Drake, Nelson and Napoleon by Walter Runciman

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To the Right Honourable Rear-Admiral the Earl of Northesk, to
the captains, officers, and seamen, and to the officers,
non-commissioned officers, and privates of the Royal Marines, I
beg to give my sincere and hearty thanks for their highly
meritorious conduct, both in the action and in their zeal and
activity in bringing the captured ships out from the perilous
situation in which they were, after their surrender, among the
shoals of Trafalgar in boisterous weather. And I desire that the
respective captains will be pleased to communicate to the
officers, seamen, and Royal Marines, this public testimony of my
high approbation of their conduct, and my thanks for it.

(_Signed_) C. COLLINGWOOD.

To the Right Honourable Rear-Admiral
the Earl of Northesk,
and the respective Captains and
Commanders.

GENERAL ORDER.

The Almighty God, whose arm is strength, having of his great
mercy been pleased to crown the exertions of his Majesty's
fleet with success, in giving them a complete victory over
their enemies, on the 21st of this month; and that all praise
and thanksgiving may be offered up to the throne of grace, for
the great benefit to our country and to mankind, I have thought
it proper that a day should be appointed of general humiliation
before God, and thanksgiving for his merciful goodness,
imploring forgiveness of sins, a continuation of his divine
mercy, and his constant aid to us, in defence of our country's
liberties and laws, and without which the utmost efforts of man
are nought; and therefore that [blank] be appointed for this
holy purpose.

Given on board the "Euryalus," off Cape Trafalgar,
October 22, 1805.
(_Signed_) C. COLLINGWOOD

To the respective Captains and Commanders.

N.B.--The fleet having been dispersed by a gale of wind, no day
has yet been able to be appointed for the above purpose.

Against the desire of his dead comrade, Collingwood carried into
practice his own sound and masterful judgment not to anchor either his
conquests or any of his own vessels on a lee ironbound shore. Even had
his ground tackle been sound and intact, which it was not, and the
holding ground good instead of bad, he acted in a seamanlike manner by
holding steadfastly to the sound sailor tradition always to keep the
gate open for drift, to avoid being caught, and never to anchor on a
lee shore; and if perchance you get trapped, as hundreds have been,
get out of it quickly, if you can, before a gale comes on. But in no
case is it good seamanship to anchor. There is always a better chance
of saving both the ship and lives by driving ashore in the square
effort to beat off rather than by anchoring. The cables, more often
than not, part, and if they do, the ship is doomed, and so may lives
be. Hundreds of sailing vessels were saved in other days by the skill
of their commanders in carrying out a plan, long since forgotten,
called clubhauling off a lee shore. Few sailors living to-day will
know the phrase, or how to apply it to advantage. It was a simple
method, requiring ability, of helping the vessel to tack when the wind
and sea made it impossible in the ordinary way. A large kedge with a
warp bent on was let go on either the port or starboard quarter at an
opportune moment to make sure the vessel would cant the right way, and
then the warp was cut with an axe. In the writer's opinion, it would
have been just as unwise to anchor at Trafalgar after the battle, in
view of the weather and all circumstances, as it would be to anchor on
the Yorkshire or any part of the North-East Coast when an easterly
gale is blowing. But apart from the folly of it, there were none of
the ships that had ground tackle left that was fit to hold a cat.

Without a doubt, Nelson's mind was distracted and suffering when he
gave Hardy the order to anchor. The shadows were hovering too thickly
round him at the time for him to concentrate any sound judgment. Some
writers have condemned Collingwood for not carrying out the dying
request of his Commander-in-Chief. It was a good thing that the
command of the fleet fell into the hands of a man who had knowledge
and a mind unimpaired to carry out his fixed opinions. When Hardy
conveyed Nelson's message, he replied, "That is the very last thing
that I would have thought of doing," and he was right. Had Nelson
come out of the battle unscathed, he would assuredly have acted as
Collingwood did, and as any well-trained and soundly-balanced sailor
would have done. Besides, he always made a point of consulting "Coll,"
as he called him, on great essential matters. If it had been
summer-time and calm, or the wind off the land, and the glass
indicating a continuance of fine weather, and provided the vessels'
cables had been sound, it might have paid to risk a change of wind and
weather in order to refit with greater expedition and save the prizes,
but certainly not in the month of October in that locality, where the
changes are sudden and severe. Collingwood acted like a sound
hardheaded man of affairs in salving all he could and destroying those
he could not without risk of greater disaster.

