The Story of Nelson 33

The Story of Nelson 33

While his third plan was more involved than the others, it had the

advantage of calling a greater number of ships into service. Villeneuve

was to start from Toulon with eleven ships, release the Spanish

squadron of six sail-of-the-line under the command of Admiral Gravina,

and one French ship, at Cadiz, and then make for Martinique, where he

would find Missiessy’s squadron of five sail. In a similar manner the

twenty-one ships of Ganteaume’s fleet at Brest were to rally Gourdon’s

fifteen vessels at Ferrol and also proceed to the West Indies. Thus

no fewer than fifty-nine sail and many smaller vessels would be

congregated for the final effort. While Nelson was searching for them,

this immense armament, with Ganteaume in supreme command, would recross

the Atlantic, appear off Boulogne, and convoy the flotilla to England.

It is unnecessary to give the alternative plans furnished to the

admirals. To do so would only tend to involve the broad outline of the

manœuvre as detailed above and serve no essential purpose.

 

Spurred on by Napoleon’s displeasure, Villeneuve put to sea on the

night of the 30th March 1805, and was sighted “with all sail set” by

two British frigates on the following morning. It was not until the

4th April that Nelson, then off Toro, received this useful if vague

intelligence, for the frigate which had followed in the tracks of

the Toulon fleet had lost sight of the enemy. Her captain “thinks

they either bore away to the eastward or steered S.S.W., as they were

going when first seen,” Nelson informs the Admiralty. He “covered

the Channel from Barbary to Toro with frigates and the fleet” in the

hope of discovering them or obtaining reliable information as to

their whereabouts. On the 18th April he says, “I am going out of the

Mediterranean after the French fleet. It may be thought that I have

protected too well Sardinia, Naples, Sicily, the Morea, and Egypt, from

the French; but I feel I have done right, and am therefore easy about

any fate which may await me for having missed the French fleet. I have

left five frigates, besides the sloops, &c., stationed at Malta for the

present service of the Mediterranean, and with the Neapolitan squadron

will, of course, be fully able to prevent any force the French have

left to convoy troops to Sicily.”

 

Nelson only succeeded in making sixty-five leagues in nine days “owing

to very bad weather.” It was not until the 18th April, when Villeneuve

had been at sea nearly three weeks, that he had news of the enemy

having passed through the Straits on the 8th. “I am proceeding with the

fleet under my command as expeditiously as possible to the westward in

pursuit of them.” Sir John Orde had so far forgotten or neglected his

duty that when Villeneuve made his appearance at Cadiz the commander of

the blockading squadron made off without either sending word to Nelson

or leaving a frigate to keep in touch with the enemy. Consequently

Nelson was still uncertain as to their destination. “The circumstance

of their having taken the Spanish ships which were [ready] for sea

from Cadiz, satisfies my mind that they are not bound to the West

Indies (nor probably the Brazils); but intend forming a junction with

the squadron at Ferrol, and pushing direct for Ireland or Brest, as I

believe the French have troops on board.” When off Tetuan on the 4th

May he rightly observes, “I cannot very properly run to the West Indies

without something beyond mere surmise; and if I defer my departure,

Jamaica may be lost. Indeed, as they have a month’s start of me, I see

no prospect of getting out time enough to prevent much mischief from

being done.” Gibraltar Bay was reached on the 6th May, and at 6 P.M.,

Nelson was making his way through the Gut owing to there being “every

appearance of a Levanter coming on.” Off Cape St Vincent he hoped to be

met by a frigate from Orde with intelligence of the enemy’s route and

also by a frigate from Lisbon. “If nothing is heard of them from Lisbon

or from the frigates I may find off Cape St Vincent, I shall probably

think the rumours which are spread are true, that their destination

is the West Indies, and in that case think it my duty to follow them,

or to the Antipodes, should I believe that to be their destination. I

shall detach a sloop of war to England from off the Cape, when my mind

is made up from either information or the want of it.”

 

Nelson’s idea as to the destination of the allied fleet was

corroborated by Commodore Donald Campbell, a Scotsman who had entered

the Portuguese navy. After clearing transports and taking on board

sufficient provisions for five months, he set out from Lagos Bay with

ten sail-of-the-line and a number of smaller craft on his long chase.

“My lot is cast,” he hurriedly informs Ball, “and I am going to the

West Indies, where, although I am late, yet chance may have given them

a bad passage and me a good one. I must hope the best.”

 

Many minds, many opinions. What had become of the Allied fleet? Even

more important, what had it accomplished? Such questions must have been

ever present in the mind of Nelson and his officers. Everything about

the enemy was so vague as almost to suggest a phantom fleet. “I still

think Jamaica is their object,” is Nelson’s comment on the 27th of May

when making for Barbadoes, “but many think Surinam or Trinidad; and

Bayntun, that they will land their troops at the city of San Domingo.

In short, everyone has an opinion, but it will soon be beyond doubt.

Our passage, although not very quick, has been far from a bad one. They

started from Cadiz thirty-one days before we did from St Vincent, and I

think we shall gain fourteen days upon them in the passage; therefore

they will only arrive seventeen days before us at Martinique, for I

suppose them bound there. I shall not anchor at Barbadoes.... I have

prayed Lord Seaforth to lay an embargo, that the French may not know of

my approach, and thus again elude our vigilance. My mind is not altered

that Egypt was their destination last January.” Eight days later,

when the fleet was in Carlisle Bay, Barbadoes, and Nelson’s force had

been augmented by the addition of two battleships under Cochrane, we

are informed that “There is not a doubt in any of the admirals’ or

generals’ minds, but that Tobago and Trinidad are the enemy’s objects;

and although I am anxious in the extreme to get at their eighteen

sail-of-the-line, yet, as Sir William Myers has offered to embark

himself with 2000 troops, I cannot refuse such a handsome offer; and,

with the blessing of God on a just cause, I see no cause to doubt of

the annihilation of both the enemy’s fleet and army.”

