Nelson: Britannia's God of War (33 page)

Such property provided the only good news of the month, rich prizes had been taken off Cape Finisterre by a frigate squadron at least in part under his orders. Davison was to press his claim.
²⁵
It would take years, and two court cases, before St Vincent, who had hauled down his flag long before the action, would pay up.

In his anxiety to get on at Malta Troubridge put the
Culloden
ashore again, but Nelson was more concerned to exploit the latest intelligence haul, which showed how desperate the French Egyptian army had become for money and ammunition, and that their ships hugged the North African coast. It also indicated another sortie by the Combined Fleet.
²⁶
Writing home he excused Troubridge’s error, and hoped pressure from the land side would force the French squadron to leave
Valletta.
²⁷
Although the newly appointed Commander in Chief Lord Keith shared much of his analysis, he was unduly pessimistic.
²⁸

Once again Nelson relied on Troubridge to infuse some energy into the critical point of the campaign, and he did not disappoint. Finding promised Neapolitan food supplies for the Maltese were not forthcoming, Sir Thomas could not stand back while men starved. Attributing Neapolitan inaction to treachery, he had grain ships seized from a Sicilian harbour on 5 January. Nelson had tried to help, but he could not cut through the obfuscation of Palermo with the same weapons that Troubridge deployed. While admitting ‘nothing is well done in this country’, he begged Troubridge to be more discreet: perhaps he could restrict his seizures to the open seas?
²⁹
The Neapolitans were told that Troubridge had merely anticipated their King’s orders.
³⁰
Troubridge’s agitated state of mind and hatred of the Neapolitans were reflected when he begged Emma not to spend so much time playing cards, as rumours were already reaching the fleet, to the detriment of Nelson’s good name.
³¹

Aware that Keith was coming to take command, Nelson briefed him on the key issues: lack of seaworthy ships, with only two battleships fit to face the winter, and the pressing need to get Ferdinand back to Naples. He stressed that the key to the theatre was the loyalty of King Ferdinand. He also stressed that he expected to remain on station, ‘as I have been particularly placed here for the service of the King of Naples’.
³²
On 16 January
Foudroyant
sailed for Leghorn, arriving on the 20th to meet Keith.

By stressing his particular relationship with the Bourbon court, Nelson had prepared his case for an early return to England if he was thwarted. While Keith was his superior in rank, he lacked the human and professional qualities that Nelson so admired in great admirals like Hood and St Vincent. Because Keith so obviously lacked the political courage and naval judgement to be his superior officer, Nelson found his demotion hard to bear. It also broke the link with Hamilton, who was no longer privy to his movements, because they were no longer Nelson’s to determine.
³³
He could not even go ashore on his own authority.
³⁴
Nelson was attracted by the prospect of rejoining St Vincent’s flag: the old Earl was now fully restored to health, with almost suspicious speed, and in command of the Channel fleet. St Vincent, too, hoped that Nelson would soon return to England, along with Troubridge, who was to be Captain of the Fleet.
³⁵

On his arrival at Palermo, Keith took a rather more robust line with the King, promising to come back only after Ferdinand had returned to Naples, as Palermo ‘lay out of our way’.
³⁶
It sounded clever, but did no good. Nelson, Keith and the squadron sailed from Palermo with reinforcements for Malta on 12 February. No sooner had they arrived than Nelson ignored Keith’s orders, following his own opinion that the best position in which to intercept a French relief force was off the Barbary coast. He promptly fell in with the enemy flagship, the seventy-four
Le
Genereux
which was being pursued by other ships. Nelson exploited the superior sailing of his flagship to catch her off Cape Passaro on the Sicilian coast on 18 February. The French, demoralised by the death of their admiral, surrendered after firing a single broadside for the sake of honour.
³⁷

To Nelson’s astonishment, Keith did not betray a flicker of emotion on hearing of this success, and promptly put the young Scots nobleman Lord Cochrane into the prize. Nelson sent Admiral Perree’s flag to the Neapolitan Prince Leopold, destined for a naval career, and the French ensign to the City of Norwich, to join the sword sent after Cape St Vincent.
³⁸

Conscious that his disobedience might be another cause for censure, he sent his journal to Spencer – both to demonstrate that without his unilateral action the French ship would have escaped,
³⁹
and in the hope that this new success would secure Maurice’s promotion.
⁴⁰

Nelson’s immediate reward was the command of the Malta blockade, issued with the offensive instruction that Syracuse, or almost anywhere other than Palermo, must be his base. With this proviso, he was left to his own devices.
⁴¹
Keith clearly had no man management skills: he had garnished a severe demotion with a personal insult. Nelson knew far better than Keith that Palermo was not the best base for the Malta operation. He had used it under very different circumstances, while serving as theatre commander. Evidently Keith had been influenced by the gossip about Nelson’s infatuation with Emma, and the deleterious effect this was having on the service.