Collingwood's account of his difficulties after the battle was won is
contained in the following letter to his father-in-law:--

"QUEEN,"

_2nd November, 1805._

MY DEAR SIR,--I wrote to my dear Sarah a few lines when I sent
my first dispatches to the Admiralty, which account I hope will
satisfy the good people of England, for there never was, since
England had a fleet, such a combat. In three hours the combined
fleet were annihilated, upon their own shores, at the entrance
of their port, amongst their own rocks. It has been a very
difficult thing to collect an account of our success, but by the
best I have twenty-three sail of the line surrendered to us, out
of which three, in the furious gale we had afterward, being
driven to the entrance of the harbour of Cadiz, received
assistance and got in; these were the _Santa Anna_, the
_Algeziras_, and _Neptune_ (the last since sunk and lost); the
_Santa Anna's_ side was battered in. The three we have sent to
Gibraltar are the _San Ildefonso_, _San Juan Nepomuceno_, and
_Swiftsure_; seventeen others we have burnt, sunk, and run on
shore, but the _Bahama_ I have yet hope of saving; she is gone
to Gibraltar. Those ships which effected their escape into Cadiz
are quite wrecks; some have lost their masts since they got in,
and they have not a spar or a store to refit them. We took four
admirals--Villeneuve the commander-in-chief, Vice-Admiral
D'Alava, Rear-Admiral Cisneros, Spanish, and Magon, the French
admiral, who was killed--besides a great number of brigadiers
(commanders). D'Alava, wounded, was driven into Cadiz in the
_Santa Anna_; Gravina, who was not taken, has lost his arm
(amputated I have heard, but not from him); of men, their loss
is many thousands, for I reckon in the captured ships we took
twenty thousand prisoners (including the troops). This was a
victory to be proud of; but in the loss of my excellent friend,
Lord Nelson, and a number of brave men, we paid dear for it;
when my dear friend received his wound, he immediately sent an
officer to me to tell me of it, and give his love to me. Though
the officer was directed to say the wound was not dangerous, I
read in his countenance what I had to fear; and before the
action was over Captain Hardy came to inform me of his death. I
cannot tell you how deeply I was affected, for my friendship for
him was unlike anything that I have left in the Navy, a
brotherhood of more than thirty years; in this affair he did
nothing without my counsel; we made our line of battle together,
and concerted the mode of attack, which was put into execution
in the most admirable style. I shall grow very tired of the sea
soon; my health has suffered so much from the anxious state I
have been in, and the fatigue I have undergone, that I shall be
unfit for service. The severe gales which immediately followed
the day of victory ruined our prospect of prizes; our own infirm
ships could scarce keep off the shore; the prizes were left to
their fate, and as they were driven very near the port, I
ordered them to be destroyed by burning and sinking, that there
might be no risk of their falling again into the hands of the
enemy. There has been a great destruction of them, indeed I
hardly know what, but not less than seventeen or eighteen, the
total ruin of the combined fleet. To alleviate the miseries of
the wounded, as much as in my power, I sent a flag to the
Marquis Solano, to offer him his wounded. Nothing can exceed
the gratitude expressed by him, for this act of humanity; all
this part of Spain is in an uproar of praise and thankfulness to
the English. Solano sent me a present of a cask of wine, and we
have a free intercourse with the shore. Judge of the footing we
are on, when I tell you he offered me his hospitals, and pledged
the Spanish honour for the care and cure of our wounded men. Our
officers and men, who were wrecked in some of the prize ships,
were received like divinities; all the country was on the beach
to receive them; the priests and women distributing wine, and
bread and fruit among them; the soldiers turned out of their
barracks to make lodging for them, whilst their allies, the
French, were left to shift for themselves, with a guard over
them to prevent their doing mischief. After the battle I shifted
my flag to the _Euryalus_ frigate, that I might the better
distribute my orders; and when the ships were destroyed and the
squadron in safety, I came here, my own ship being totally
disabled; she lost her last mast in the gale. All the northern
boys, and Graydon, are alive; Kennicott has a dangerous wound in
his shoulder; Thompson is wounded in the arm, and just at the
conclusion of the action his leg was broken by a splinter;
little Charles is unhurt, but we have lost a good many
youngsters. For myself, I am in so forlorn a state, my servants
killed, my luggage, what is left, is on board the _Sovereign_,
and Clavell[16] wounded. I have appointed Sir Peter Parker's[17]
grandson, and Captain Thomas, my old lieutenant, post captains;
Clavell, and the first lieutenant of the _Victory_, made
commanders; but I hope the Admiralty will do more for them, for
in the history of our Navy there is no instance of a victory so
complete and so great. The ships that escaped into Cadiz are
wrecks; and they have neither stores nor inclination to refit
them. I shall now go, as soon as I get a sufficient squadron
equipped, and see what I can do with the Carthagenians; if I can
get at them, the naval war will be finished in this country.
Prize-money I shall get little or none for this business, for
though the loss of the enemy may be estimated at near four
millions, it is most of it gone to the bottom. Don Argemoso, who
was formerly captain of the _Isedro_, commanded the _Monarca_,
one of our captures; he sent to inform me he was in the
_Leviathan_, and I immediately ordered, for our old acquaintance
sake, his liberty on parole. All the Spaniards speak of us in
terms of adoration; and Villeneuve, whom I had in the frigate,
acknowledges that they cannot contend with us at sea. I do not
know what will be thought of it in England, but the effect here
is highly advantageous to the British name. Kind remembrances to
all my friends; I dare say your neighbour, Mr.---- will be
delighted with the history of the battle; if he had been in it,
it would have animated him more than all his daughter's
chemistry; it would have new strung his nerves, and made him
young again. God bless you, my dear sir, may you be ever happy;
it is very long since I heard from home.

