by John Sugden
17. Drinkwater, Proceedings of the British Fleet, pp. 13–14; The Times, 13/3/1797; Geoffrey Marcus, Age of Nelson, p. 78; Collingwood to Nelson, 15/2/1797, Add. MSS 34905; Add. MSS 31186: 160; Palmer, ‘Sir John’s Victory’, p. 42; Oliver Davis to his parents, 2/6/1797, NMM: WAL/21A; and the logs of the Victory (ADM 51/1187), Southampton (ADM 51/1189) and Captain (ADM 52/2825 and ADM 51/1194). In another letter Collingwood wrote that ‘a skilful manoeuvre, which was led to by Commodore Nelson, turned most of our force to the greater part where their admiral was’ (Collingwood to Carlyle, 22/2/1797, E. Hughes, ed., Private Correspondence, p. 79).
18. For Troubridge giving way to the Blenheim see Mundy’s journal, NMM: 85/105. In a somewhat crabbed contribution the log of the Prince George complained that ‘by backing her main top sail [the Captain] kept the followers from closing up so fast with the enemy as might have been done’ (ADM 51/1197), but ships so placed almost inevitably backed to maintain their station. The Prince George, Orion, Captain and Culloden all did so. See also ‘Journal of the Proceedings’, Ekins, Naval Battles, p. 245.
19. Master’s log of Captain, ADM 52/2825.
20. The armament of the San Nicolas became known after she fell into the hands of the Royal Navy. Jervis described her as an eighty-four-gun ship, but only eighty guns were mounted (statements of Culverhouse and Frederick in HCA 32/845). That the Captain carried one or two sixty-eight-pound carronades is evident from the fact that she fired one hundred and five sixty-eight-pound round shot and twelve sixty-eight-pound grape and case shot during the battle (William Collett and Ralph W. Miller, gunner’s expenditure of stores, 14/2/1797, Houghton Library, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts). Whether these carronades had replaced or supplemented long guns is not clear.
21. ‘Remarks Relative’, Add. MSS 34902: 119. For Excellent’s role see the account from that ship in ‘Battle of Cape St Vincent’, p. 329.
22. Collingwood to his wife, 17/2/1797, in Collingwood, Correspondence, 1, p. 37.
23. Sturges-Jackson, Logs, 1, p. 224.
24. Miller to his father, 3/3/1797, in White, 1797, p. 152.
25. Muster of the Captain, ADM 36/14801. Culverhouse (HCA 32/845) probably put the manpower of the San Nicolas a little too high at about seven hundred.
26. Davis to his parents, 2/6/1707, NMM: WAL/21A.
27. Parsons, Nelsonian Reminiscences, p. 170; James, Naval History, 2, p. 45; Drinkwater, Proceedings of the British Fleet, p. 26; Add. MSS 34902: 149; ‘dimensions’ of the San Josef, Western MSS 3676, Wellcome Library, London.
28. ‘Remarks Relative’, Add. MSS 34902: 119. Francis William Blagdon, Orme’s Graphic History, pp. iii, 13, was confused as to whether the ship’s commander, Brigadier Don Pedro Piñeda, or a subordinate, Don José Delkenna, surrendered the ship to Nelson. This book also repeats the popular legend that Nelson boarded one of the Spanish ships with the cry, ‘Westminster Abbey or a glorious victory!’ (p. 12). Both Blagdon (p. 10) and James Harrison, Life, I, p. 165, followed NC, 3 (1800), p. 176, which dishonestly and erroneously credited the remark to John Drinkwater’s account.
29. Davis to his parents, 2/6/1797, NMM: WAL/21A.
30. Elliot to Nelson, 15/2/1797, NMM: ELL/138; Elliot to his wife, 1/3/1797, NLS, 11050: 162.
31. Nelson to Clarence, 22/3/1797, NMM: AGC/27. On the state of the Spanish flagship compare Foote’s report (ADM 1/396: no. 25), which minimises her injuries, with the statement of 8/3/1797 from Cadiz (ADM 1/396: enclosed in no. 41) which describes her as ‘entirely dismasted’.
