collingwood to his sister (November 1800) Hughes 62, Barfleur
33 Newnham-Collingwood 1828:86
34 ibid p. 87. William Ireland, his long-serving steward, later became a burden as his increasing wealth was spent on drink, and by 1805 Collingwood had replaced him. Warner 1968:139
35 Collingwood to his sister (November 1801) Hughes 70, Barfleur, Bearhaven, Bantry Bay
36 Collingwood to Mrs Stead (November 1801) Hughes 71, Barfleur, Bantry Bay
37 ibid
38 Collingwood to Mrs Stead (January 1802) Hughes 72, Barfleur, Portsmouth
39 Ireland 2003:163
40 Collingwood to his sister (April 1802) Hughes 74, Torbay
41 ibid
CHAPTER 8
Exemplary vengeance 1803–1805
1 Jane Austen might have been thinking of Collingwood when she portrayed her Admiral Baldwin: ‘I never saw so wretched an example of what a sea-faring life can do; but to a degree I know it is the same with them all: they are all knocked about, and exposed to every climate, and every weather, till they are not fit to be seen. It is a pity they are not knocked on the head at once, before they reach Admiral Baldwin’s age.’ Jane Austen, Persuasion: Volume I Chapter iii
2 Crawford 1999:119. This was the description recorded by Abraham Crawford when he met Collingwood in 1806
3 Clark Russell 1891: preface, xii
4 Newnham-Collingwood 1828:91
5 Collingwood later wrote, ‘If the country gentlemen do not make it a point to plant oaks every where they will grow, the time will not be very far distant when, to keep our Navy, we must depend entirely on captures from the enemy… I wish every body thought on this subject as I do; they would not walk through their farms without a pocketful of acorns to drop in the hedgesides, and then let them take their chance.’ Newnham-Collingwood 1837: i, 141–2
6 Newcastle Courant, 5 Feb 1803
7 Newcastle Courant, 26 Feb 1803
8 Newcastle Courant, 12 March 1803
9 Secretary to the Board of Admiralty since 1795
10 Collingwood to Dr Alexander Carlyle (March 1803) Hughes 82, Morpeth
11 ibid
12 Newcastle Courant, 16 March 1803
13 Earl St Vincent had famously told the House of Lords: ‘I do not say, my Lords, that the French will not come. I only say that they will not come by sea.’
14 Oliver 1831: 177
15 Padfield 2003:193 The purchase included the territories which now encompass Arkansas, Missouri, Iowa, Nebraska, North and South Dakota and parts of several other states
16 Naval Chronicle xiii: 351
17 Collingwood to J.E. Blackett (October 1803) Hughes 85, Venerable
18 ibid
19 Jane Austen, Persuasion: Volume I Chapter viii
20 Newnham-Collingwood 1837: i, 131–2
21 Clark Russell 1891: 116
22 Hay 1953: 69–70
23 Collingwood to Dr Alexander Carlyle (June 1804) Hughes 88, Prince, off Ushant
24 Collingwood to Dr Alexander Carlyle (August 1804) Hughes 89, Dreadnought
25 ibid
26 Collingwood’s words. Quoted by Hughes 1957: 157
27 Collingwood to Nelson (December 1804) Hughes 90, Dreadnought, Cawsand Bay
28 Newnham-Collingwood 1837: i, 143
29 Newnham-Collingwood 1837: i, 136
30 Padfield 2003:220
31 It had been languishing in the library of a Californian university, before being purchased by the National Maritime Museum
32 Secret Letter Book MS 76/001 National Maritime Museum: Letter 4: Collingwood to William Marsden, 27 May 1805, Dreadnought off Cape Finisterre
33 Collingwood to Dr Alexander Carlyle (July 1805) Hughes 91 Dreadnought, off Cadiz
34 Newnham-Collingwood 1837: i, 151
35 Nelson to Collingwood (July 1805) Nicolas v: 57
36 Collingwood to his sister (August 1805) Hughes 92, Dreadnought, off Cadiz
37 Naval Chronicle xv: 369
38 William Cosway, who later became attached to one of Collingwood’s daughters, but who was subsequently terribly injured in a coaching accident
39 ibid
40 Robinson 1858: 43
41 Newnham-Collingwood 1837: i, 158–9
42 Coleman 2001: 317 According to ADD MS 33,963, Nelson gave the plan to his captains a day after he sent it to Collingwood, on 10 October
43 Newnham-Collingwood 1837: i, 162–3
44 Nicolas vii: 71
45 Nicolas vii: 93
46 Warner 1968: 146
47 Newnham-Collingwood 1837: i, 166
48 ibid p. 167
49 Robinson 1858: 205–6
50 Newnham-Collingwood 1837: i, 173–4
51 Robinson 1858: 206
52 Newnham-Collingwood 1837: i, 174 – this anecdote was probably reported to the biographer by William Cosway, the Admiral’s secretary, who would have been in close attendance on him during the battle
53 Naval Chronicle xv: 119
54 Newnham-Collingwood 1828: 125
55 Quoted by Warner 1968: 150