I am, ever, your most truly affectionate,

CUTHBERT COLLINGWOOD.

I have ordered all the boys to be discharged into this ship;
another such fight will season them pretty well. Brown is in
perfect health. We had forty-seven killed, ninety-four wounded.

Great efforts were made to get all the people out of the disabled
vessels before they drifted ashore. It is really splendid to read the
official account of the deeds of bravery of our fine fellows risking
their own lives to save the lives of those they had defeated. Seven
days after the battle, the _Victory_ arrived at Gibraltar, and
although her masts had been shot away and her hull badly damaged, she
was refitted and sailed for England on the 4th November, the same day
that the straggling Dumanoir and his ships fell into the hands of Sir
Richard Strachan in the Bay of Biscay.

XIV

On the _Victory's_ arrival at Spithead with Nelson's remains aboard,
preserved in spirits, the body was taken out and put in a leaden
coffin filled with brandy and other strong preservatives. On the
arrival of the _Victory_ at the entrance of the Thames, the body was
removed, dressed in the Admiral's uniform, and put into the coffin
made out of the mainmast of _L'Orient_ and presented to Nelson some
years before by Captain Hallowell. It was then put into a third case,
and on the 9th January, 1806, after lying in state for three days, the
remains were buried in St. Paul's.

The imposing demonstrations of sorrow could not be excelled.
Parliament voted a monument in St. Paul's Cathedral, and others were
erected in all the principal towns in England and Scotland. There were
neither material honours nor eulogies great enough to express the
gratitude that was felt throughout the United Kingdom for the late
Admiral's achievements. His widow, whom he had not seen for years, and
from whom he was definitely parted, was granted L2,000 per annum for
life. His brother was made an Earl, with a perpetual income of L6,000
a year, and L15,000 of national money was voted to each of the
sisters, while L100,000 was given for an estate to be attached to the
title. The human legacy left by Nelson of Emma Hamilton and their
daughter Horatia were not mentioned, though he seems to have implored
Heaven and earth in their behalf. Obviously, the Government felt that
they dare not be generous to everybody, even though it were Nelson's
dying injunction. Collingwood, who had as much to do with the triumph
of Trafalgar as Nelson himself, without making any ado about it, was
treated pretty much like a provincial mayor. The mayor, of course,
may and often does adopt a luxurious Roman style of living in
order that his local deeds may not escape observation, but such
self-advertisement was entirely foreign to Collingwood's character.
It was fitting that every reasonable honour should have been paid to
the memory of a great Englishman, whose deeds, in co-operation with
others, have never been surpassed. But to make grants and give honours
of so generous a character to Nelson's relatives, and especially
to his wife, who had been a torment to him, and to measure out
Collingwood's equally great accomplishments with so mean a hand, is an
astonishing example of parsimony which, for the sake of our national
honour, it is to be hoped rarely occurs. Even the haughty, plethoric
nobles of a fourth-rate town council (if it be not a libel to mention
them in connection with so discreditable an affair) would have judged
the manifest fitness of things better than to make any distinction
between Admiral Collingwood and his lifelong friend Nelson.