32. Nelson to William, 6/4/1797, Add. MSS 34988; Jervis to Nelson, 25/2/1797, Add. MSS 34938; Collingwood to Edward Collingwood, 22/2/1797, Add. MSS 52780; Mundy journal, NMM: 85/015. Nevertheless, Jervis remained sure that he had been right to call off the action because of ‘the certainty of losing our trophies, and which [what] would have been infinitely more painful, the Captain’ (Jervis to Elliot, 16/2/1797, NMM: ELL/141).
33. Collingwood to Carlyle, 22/2/1797, Hughes, Private Correspondence, p. 79. The casualties of the San Nicolas have variously been given as 129 killed and wounded and 143 killed and ninety-seven wounded, and those of the San Josef as fifty-six killed and forty to fifty wounded and thirty-nine killed and twenty wounded: Corbett, Spencer, 1, pp. 353–4; ADM 1/396, enclosures in no. 21; Hoste to his father, 16/2/1797, NMM: MRF/88/1.
34. Collingwood to Carlyle, 22/2/1797, Hughes, Private Correspondence, p. 79.
35. The first version of ‘Remarks Relative to Myself in the Captain’, filed in Add. MSS 34902: 116–18.
36. Elliot to Nelson, 15/2/1797, NMM: ELL/138; James Harrison, Life, 1, pp. 175–6.
37. Tucker, St Vincent, 1, p. 262.
38. William Collett and Ralph W. Miller, expenditure of gunner’s stores, 14/2/1797, Houghton Library.
39. Davis to his parents, 2/6/1797, NMM: WAL/21A. The muster of the Captain details her casualties.
40. Nelson to Elliot, 15/2/1797, NMM: ELL/138; Nelson to Suckling, 23/2/1797, NMM: XAGC/8; Anne-Marie E. Hills, ‘His Belly off Cape St Vincent’; court martial of Hallowell, 17/2/1797, ADM 1/5338; Nelson to Thompson, 17/2/1797, Monmouth MSS, E41; Angerstein to Nelson, 5/6/1801, NMM: CRK/1.
41. Nelson to McArthur, 10/4/1797, D&L, 2, p. 371; Jervis to Nepean, 22/2/1797, ADM 1/396. An unofficial report of 18 March gave the Spanish casualties on the prizes as 261 killed and 342 wounded (SRRC, 112/16/33: 1033).
42. Drinkwater-Bethune, Narrative of the Battle, pp. 88–9.
43. Nelson to Clarence, 2/4/1797, NMM: AGC/27.
44. Add. MSS 34902: 116–20, 119–20; NLTHW, p. 317. Nelson told Elliot that Miller was at work on ‘two sketches of the action’ (Nelson to Elliot, 16/2/1797, NMM: ELL/138).
45. Nelson to Locker, 21/2/1797, D&L 2, p. 353.
46. Jervis to Seymour, 17/2/1797, Tucker, St Vincent, 1, p. 265.
47. Maurice to Nelson, 8/3/1797, Add. MSS 34988; Fanny to Nelson, 17/4/1797, NLTHW, p. 361.
48. Jervis to Spencer, 16/2/1797, D&L, 2, p. 335.
49. Nelson to Clarence, 22/2/1797, NMM: AGC/27; Add. MSS 27845: 154; Mrs Henry Baring, ed., William Windham, 354; Windham to Nelson, 16/1/1797, NMM: CRK/13; Locker to Nelson, 17, 26/3/1797, Add. MSS 34905; The Times, 13/3/1797; Marianne Czisnik, ‘Nelson and The Nile’.
50. The Times, 2, 9/3/1797. The account Miller gave his father (White, 1797, p. 152) is echoed in differently worded fragments published in The Times 13/3/1797, and elsewhere, suggesting that Miller wrote letters to different people in a similar style.