56 Vangs were the backstays of the mizzen gaff yard; from aft they looked like an inverted V
57 Robinson 1858: 206
58 Clark Russell 1891: 139
59 Robinson 1858: 206
60 Newnham-Collingwood 1837: i, 289
61 ibid p. 227
62 Quoted by Lewis 2000: 171
63 Quoted by Clark Russell 1891: 159
64 Newnham-Collingwood 1837: i, 185–6
65 Blackwood’s Magazine 1833:13
66 Robinson 1858:208. Villeneuve returned to France in the spring of 1806. He was found stabbed to death in an inn in Rennes; either by his own hand, or that of one of Napoleon’s men. Collingwood said of him, ‘He has nothing in his manners of the offensive vapouring and boasting which we, perhaps too often, attribute to Frenchmen.’ Newnham-Collingwood 1837: i, 237
67 ADM MS 76/001, now in the Caird Library at the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich
68 Because of the importance of the document, the two draft letters are transcribed in full in Appendix 1. Where they differ from the published version the text has been highlighted
69 Part of the King’s letter to the Admiralty, in response to the Dispatch, ran as follows: Every tribute of praise appears to His Majesty due to Lord Nelson, whose loss he can never sufficiently regret; but His Majesty considers it very fortunate that the command, under circumstances so critical, should have devolved upon an officer of such consummate valour, judgement and skill, as Admiral Collingwood has proved himself to be, every part of whose conduct he considers deserving his entire approbation and admiration. The feeling manner in which he had described the events of that great day and those subsequent, and the modesty with which he speaks of himself, whilst he does justice, in terms so elegant and so ample, to the meritorious exertions of the gallant officers and men under his command, have also proved extremely satisfactory to the King. Newnham-Collingwood 1828:157
70 Warner 1968:154 note
CHAPTER 9
Giddy with the multiplicities 1806–1808
1 Indebted properties brought to him through his wife’s family. They are estates at the north end of the Cheviot hills, very close to the Scottish border. Part of Collingwood’s amusement was that he had never heard of them, and was fairly certain Sarah had not either
2 Horace Epistles II ii 200. Utrum nave ferar magna an parva ferar turns et idem. The full sentence translates something like this: ‘Be my vessel large or small, I am carried against them, always one and the same.’ It was traced and translated by Warwick Adams
3 Warner 1968:163. Curtis was blamed by Collingwood for the infamous second letter written after the battle of the Glorious First of June
4 Collingwood to his sister (January 1806) Hughes 98, Queen
5 Newnham-Collingwood
1828: 167–8
6 Newnham-Collingwood 1837: i, 226
7 Collingwood to Sir Thomas Pasley (December 1805) Hughes 97, Queen, off Cartagena
8 The Ottoman court at Constantinople. Its derivation is seventeenth century, from the French La Sublime Porte, ‘the Exalted Gate’ – a translation of the Turkish for the central office of government. New Oxford Dictionary
9 Gravina, the commander of the Spanish fleet, was also wounded, and died on 9 November
10 Newnham-Collingwood 1837: i, 207-8
11 Secret Letter Book, entry 11. ADM MS 76/001. Eurydtus, 27 October 1805
12 Newnham-Collingwood 1837: i, 211
13 Secret Letter Book: 40. ADM MS 76/001
14 ibid p. 243
15 ibid
16 Collingwood to his sister (January 1806) Hughes 98, Queen
17 Though set at the time of the Risorgimento around 1860, The Leopard gives a flavour of decadent aristocracy which, unable or unprepared to defend itself, the British tried to rouse in the period after Trafalgar
18 Messina proved equally vital for the Allied invasion forces in 1943
19 Newnham-Collingwood 1837: i, 255. Author’s translation from the French
20 ibid p. 263. Author’s translation
21 ibid pp. 269–70
22 i.e. the Algerian Regency, not the English
23 Newnham-Collingwood 1837: i, 281–2
24 Such incidents made it easier, under pressure from France, to deny port facilities to British ships on the Portuguese mainland
25 Newnham-Collingwood 1837: i, 301
26 ibid p. 274
27 ibid p. 291. As Collingwood wrote to Grey, the Foreign Secretary. Collingwood thought such weapons ‘un-English’: their chief effect was to terrorise and injure civilians, and if the English used them, might not the enemy retaliate with similar weapons
28 Collingwood to his brother John (September 1806) Hughes 116, Ocean