Surely this famous and eminently worthy public servant was as
deserving of an Earldom as was Nelson's brother, and his wife and
daughters of a more generous allowance than that of his dead chief's
widow and sisters!--this distinguished man, who helped to plan the
order of battle at Trafalgar and was the first to take his ship into
action in a way that inflamed the pride and admiration of the
Commander-in-Chief, and made him spontaneously exclaim, "See,
Blackwood, how that noble fellow Collingwood takes his ship into
battle! How I envy him!"

No one knew as well as Nelson that his comrade, next to himself, was
to play the leading part in not only assuring a victory, but in
completely annihilating the French and Spanish fleets. Yet the British
Government of that day only counted the services he had rendered to
the nation worthy of a peerage, plus the same pension as Nelson's
widow; i.e. he was to have a pension of L2,000 a year, and after his
death Lady Collingwood was to have the munificent sum of L1,000 per
annum and each of his two daughters L500 a year. He never drew his
pension, as they kept him in the service he had made so great until he
was a physical wreck. He died on his way home aboard the _Ville de
Paris_ on the 7th March, 1810, and was laid to rest in St. Paul's
Cathedral alongside of his distinguished friend Lord Nelson.

I have already drawn attention to Nelson's blind prejudice to and
hatred of the French. Collingwood was tainted with the same one-sided
views, but tempered them with more conventional language. In his
letters to Lady Collingwood he expresses delight at receiving a letter
written to him in French by his daughter, and exhorts the mother to
see that she converses when she can in that language, and to remember
that she is never to admire anything French but the language. On
another occasion he enjoins his daughter Sarah to write every day a
translation of English into French, so that the language may soon
become familiar to her; and then, as though he regarded these
instructions as unpatriotic, he qualifies them by reminding her "that
it is the only thing French that she needs to acquire, because there
is little else in connection with that country which he would wish her
to love or imitate." A kinsman of his, after the battle of Trafalgar,
wrote to inform him that his family were descended from, and allied
to, many great families, Talebois amongst the rest. He brushed the
intended compliment aside, and in his quaint manner remarked that "he
had never troubled to search out his genealogy but all he could say
was, that if he got hold of the French fleet, he would either be a
Viscount or nothing." This is one of the very rare symptoms of
vaunting that he ever gave way to; and though his dislike of the
French was as inherent as Nelson's, he never allowed his chivalrous
nature to be overruled by passion. In a letter to Lord Radstock in
1806 he closes it by paying a high tribute to the unfortunate French
Admiral Villeneuve by stating "that he was a well-bred man, and a good
officer, who had nothing of the offensive vapourings and boastings in
his manner which were, perhaps, too commonly attributed to the
Frenchmen."

Collingwood was a man of high ideals with a deeply religious fervour,
never sinning and then repenting as Nelson was habitually doing.
Physical punishment of his men was abhorrent to him, and although he
enforced stern discipline on his crew, they worshipped him. "I cannot
understand," he said, "the religion of an officer who can pray all one
day and flog his men all the next." His method was to create a feeling
of honour amongst his men, and he did this with unfailing success,
without adopting the harsh law of the land made by English
aristocrats.

In a letter to his wife, dated September, 1806, Collingwood informs
her that the Queen of Naples expected to be put on the throne of
Naples again and had intimated the desire of showing her gratitude to
himself by creating him a Sicilian Duke and giving him an estate. "If
a Dukedom is offered to me," he tells her, "I shall return my thanks
for the honour they wish to confer upon me, and show my estimate of it
by telling them that I am the servant of my sovereign alone, and can
receive no rewards from a foreign prince." Napoleon denounced Marie
Caroline, Queen of Naples, as "a wicked shameless woman, who had
violated all that men held most sacred." She had ceased to reign, and
by her crimes she had fulfilled her destiny. Collingwood, who knew her
public and private character to be notoriously untrustworthy and
loose, looked upon the proposed honour from such a person as an
affront, and refused to accept it if offered. Nelson, on the other
hand, who had a passion for window-dressing and flattery, accepted
with a flowing heart both a Dukedom and an estate from their Sicilian
Majesties. His close intimacy with the Royal Family, and especially
with the Queen, was a perpetual anxiety to his loyal and devoted
friends.