51. Drinkwater, Proceedings of the British Fleet, pp. 5–6; Drinkwater-Bethune, Narrative of the Battle, pp. iii, 1, 82–5. Nelson’s own version of the battle was being fine-tuned by Miller as early as 22 February (Nelson to Fanny, 22/2/1797, Monmouth MSS, E919; D&L, 2, p. 350) and it does not appear that he instigated Drinkwater’s publication. Indeed, Fanny had to purchase a copy of it when printed (NLTHW, p. 366).
52. Parker to Nelson, 25/7/1797, Parker’s narrative, and Nelson to Parker, 19/8/1797, D&L, 2, pp. 471, 473. The papers of the prize courts, which arbitrated competing claims to captured ships, contain no reference to the Prince George with respect to the San Nicolas and San Josef. They do record the interest of Captain Frederick, whose Blenheim may have fired on the Spanish ships earlier in the action (HCA 32/845). However, this evidence is not decisive, because presumably all British ships in the battle were entitled to a share of the head money generated by the prizes. Laying aside Parker’s statements, the other accounts from the Prince George establish that the ship had cannonaded Nelson’s opponents from astern of the Captain before interrupting her fire to work forward, around the latter’s lee. Having done so, the Prince George resumed firing, concentrating upon the bows of the enemy ships, only to be hailed from the Captain and told they had struck. This much is consistent with Nelson’s account, but stops short of corroborating Parker’s grievance. Furthermore, the records of the Prince George sometimes conflict with other evidence. For example, they assert that after the intervention of the Excellent
the Captain temporarily advanced to re-engage the Santissima Trinidad, though this appears in no other source. The ‘fog of war’ was undoubtedly a factor. Wilkie, the master of the Prince George, admitted ‘that our observation . . . could not be extensive or very accurate’ because of the smoke (‘Battle of Cape St Vincent’, p. 337). Parker’s credibility is also undermined by his long-standing jealousy of Nelson. In 1787 he had accused Nelson of stealing his patronage; in 1798 he would complain of Nelson’s receipt of the command of another detached squadron. The early history of their relationship has escaped previous Nelson biographers.
53. Spencer to Nelson, 8/3/1797, Add. MSS 75808; Nelson to Hamilton, 27/4/1797, Huntington Library, San Marino, California; Portland to St Vincent, 22/6/1797, Add. MSS 34933.
54. Miller to his father, 3/3/1797, White, 1797, p. 152; Miller, will, 17/1/1798, Kirstie Buckland, ed., Miller Papers, p. 33.
55. Berry to Nelson, 18/2/1797, Add. MSS 34905.
56. Nelson to Collingwood, 15/2/1797, D&L, 2, p. 347.
57. Jervis to Spencer, 16/2/1797, D&L, 2, p. 335.
58. Noble and Spicer returned home to seek appointments as commanders: Noble to Nepean, 1/6/1797, ADM 1/226. For Withers see Withers to Nelson, 4/10/1797, enclosed in Nelson to Nepean, 9/10/1797, ADM 1/396; Withers to Nelson, 4/9/1801, Alfred Morrison, Hamilton and Nelson Papers, 2, p. 163; Jervis to Nelson, 2/6/1797, Add. MSS 34938.
59. Peirson to Nelson, 11/3/1797, 10/1/1800, Add. MSS 34905 and 34916; Windham to Nelson, 1797, Add. MSS 34906; War Office, List, volumes for 1795–1800; Morrison, Hamilton and Nelson Papers, 2, pp. 85, 208, 299, 300; James Stanier Clarke and John McArthur, Life and Services, 1, p. 514; Thomas Foley, Nelson Centenary, pp. 38, 45, 50. Peirson died returning from Honduras in 1800 at the age of twenty-seven. His daughter Caroline was said to have resembled her father.
60. Parker to Nelson, 15/3/1797, Add. MSS 34905; Collingwood to Nelson, 13/4/1797, Add. MSS 34906; Nelson to Fanny, 28/2/1797, Monmouth MSS, E920. The freedom of London was presented in a box of chased gold with an enamelled lid showing the battle of Cape St Vincent: Leslie Southwick, ‘Tokens of Victory’.