 

It happened that the general had received a letter on the previous

night from Brigadier-General Brereton, stationed at St Lucia, informing

him that the enemy’s fleet, “steering to the southward,” had been

reported as passing that island during the late hours of the 28th May.

According to Brereton’s supposition its destination “must be either

Barbadoes or Trinidad.”

 

Knowing full well that if the intelligence proved false it would lose

him the French fleet, but having no alternative, Nelson set off for

Tobago, where he learnt from the captain of an American vessel that

his ship had been boarded by a French sail-of-the-line the day before.

Then he received a signal from a passing ship that the enemy was at

Trinidad, where he anchored on the 7th June. Another report came to

land that on the 4th the enemy had been at Fort Royal and was likely

to sail during the night for the attack of Grenada. He was at the

latter island on the 9th, and heard that the enemy had not only passed

Dominica three days before, “standing to the northward,” but had been

lucky enough to capture a convoy of ships laden with sugar. Nelson

peeped in at Montserrat on the 11th; on the 13th the troops were being

disembarked at St John’s, Antigua, at which place the fleet had arrived

the previous evening. “At noon I sailed in my pursuit of the enemy;

and I do not yet despair of getting up with them before they arrive at

Cadiz or Toulon, to which ports I think they are bound, or at least

in time to prevent them from having a moment’s superiority. I have no

reason to blame Dame Fortune. If either General Brereton could not have

wrote, or his look-out man had been blind, nothing could have prevented

my fighting them on 6 June; but such information, and from such a

quarter, close to the enemy, could not be doubted.” He had already

sent a fast-sailing brig with despatches to the Admiralty informing

them of the probable return of the combined fleet to Europe, although

so late as the 18th July he was not sure that the enemy had not tricked

him and gone to Jamaica. With commendable alacrity Admiral Stirling was

told to form a junction with Sir Robert Calder off Ferrol, and to await

the enemy, for the commander of the brig has sighted the quarry and

was of opinion from the course they were making that the neighbourhood

of Cape Finisterre was their desired haven. It has remained for two

modern historians to point out that Nelson had discerned the likelihood

of Ferrol as an anchorage for Villeneuve’s fleet, and had forwarded a

warning to the Admiral stationed off that port.[65]

 

On the date just mentioned Nelson joined Collingwood off Cadiz, but

no accurate news awaited him. Indeed, the former pinned his faith

to an attack on Ireland as the grand _finale_ of Napoleon’s naval

manœuvres. At Gibraltar the Admiral went on shore for the first time

since the 16th June, 1803--over two years. From thence he proceeded to

Cornwallis’s station off Ushant, and received orders from the Admiral

to sail with the _Victory_ and the _Superb_ for Spithead. He struck his

flag on the 19th August 1805 and set off for Merton.

 

To what extent had Napoleon’s plans succeeded? Villeneuve had reached

Martinique on the 14th May, only to find that Missiessy had not awaited

his coming according to instructions. Ganteaume was also unable to

carry out his part of the plan, consequently Villeneuve was alone in

the West Indies and might become Nelson’s prey at any moment. The

prospect did not please him. When he heard that the great British

commander had not only arrived at Barbadoes but had been reinforced

by Cochrane he set the bows of his ships in the direction of home,

contrary to the Emperor’s orders to wait for a stated period for

Ganteaume’s arrival. So far from raiding the British West Indies,

Villeneuve only succeeded in capturing the Diamond Rock at Martinique

and Missiessy in taking Dominica, although the latter had reinforced

the French colonies.

 

After a perilous voyage Villeneuve was approaching Ferrol in thick

weather on the 22nd July when he came face to face with the squadron of

fifteen battleships and four smaller vessels which had been sent by the

Admiralty to await his coming. The action which followed was anything

but decisive. The fleet Nelson had longed to annihilate was allowed to

escape by Calder, whose only prizes were the Spanish _San Rafael_ (84)

and _El Firme_ (74). After leaving three of his less seaworthy ships at

Vigo, the French commander eventually reached Coruña.

 

Another Act of the great Atlantic Drama was over.

 

 

 

 

CHAPTER XX

 

Nelson’s Last Command

 

(1805)

 

“_May the God of Battles crown my endeavours with success._”

 

NELSON.

 

 

In the previous chapter we left Nelson at Portsmouth after having

chased the enemy nearly seven thousand miles, and been absent from

home twenty-seven months. When “England’s darling” set foot on the

landing-stage he received an immense ovation from the crowds of people

who had assembled to show their appreciation of his services. “It is

really quite affecting to see the wonder and admiration and love and

respect of the whole world,” writes Lord Minto, referring to a mob in

Piccadilly a little later, “and the general __EXPRESSION__ of all these

sentiments at once, from gentle and simple, the moment he is seen. It

is beyond anything represented in a play or poem.”

 

It was characteristic of the man that, before leaving his ship,

he communicated with the Admiralty regarding the companies of the

_Victory_ and the _Superb_. He said they were in “most perfect health,

and only require some vegetables and other refreshments to remove the

scurvy.” Nelson at once proceeded to Merton, where he lived in quiet

retirement with Lady Hamilton, playing with their beloved Horatia, or

having a mental tussle with the French as he walked the garden-paths

for hours without noticing either the passing of time or the presence

of fatigue. Perhaps he pondered over the irony of Fate in giving

the allied fleet into the hands of Calder, who had let the golden

opportunity slip by him so easily, but more probably he wondered if the

fickle goddess would yet allow him to break the yoke of Napoleon on the seas.