The Story of Nelson 6

The Story of Nelson 6

On the 25th June 1783 Nelson was again at Portsmouth. After seeing to

the well-being of his sailors he travelled on the leisurely stage-coach

to London, where he was presented to the King by Lord Hood. In the

following September hostilities were concluded between Great Britain,

America, France, Spain, and Holland by the signature of the Treaty of

Versailles. The officer, therefore, found no difficulty in obtaining

six months’ leave to visit France. There he realised that perhaps there

might be some truth in the old adage to the effect that Jack has a

sweetheart in every port.

 

 

 

 

CHAPTER III

 

Pleasure in France and Work in the West Indies

 

(1783-1793)

 

_Admirals all, for England’s sake

Honour be theirs, and fame;

And honour, so long as waves shall break,

To Nelson’s peerless name._

 

HENRY NEWBOLT.

 

 

Nelson took the greatest possible interest in everything he saw in

France: “Sterne’s ‘Sentimental Journey’ is the best description I can

give of our tour.” He travelled in a chaise without springs, slept on

a straw bed--“O what a transition from happy England!”--but had less

fault to find with the scenery about Montreuil, which he describes as

“the finest corn country that my eyes ever beheld, diversified with

fine woods, sometimes for two miles together through noble forests. The

roads mostly were planted with trees, which made as fine an avenue as

to any gentleman’s country seat.” At St Omer he lodged with “a pleasant

French family,” and incidentally made the acquaintance of “two very

agreeable young ladies, daughters, who honour us with their company

pretty often.... Therefore I must learn French if ’tis only for the

pleasure of talking to them, for they do not speak a word of English.”

Soon all thoughts of study and of the “very agreeable” maidens were

banished from his impressionable mind by his introduction to a Miss

Andrews, the daughter of an English clergyman. The affair rapidly

ripened into something more than friendship.

 

_Her faults he knew not, Love is always blind,

But every charm resolved within his mind._

 

Nelson’s letters go far to prove the truth of Pope’s couplet. Miss

Andrews was, according to him, “the most accomplished woman my eyes

ever beheld.” Unfortunately marriage is necessarily based on that

mundane and concrete thing, money. When the ardent young officer came

to look into the financial aspect of the matter he found that his

income did not exceed £130 a year. His lady-love’s dowry was “1,000_l._

I understand.” He therefore appealed to his uncle, William Suckling,

to allow him £100 per annum until he could earn that sum for himself.

Failing this source of supply, would his relative “exert” himself “to

get me a guard-ship, or some employment in a public office where the

attendance of the principal is not necessary...? In the India Service I

understand (if it remains under the Directors) their marine force is to

be under the command of a captain in the Royal Navy: that is a station

I should like.” He prays that his uncle and his family “may never know

the pangs which at this instant tear my heart.”

 

Cupid’s shaft neither proved deadly nor barbed. On his return to

England Nelson dismissed his love affair, and was soon “running at

the ring of pleasure” in London. He visited Lord Howe, First Lord

of the Admiralty, “who asked me if I wished to be employed, which I

told him I did”; dined with Lord Hood, who made him feel quite at

home, and told him “that the oftener I came the happier it would make

him.” In January 1784 he was at Bath, and wrote to his brother that

he thought of paying a second visit to the Continent till autumn and

then spending the winter with him at Burnham Thorpe. “I return to many

charming women, _but no charming woman_ will return with me,” is the

plaint. “I want to be a proficient in the language, which is my only

reason for returning. I hate their country and their manners,” which

hatred, it may be said, increased with the passing of the years. This

pessimistic strain is doubtless due to Nelson’s undesirable position as

a half-pay officer, but in the middle of March his somewhat mercurial

temperament underwent a change to “set fair” on his appointment to the

_Boreas_, a frigate of 28 guns, under orders for the Leeward Islands.

The passengers included Lady Hughes, wife of Rear-Admiral Sir Richard

Hughes, Bart., the Commander-in-Chief, and her daughter, whom he very

ungallantly described as “lumber.” His brother, the Rev. William

Nelson, accompanied him as chaplain of the _Boreas_, but returned on

the last day of September 1784 owing to ill-health.

 

Before leaving Spithead Nelson had an alarming adventure. He was riding

what he describes as a “_blackguard_ horse” in company with a lady,

when both animals bolted. In order to save his legs from being crushed

in a narrow road blocked by a waggon the young gallant was obliged to

throw himself, and he had the ill-luck to fall upon hard stones, which

injured his back and one of his limbs. His fair companion was only

saved from death by the presence of mind of a passer-by who pluckily

seized the bridle of the terrified animal to which she was frantically

clinging.