61. Fanny to Nelson, 26/3/1797, NLTHW, p. 355; Edmund Nelson to Nelson, 6/3/1797, Monmouth MSS, E625.
62. Fanny to Nelson, 11/3/1797, Add. MSS 34988 (italics hers).
63. Fanny to Nelson, 23/2/1797, 20/3/1797 and 3/4/1797, Add. MSS 34988.
64. Fanny to Nelson, 10/4/1797, Add. MSS 34988.
XXV Who will not Fight for Dollars? (pp. 719–49)
1. Nelson to Katy Matcham, 31/3/1797, NMM: MAM.
2. Nelson to Fanny, 30/6/1797, Monmouth MSS, E932.
3. Fanny to Nelson, 3/4/1797, Add. MSS 34988.
4. Nelson to Fanny, 14/3/1797, Monmouth MSS, E922.
5. Fanny to Nelson, 17/4/1797, Add. MSS 34988; Nelson to Scrivener, 15/6/1797, Ron C. Fiske, Notices of Nelson, p. 13.
6. Nelson to William, 10/11/1783, Add. MSS 34988; William to Nelson, 3/5/1802, Alfred Morrison, Hamilton and Nelson Papers, 2, p. 188; Nelson to Fanny, 17/2/1796, 20/5/1796, Monmouth MSS, E886, E895.
7. Nelson to his father, 19/8/1796, Add. MSS 34988; Henry Gunning, Reminiscences, 2, p. 232; J. A. Venn, Alumni Cantabrigienses, 2, pt 4, p. 524.
8. Nelson to Fanny, 6/1/1796, 9/4/1796, 20/5/1796, Monmouth MSS, E881, E890, E895; pay books of Agamemnon and Captain, ADM 35/69, ADM 35/401; Nelson to Nepean, 6/10/1797, 28/11/1797, ADM 1/396; Marsh and Creed accounts in Morrison, Hamilton and Nelson Papers, 2, pp. 382–99, and (for 1797) in Western MSS 3676, Wellcome Library, London.
9. Accounts of Daniel Shelds, Turnbull and Company, and William Dickman in Western MSS 3676, Wellcome Library; Nelson to Fellowes, 2/10/1797, Huntington Library, San Marino, California.
10. Nelson to William, 4/3/1796, Add. MSS 34933. Prize and head money, the latter payable on captured warships, could yield large returns. Nelson netted £381 for the capture of the Vierge de la Mercie in 1793, while in 1794 three small ships and some bales of cotton gave the Agamemnon £758, of which the captain’s share (two-eighths in this instance) would have been £190 (McArthur to Nelson, 15/7/1795, Western MSS 3676, Wellcome Library; Udny to Nelson, 18/6/1794, with accounts, NMM: 75/102). The total amount Nelson made in this way is difficult to assess. One list (Add. MSS 34902: 104; D&L, 2, p. 178) suggests that Nelson earned £2,745 from prize and head money up to 11 May 1796, but additional sums were being paid as court proceedings and prize-taking continued. Two cargoes taken in April and May 1796 eventually yielded the Agamemnon 2,840 Spanish dollars, probably giving Nelson £172, and the following January he received £226 on account of a Genoese corn polacre brought into Porto Ferraio (prize list, 1796, and accounts of Udny and Ogle, 1797, Western MSS 3676, Wellcome Library). Final receipts for the riviera campaign were still unclear in 1802 (D&L, 5, pp. 11, 13).
11. Nelson to Jervis, 10/7/1797, NMM: JER/3–4; Jervis to Elliot, 14/7/1796, Add. MSS 31166.
12. Mary C. Innes, William Wolseley, pp. 99–100; Nelson to Pollard, 27/6/1794, in Warren R. Dawson, ed., Nelson Collection, p. 51; Plampin to Nelson, 1795, Add. MSS 34905; log of the Romulus, ADM 51/1130.