There were no two men in the Service who had such an affectionate
regard for each other as Nelson and the amiable Northumbrian Admiral,
and certainly none equalled them in their profession or in their
devotion to their King and country. Each was different from the other
in temperament and character, but both were alike in superb
heroism--the one, egotistically untamed, revelling at intervals in
lightning flashes of eternal vengeance on the French fleet when the
good fortune of meeting them should come; and the other, with calm
reticence elaborating his plans and waiting patiently for his chance
to take part in the challenge that was to decide the dominion of the
sea. Each, in fact, rivalled in being a spirit to the other. Nelson
believed, and frequently said, that he "wished to appear as a
godsend"; while Collingwood, in more humble and piercing phrase,
remarked that "while it is England, let me keep my place in the
forefront of the battle." The sound of the names of these two
remarkable men is like an echo from other far-off days. Both believed
that God was on their side.

Neither of them knew the character or purpose of the exalted man on
whom their Government was making war. Like simple-minded, brave
sailors as they were, knowing nothing of the mysteries of political
jealousies and intrigue, and believing that the men constituting the
Government must be of high mental and administrative ability, they
assumed that they were carrying out a flawless patriotic duty, never
doubting the wisdom of it; and it was well for England that they did
not. Men always fight better when they know and believe their cause is
just.

Collingwood, like most of his class, gave little thought to money
matters. He had "no ambition," he says, "to possess riches," but he
had to being recognized in a proper way. He wished the succession of
his title to be conferred on his daughters, as he had no son. This was
a modest and very natural desire, considering what the nation owed to
him, but it was not granted, and the shame of it can never be
redeemed. In one of his letters to Mr. Blackett he says to him, "I was
exceedingly displeased at some of the language held in the House of
Commons on the settlement of the pension upon my daughters; it was not
of my asking, and if I had a favour to ask, money would be the last
thing I would beg from an impoverished country. I am not a Jew, whose
god is gold; nor a Swiss, whose services are to be counted against so
much money. I have motives for my conduct which I would not give in
exchange for a hundred pensions."

These lines speak eloquently of the high order of this illustrious
man. He despises money, but claims it as his right to have proper
recognition of his services, which the Government should have given
him generously and with both hands. In so many words he says, "Keep
your money, I am not to be bought, but confer on me if you will some
suitable token that will convince me that you do really, in the name
of the nation, appreciate what I have done for it." Services such as
he had rendered could never have been adequately rewarded by either
money or honours, no matter how high in degree. In the affairs of
money these two great Admirals were pretty similar, except that
Collingwood knew better how to spend it than Nelson. Both were
generous, though the former had method and money sense, while the
latter does not appear to have had either. He was accustomed to say
"that the want of fortune was a crime which he could never get over."
Both in temperament and education Collingwood was superior to Nelson.
The former knew that he had done and was capable of doing great deeds,
but he would never condescend to seek for an honour reward; while
Nelson, who also knew when he had distinguished himself in the
national interest, expected to be rewarded, and on occasions when it
was too tardily withheld, he became peevish, whimpered a good deal
about his illtreatment, and on more than one occasion showed
unbecoming rage at being neglected.

After Copenhagen, the wigs were fairly on the green because he was
created a Viscount instead of an Earl. He talked a good deal about the
Tower, a Dukedom, or Westminster Abbey, and had ways of demanding
attention for which Collingwood had neither the aptitude nor the
inclination, though his naval qualities were quite equal to Nelson's.
But with all their faults and virtues, there was never any petty
jealousy between the two heroes, who lie at rest side by side in the
tombs at St. Paul's. Faithful to their naval orthodoxy that it was
incumbent for every Christian sailor-man to wash clean his conscience
when he was passing from time into eternity, Nelson on the 21st
October, 1805, and Collingwood five years later, avowed to those who
had the honour of closing their eyes for evermore that they "had not
been great sinners," and then slipped into eternal sleep; each of them
leaving behind a name that will live and descend into distant ages.

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