 

[Illustration: “He had the ill-luck to fall upon hard stones”

 

Stephen Reid]

 

The voyage to Antigua was devoid of incident. It was monotonous, and

Nelson hated nothing so much as monotony. Lady Hughes bored him,

although it is only just to add that he does not appear to have let her

know it. The lady herself was certainly impressed with the kindly way

Nelson treated “the young gentlemen who had the happiness of being on

his Quarter-Deck,” to quote a letter written by her in 1806. “It may

reasonably be supposed,” she goes on, “that among the number of thirty,

there must be timid as well as bold: the timid he never rebuked, but

always wished to show them he desired nothing of them that he would

not instantly do himself: and I have known him say--‘Well, sir, I am

going a race to the masthead, and I beg I may meet you there.’ No

denial could be given to such a wish, and the poor fellow instantly

began his march. His Lordship never took the least notice with what

alacrity it was done, but when he met in the top, instantly began

talking in the most cheerful manner, and saying how much a person was

to be pitied that could fancy there was any danger, or even anything

disagreeable, in the attempt.... In like manner he every day went to

the schoolroom and saw them do their nautical business, and at twelve

o’clock he was first upon the deck with his quadrant. No one there

could be behindhand in his business when their Captain set them so

good an example. One other circumstance I must mention which will

close the subject, which was the day we landed at Barbadoes. We were

to dine at the Governor’s. Our dear Captain said, ‘You must permit me,

Lady Hughes, to carry one of my aides-de-camp with me,’ and when he

presented him to the Governor, he said, ‘Your Excellency must excuse

me for bringing one of my midshipmen, as I make it a rule to introduce

them to all the good company I can, they have few to look up to besides

myself during the time they are at sea.’ This kindness and attention

made the young people adore him; and even his wishes, could they have

been known, would have been instantly complied with.”

 

When Nelson made the acquaintance of Sir Richard Hughes he disliked

him as much as he did her ladyship. Probably the officer’s methods

rather than the man aroused this feeling of antagonism. “The Admiral

and all about him are great ninnies,” he writes, and he soon showed

in no vague way that he refused to support the Commander-in-chief’s

happy-go-lucky policy. Truth to tell, Nelson had no love of authority.

He preferred to be a kind of attached free-lance, although he was a

strict disciplinarian in all relations between his junior officers

and himself. “I begin to be very strict in my Ship,” is an __EXPRESSION__

he used while in the _Boreas_. In particular he fell foul of Hughes

in the matter of putting the Navigation Act into force. This law had

been passed by the Rump Parliament in 1651, when the Dutch held the

proud position of the world’s maritime carriers. It was enacted that

only English ships, commanded by an Englishman and manned by a crew

three-fourths of whom were also of the same nationality, should be

allowed to carry the products of Asia, Africa, and America to home

ports. In a similar manner, European manufactures had to be brought in

English vessels or those of the countries which produced the goods. In

the latter case the duties were heavier. It was Protection pure and

simple.

 

The Government of Charles II. and the Scottish Parliament passed

similar Acts in later years, thereby fostering the trading companies

which helped to lay the foundations of our colonial empire. Such

measures were a constant “thorn in the flesh” to foreign statesmen.

Several of the statutes were repealed in 1823, but the Navigation

Act was not entirely abandoned by Great Britain until 1848, after an

existence of nearly two hundred years.

 

Owing to their separation from the Motherland, the former British

colonists of America were, technically, “foreigners,” and should have

been subject to restrictions in their commercial intercourse with the

West Indies. “I, for one,” Nelson confides to Locker, “am determined

not to suffer the Yankees to come where my Ship is; for I am sure,

if once the Americans are admitted to any kind of intercourse with

these Islands, the views of the Loyalists in settling Nova Scotia are

entirely done away. They will first become the Carriers, and next have

possession of our Islands, are we ever again embroiled in a French

war. The residents of these Islands are Americans by connexion and

by interest, and are inimical to Great Britain. They are as great

rebels as ever were in America, had they the power to show it.... I am

determined to suppress the admission of Foreigners all in my power.”

 

“The Americans,” Nelson tells us in his Autobiography, “when colonists,

possessed almost all the trade from America to our West India Islands;

and on the return of peace, they forgot, on this occasion, that they

became foreigners, and of course had no right to trade in the British

Colonies.

 

“Our governors and custom-house officers pretended that by the

Navigation Act they had a right to trade; and all the West Indians

wished what was so much for their interest. Having given governors,

custom-house officers, and Americans, notice of what I would do, I

seized many of their vessels, which brought all parties upon me; and I

was persecuted from one island to another, so that I could not leave

my ship.” In this matter it may be said that Nelson found it necessary

to keep himself “a close prisoner” to avoid being served with writs

which had been issued against him by the owners of certain vessels

which he had taken, and who assessed their damages at several thousands

of pounds. “But conscious rectitude,” he adds, “bore me through it;

and I was supported, when the business came to be understood, from

home; and I proved (and an Act of Parliament has since established it)

that a captain of a man-of-war is in duty bound to support all the

maritime laws, by his Admiralty commission alone, without becoming a custom-house officer.”