If Keith’s actions were inept, then Nelson did not help his own case with his response. Ill and exhausted, he requested a few weeks of leave in Palermo with his friends, while the
Foudroyant
had a refit. He pointedly promised to leave Troubridge, his own choice for the post, in command off Malta.
⁴²
By naming Palermo, Nelson gave the impression that he was anxious to get back into Emma’s boudoir. In reality,
he was only using the opportunity of Keith’s arrival to release himself from the exhaustion and tension that had been exacerbated by the impossibility of delegating his authority. And where else was he supposed to go to get the rest he had so handsomely earned than to the house of his only friends in the Mediterranean? This much was obvious from his letter to Hamilton the following day.
⁴³

It was clear to all concerned that Nelson’s ailments had their origin in chagrin. Hamilton, who had lived with him for the past seventeen months, stressed that he had been deeply upset by Keith’s orders, ‘but he had wisdom enough to swallow the pill for the good of the service of his King and Country … I never met with his equal’. Ball knew Nelson had earned his rest: ‘we shall not meet such another – such rare qualities seldom combine in one person.’
⁴⁴
Nelson explained the prolem to an old professional friend in more practical terms. Being superseded had taken ‘from me all opportunity of my rewarding merit and obliging my friends’.
⁴⁵
Consequently he was ill – but he assured Spencer he would answer the call to battle.
⁴⁶

*

On 18 March, while on passage to Palermo, Nelson experienced chest pains that convinced him he was close to death. Since there were no physical symptoms evident when his organs were examined, the ailment was almost certainly psychosomatic.
⁴⁷
However, this did not prevent him from venting his feelings in bitterly ironic and somewhat melodramatic terms: he was ready to die at his post, if the Combined Fleet returned, ‘but
we
of
the
Nile
are not equal to Lord Keith in his estimation, and ought to think it an honour to serve under such a
clever
man’.
⁴⁸
Despite his self-diagnosis, however, he did not plan to outstay his leave, and his flagship went back to Malta with orders to return to Palermo on 6 April.

No sooner had the
Foudroyant
rejoined the blockade of Malta than she completed the task begun eighteen months before in Aboukir bay. The eighty-gun
Guillaume
Tell
,
the last French battleship left from Brueys’ fleet, was preparing to escape from Malta. She sailed at midnight on 29 March, keeping tight to the shore, but that consummate frigate captain Henry Blackwood took up the chase in HMS
Penelope
. When the chase began
Foudroyant
had been the most distant ship of the small squadron off the harbour, and Berry did not respond until given a direct order. Yet she made up the distance in the next six hours, demonstrating her speed, and Berry’s skilful ship-handling.

By daybreak the
Guillaume
Tell
had lost two topmasts and the mainyard to Blackwood’s skilful harassing fire, allowing the sixty-four HMS
Lion
to engage. Captain Dixon fired into her bow, but he did not risk engaging the much larger and more powerful ship broadside to broadside, while the ‘prodigious fire of musketry’ from her 1,200-man crew made close combat impossible. As
Lion
dropped back to repair her rigging Berry brought
Foudroyant
into action with that unique combination of courage and folly that marked his career. It was not without reason that Nelson, who valued him as a friend and an ardent warrior, called him a ‘blockhead’. Berry ran close alongside the French vessel and, without firing, summoned Rear Admiral Decrès to surrender. As
Foudroyant
ranged past, however, Decrès replied with two broadsides that reduced her rigging to the same state as his own. A chastened Berry then wore round and poured in two broadsides of double-headed shot before dropping back to repair his rigging and leaving
Lion
and
Penelope
to keep the French admiral busy. When
Foudroyant
returned, again at very close range, the battle continued for another ninety minutes, only ending when the French lost their foremast. Powerless to escape, Decrès surrendered.
Foudroyant
had lost eight killed, while the sixty wounded included Berry; the French, meanwhile, had lost two hundred men on the crowded ship.
⁴⁹
Admiral Decrès lived to play a further part in Nelson’s life, becoming Napoleon’s Navy Minister in 1804.

In reporting the victory, Berry stressed how the ship’s company had wished their admiral present: ‘how we prayed for you, God knows’.
⁵⁰
Ball was anxious Nelson might be upset at missing the end of the French fleet. He need not have worried: Nelson was characteristically generous.
⁵¹
He confessed that ‘I am vain enough to feel the effects of my school’, before complimenting ‘his’ ship: ‘I love her as a fond father, and glory in her deeds.’
⁵²
He was full of praise for Blackwood, too:

On 4 April Nelson applied to the Admiralty for leave to return to England to regain his health.
⁵⁴
He was sick, and felt disgusted at the
ingratitude of his own country and betrayed by the Neapolitan ministers. Moreover, Hamilton too would be leaving: twenty-nine-year-old Arthur Paget had been sent out, at very short notice, to replace the ageing minister. Rather than troubling himself to learn about Naples or cultivate its ministers, Paget relied on Consul Lock, lending further credence to the ‘Black Legend’ that had gained currency from Charles James Fox’s speech in the House of Commons in February. When Nelson learnt what Fox had said he was furious that his honour as a British officer had been impugned. Collecting the relevant papers to show that there had been no breach of faith, he sent them to Davison, with instructions to show them to George Rose, or some other minister, ‘and if you think right, you will put them in the [news]papers’.
⁵⁵

On 24 April Nelson rejoined his ship, her battle damage repaired, and took passage for Malta via Syracuse. The Hamiltons were his guests and it was almost certainly on board, in late April, that his daughter Horatia was conceived – perhaps this is the meaning of his enigmatic communication to Fanny in June: ‘My health at times is better but a quiet mind and to give content is necessary for me. A very difficult thing for me to enjoy. I could say much but it would only distress me and be useless.’
⁵⁶
The squadron off Malta was delighted to see their talisman; Ball obviously spoke more than he knew when he told Emma that Nelson’s symptoms were ‘brought on by anxiety of mind, I therefore rejoice at your being on board, as I am sure you will exert your powers to keep up his spirits, and the worthy Sir William will contribute much to it.’ Despite his friendship with Emma, Ball had missed quite how intimate she and Nelson had become.
⁵⁷