29 Newnham-Collingwood 1837: i, 307
30 ibid p. 366
31 Collingwood to his sister Bess (April 1806) Hughes 106, Ocean, off Cadiz
32 Collingwood to Rear-Admiral Purvis (February 1809) Hughes 170, Ocean, Malta
33 Collingwood to his sister (May 1806) Hughes 107, Ocean
34 Robinson 1858: 48-9
35 Collingwood to his brother John (September 1806) Hughes 116, Ocean
36 ibid
37 Newnham-Collingwood 1828: 264
38 Collingwood to his sister (November 1806) Hughes 119, Ocean, off Cadiz
39 Newnham-Collingwood 1828: 262
40 Act II scene iii. Identified by Warner 1968, and by John Fisher during invaluable discussions on Bounce
41 Newnham-Collingwood 1828: 269–70
42 Collingwood to Rear-Admiral Purvis (September 1806) Hughes 114, Ocean
43 Newnham-Collingwood 1828: 272
44 ibid pp. 284–5
45 Collingwood to his sister (June 1807) Hughes 128, Ocean
46 See, for example, The Mauritius Command: Chapter Two
47 Collingwood to John Davidson (June 1807) Hughes 129, Ocean
48 The Anglo-American war lasted from 1812–14, ending, more or less, when Shannon and Chesapeake met outside Boston harbour in an episode fictionalised in O’Brian’s The Fortune of War. Collingwood thought the policy of searching American ships ‘exceedingly improvident and unfortunate, as in the issue it may involve us in a contest which it would be wisdom to avoid.’ Newnham-Collingwood 1837: ii, 74
49 Pope 1981: 221
50 Officially starting was forbidden by the Admiralty in 1809 after the court martial of the notoriously brutal Captain Robert Corbett
51 Newnham-Collingwood 1828: 349. Collingwood estimated his complete strength at thirty ships of the line, the rest made up of frigates, brigs, sloops, bombs and the like
52 Newnham-Collingwood 1837: ii, 47–50
53 At this time the Russians were still negotiating in apparent concert with the British
54 ibid pp. 51-3
55 Collingwood to his sister (April 1809) Hughes 175, Ville de Paris
56 Newnham-Collingwood 1828: 307
57 The gentleman in question was Collingwood’s old school friend, Lord Eldon
58 i.e. Arbuthnot, the English Ambassador
59 Collingwood to his sister (December 1808) Hughes 167, Ocean
60 Collingwood to his sister (October 1807) Hughes 143, Ocean, off Sicily
61 Collingwood to his sister ((December 1808) Hughes 167, Ocean
CHAPTER 10
Viva Collingwood 1808–1810
1 Collingwood to his sister (March 1808) Hughes 153, Ocean, off Sicily
2 Collingwood’s Mediterranean Journal 1807–1810:2 January 1808
3 Newnham-Collingwood 1837: ii, 90
4 ibid pp. 97–8
5 Andrews and Brown 2002: 271
6 The port of Taranto lies right inside the ‘instep’ of the Italian boot
7 The very heavy casualty figures for both leading ships provide ample justification for Collingwood’s misgivings; see Chapter Eleven
8 Collingwood to his sister (July 1808) Hughes 160, Ocean, off Cadiz
9 Newnham-Collingwood 1828: 348–9
10 Collingwood to Rear-Admiral Purvis (April 1808) Hughes 156, Ocean, off Sicily
11 Padfield 2003: 271
12 Collingwood to his sister (June 1808) Hughes 157, Ocean, off Cadiz
13 Newnham-Collingwood 1828:375; author’s note
14 ibid p. 376
15 Newnham-Collingwood 1837: ii, 227
16 Clark Russell 1891: 240
17 Newnham-Collingwood 1837: ii, 202
18 ibid pp. 180–81
19 ibid p. 211
20 ibid pp. 204–5
21 See Introduction; Mrs Currell was a friend of Sarah Collingwood’s in Newcastle
22 Newnham-Collingwood 1837: ii, 206
23 Sarah Collingwood to Miss Mary Woodman (March 1813). Hope Dodds and Hall (Eds) 1954
24 Newnham-Collingwood 1837: ii, 355
25 Collingwood to his sister (October 1808) Hughes 165, Ocean, off Toulon
26 Lord Mulgrave to Collingwood, quoted by Collingwood in a letter to his sister (December 1808) Hughes 167, Ocean
27 Newnham-Collingwood 1837: ii, 285–6
28 Collingwood to Mary Moutray (November 1808) Hughes 166, Ocean, off Toulon
29 Collingwood to his sister (December 1808) Hughes 167, Ocean
30 Collingwood to his sister (March 1809) Hughes 172, Ocean
31 ibid
32 Collingwood to his sister (February 1809) Hughes 171, Ocean, off Sicily
33 Collingwood to his sister (February 1809) Hughes 171, Ocean, off Sicily
34 Crawford 1999: 192–3
35 Collingwood to his sister (February 1809) Hughes 171, Ocean, off Sicily
36 Collingwood to Rear-Admiral Purvis (May 1809) Hughes 177, Ville de Paris, off Toulon
37 Newnham-Collingwood 1837: ii, 331
38 ibid p. 342
39 Collingwood to Mrs Stead (May 1809) Hughes 176, Ville de Paris, off Toulon
40 Collingwood to Mrs Stead (April 1809) Hughes 174, Ville de Paris