13. Saumarez to his brother, 6/3/1797, in Sir John Ross, Saumarez, 1, p. 177.
14. Jervis to Nelson, 2/3/1797, Add. MSS 31176; Jervis to Nepean, 5/3/1797, ADM 1/396; Nelson to Connell, 28/3/1797, Huntington Library; notes of Sir Robert Chambers, Monmouth MSS, E378. The officers of the Irresistible were Lieutenants William Bevians, Andrew Thomson, George Seaton, Arthur Maxwell and Robert Forbes, and surgeon Richard Burke (ADM 36/11775). For her movements see the logs, ADM 51/1194 and ADM 52/3128.
15. Jervis to Nelson, 3, 4, 10/4/1797, Add. MSS 31176; Nelson to his captains, 11/4/1797, ADM 1/396.
16. Collingwood to Nelson, 13/4/1797, Add. MSS 34906.
17. Nelson to Jervis, 12/4/1797, D&L, 2, p. 378.
18. Nelson to Jervis, 14/3/1797, 11/4/1797, D&L, 7, p. cxxix, and 2, p. 376.
19. Jervis to Nelson, 12/4/1797, Add. MSS 31176; Jervis to Fremantle, 14/3/1797, Add. MSS 31166; Sutton to Pole, 28/4/1797, NMM: WYN/101.
20. Nelson to Jervis, 1/5/1797, Monmouth MSS, E988. For Fremantle’s voyage see the log of the Inconstant, ADM 51/1179.
21. Anne Fremantle, ed., Wynne Diaries (1935–40), 2, p. 176, which also contains a journal of Nelson’s return journey; Nelson to Jervis, 21/4/1797, 1/5/1797, ADM 1/396; Spencer to Jervis, 8/7/1797, Add. MSS 75812.
22. Cockburn to Nelson, 24/7/1797, Add. MSS 34906.
23. Udny to Nelson, 11/4/1797, Add. MSS 34906.
24. Ogle to Nelson, 22/3/1797, Add. MSS 34905; Nelson accounts in Morrison, Hamilton and Nelson Papers, 2, pp. 382–99.
25. For the missing ship see De Burgh to Elliot, 21/5/1797, 6/7/1797, NMM: ELL/148; Nelson to Jervis, 5/5/1797, Monmouth MSS, E988.
26. Sutton to Pole, 28/4/1797, NMM: WYN/101; Nelson to Spencer, 28/5/1797, BL: A. M. Broadley, ‘Nelsoniana’, 1, facing p. 24.
27. Nelson to Clarence, 26/5/1797, NMM: AGC/27; Nelson to Calder, 17/6/1797, Monmouth MSS, E988; Nelson to Hoste, 30/6/1797, D&L, 2, p. 401. The first complaint of the mutineers, as given in the Queen Charlotte petition of 18/4/1797, concerned pay: G. E. Manwaring and Bonamy Dobree, Floating Republic, p. 265.
28. Court martial, 20/5/1797, ADM 1/5339; Jervis to Nepean, 21/5/1797, ADM 1/396; Fremantle, Wynne Diaries, 2, p. 184.
29. Nelson to Miller, 24/5/1797, Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia. Nelson to McArthur, 1/6/1797, Rosenbach Museum and Library, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
30. Weatherhead was made acting lieutenant on 2 April 1797, filling the place of the promoted Noble, and Nisbet received a similar commission two days later, although in his case it was regularised in May (Add. MSS 31176: 117; muster, ADM 36/14801; Nisbet’s return of service, 1817, ADM 9/2: no. 94). The other transferring lieutenants were Summers and Compton, and two recruits to the Captain, John Davies and Richard Hawkins, originally recruited from the Lively and Egmont respectively. The seven petty officers included Bolton, Hoste and Schroder of the Agamemnon, and Joseph Peraldi, a
nineteen-year-old Corsican from Ajaccio. The important posts retained by Theseus men were those of captain of marines (Thomas Oldfield), master (Thomas Atkinson) and purser (John Hopper).