41 Collingwood to Mrs Stead (October 1809) Hughes 190, Ville de Paris, off Barcelona
42 Crawford 1999: 184
43 Warner 1968: 224
44 The Duke of Northumberland to Collingwood (January 1810) Hughes Appendix: 13, Teignmouth
45 Maxwell 1903: ii, 161. Thomas Creevey (1768–1838) was a Whig politician and diarist, author of the Creevey Papers, edited by Sir Herbert Maxwell. See Chapter Eleven
46 Collingwood to his sister (August 1809) Hughes 184, Ville de Paris, off Toulon
47 Collingwood to Vice-Admiral Purvis (December 1809) Hughes 196, Ville de Paris, Port Mahon
48 Mackesy 1957: 395
49 Crawford 1999: 153
50 ibid p. 175
51 Collingwood to his brother John (March 1810) Hughes 200, Ville de Paris, Mahon
52 ibid, enclos
ure
53 Newnham-Collingwood 1837: ii, 427
54 Hope Dodds and Hall 1954: letter 11
CHAPTER 11
Fame’s trumpet
1 Newnham-Collingwood 1837: ii, 9
2 Collingwood’s Trafalgar dispatch. See Appendix 1
3 Miss Elizabeth Ord was Creevey’s step-daughter. Her mother was the daughter, coincidentally, of Charles Brandling, MP for Newcastle upon Tyne
4 Maxwell 1903: ii, 161
5 Thackeray 1869:127
6 A list of Collingwood’s commissions is presented in Appendix 2
7 Collingwood to his sister (June 1796) Hughes 37, Excellent, off Toulon
8 Referring to the incident in which the captain of the Leopard had pressed deserting British sailors from the USS Chesapeake, he had written: ‘It may involve us in a contest which it would be wisdom to avoid.’ Newnham-Collingwood 1837: ii, 74
9 Hope Dodds and Hall 1954: letter 18
10 Newnham-Collingwood 1838: i, 195ff
11 Sir John Laughton. DNB 1887
12 Naval Chronicle xv: 369
13 Hibbert 1994: 399
14 Figures adapted from Pope 1999:333ff
APPENDIX 1
Collingwood’s Trafalgar dispatch
Where the published dispatch differs from the draft, bold text indicates a passage excised from the draft, and [brackets] indicate an addition in the published version. It may be noticed that one or two of Collingwood’s statements and reports are mistaken: these were corrected in later reports.
To William Marsden, Esq, Admiralty.
Euryalus, off Cape Trafalgar,
October 22nd, 1805
Sir,
The ever to be lamented death of Vice-Admiral Lord Viscount Nelson, who in the late conflict with the enemy, fell in the hour of victory, leaves to me the duty of informing my Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty, that on the 19th instant it was communicated to the Commander in Chief from the ships watching the motions of the Enemy in Cadiz, that the Combined Fleet had put to sea. As they sailed with light winds westerly, his Lordship concluded their destination was the Mediterranean, and immediately made all sail for the Streights’ entrance with the British squadron, consisting of twenty-seven ships, three of them sixty-fours, where his Lordship was informed by Capt. Blackwood, (whose vigilance in watching, and giving notice of the enemy’s movements, has been highly meritorious,) that they had not yet passed the Streights.
On Monday the 21st instant, at daylight, when Cape Trafalgar bore E. by S. about seven leagues, the Enemy was discovered six or seven miles to the eastward, the wind about west, and very light; the Commander in Chief immediately made the signal for the fleet to bear up in two columns, as they are formed in order of sailing; a mode of attack his Lordship had previously directed, to avoid the inconvenience and delay in forming a line of battle in the usual manner. The enemy’s line consisted of thirty-three Ships (of which eighteen were French and fifteen Spanish), commanded by Admiral Villeneuve; the Spaniards, under the direction of Gravina, wore, with their heads to the northward, and formed their line of battle with great closeness and correctness; but as the mode of attack was unusual, so the structure of their line was new; – it formed a crescent convexing to leeward – so that, in leading down to their centre, I had both their van and rear abaft the beam. Before the fire opened, every alternate Ship was about a cable’s length to windward of her second a-head and a-stern, forming a kind of double line, and appeared, when on their beam, to leave a very little interval between them; and this without crowding their ships. [Admiral] Villeneuve was in the Bucentaure in the centre, and the Prince of Asturias bore Gravina’s flag in the rear; but the French and Spanish ships were mixed without any regard to order of National squadron.