Nelson (154 page)

93
. Discussions of the line of battle are given in Brian Tunstall and Nicholas Tracy,
Naval Warfare
; John Creswell,
British Admirals
; Nicholas Tracy,
Nelson’s Battles
; and Michael Duffy and Roger Morriss, eds,
Glorious First of June 1794
.

XXI Drifting to Leeward (pp. 564–604)

1
. Nelson to Trevor, 28/4/1796, Monmouth MSS, E987. The Honourable John Trevor, then in his mid-forties and married to a clergyman’s daughter, later succeeded his brother to become third Viscount Hampden.

Very few of the extensive sources for this chapter have been previously explored. For Nelson’s own papers, see Add. MSS 34962 (Nelson letter book); Add. MSS 34902 and 34933 (miscellaneous Nelson correspondence); Add. MSS 34904 and 34952 (Nelson’s correspondence for 1795–6, although some documents in the last file are damaged and unreadable even under ultraviolet light); Add. MSS 34941 (letters of De Vins, Beaulieu
and others); Monmouth MSS, E987 (Nelson letter book, 1796);
D&L
, vols 1 and 7;
NLTHW
; various documents in NMM: CRK/14; and the log books of the
Agamemnon
(see chap. 17, n. 2). Nelson’s relations with the fleet were also traced through ADM 1/393–394; Add. MSS 34938 and NMM: CRK/11 (Jervis’s letters to Nelson); NMM: JER/1–2a (Jervis papers); Add. MSS 31159 (Jervis’s letter book), which supplied some of the documents to Edward P. Brenton,
John, Earl of St Vincent
, vol. 1; and papers of George Cockburn in NMM: MRF/D/6 and MRF/D/9. The diplomatic context has been supplied by FO 28/11–15; FO 67/17–21; NMM: CRK/4 (Francis Drake’s letters to Nelson); Joseph Brame’s letter book and papers in SRRC, 112/16/31 and 112/16/33; and Add. MSS 46822–30 (Drake papers). Among the latter, volumes 46826 (Udny correspondence), 46827 (letters from De Vins and Wallis) and 46828 (letters and complaints of Castiglione) contain the most documents relating to naval operations. The Elliot papers in the National Maritime Museum (NMM/ELL) are also essential sources for the campaign, especially volumes 101 (Trevor), 124 (Brame), 125 (Drake), 138 (Nelson) and 141 (Jervis). Drake’s letters to Sir William Hamilton may be found in Add. MSS 39793, and other papers relevant to the Neapolitan contribution can be found in NMM: HML.

2
. Nelson to Fanny, 2/12/1795, 19/4/1796, Monmouth MSS, E878, E892; Anthony Brett-James,
General Graham
, p. 66.

3
. Nelson’s arrival in Genoa was reported in Brame to Nepean, 18/7/1795, SRRC, 112/16/31.

4
. For the convoy, see Drake to Elliot, 25/7/1795, NMM: ELL/125.

5
. Hotham to Nelson, 17/5/1795, enclosed in Drake to Grenville, 8/8/1795, FO 28/12.

6
. Nelson to Collingwood, 31/8/1795,
D&L
, 2, p. 77; Nelson to Suckling, 27/7/1795,
D&L
, 2, p. 61; Nelson to Fanny, 25/8/1795, Monmouth MSS, E870.

7
. Nelson, 12/11/1795, NMM: CRK/14; Nelson statement, November 1795, NMM: CRK/14; Drake to Nelson, 23, 25/7/1795, 18/9/1795 and 7/1/1796, NMM: CRK/4; Nelson to Cockburn, 19/7/1795, NMM: MRF/D/9. For the Genoese reaction see also Nelson to Drake, 22/8/1795, NMM: AGC/17/2; Drake to Nelson, 1 and 8 (2 letters)/9/1795, 7/1/1796, NMM: CRK/4; and Nelson to Cockburn, 12/9/1795, NMM: MRF/D/9. Although Nelson contravened Hotham’s orders, he had interim authority from Drake, who told him that it was ‘extremely beneficial to the king our master’s service that you should to the utmost of your power stop all trade and communications between neutral places and France and places occupied by the armies of France until you receive further instructions from the Commander in Chief’ (Drake to Nelson, 18/7/1795, NMM: CRK/4). From the beginning of the campaign Nelson formed a close partnership with Drake, who learned on 19 September that he had been appointed to represent Britain at the Austrian headquarters at Vado. The two coordinated their movements and opinions. ‘I hope you will be at Vado when I get there, as we must make another attack on the general [De Vins],’ Drake wrote (Drake to Nelson, 19/9/1795, NMM: CRK/4).

8
. Drake and Trevor to Hotham, 22/7/1795, enclosed in Hotham to Nepean, 29/7/1795, ADM 1/393; Nelson to Hotham, 28/7/1795, Add. MSS 34902; Hotham to Cockburn, 21/7/1795, NMM: MRF/D/9; Hotham to Spencer, 4/6/1795 and August 1795, Add. 75780.

9
. Nelson to Hotham, 22/7/1795, Add. MSS 34962; Drake to Grenville, 25/7/1795, FO 28/11; Trevor to Grenville, 24/7/1795, FO 67/17; Drake to Nelson, 29/7/1795, NMM: CRK/4; Brame to Grenville, 23/7/1795, SRRC, 112/16/31. The application for the Neapolitan flotilla can be followed in Trevor to Hotham, 2/7/1795, NMM: HML/11; Hotham to Hamilton, 16/7/1795, 17/8/1795, NMM: HML/13; Hamilton to Hotham, 23/7/1795, 29/8/1795, NMM: HML/10B; Nelson to the Neapolitan commander, 1/10/1795, NMM: JER/1–2a; and Add. MSS 39793: 104, 106, 131.

10
. Nelson to Drake, 3/8/1795, Add. MSS 34962; Drake to Nelson, 25, 29/7/1795, 4, 7,
10/8/1795, 7/11/1795, NMM: CRK/4. The logs of Nelson’s ships give the most comprehensive day-by-day picture of the naval campaign. They were the frigates
Ariadne
(ADM 51/1128),
Meleager
(ADM 51/1210),
Southampton
(ADM 51/1125 and 1131),
Inconstant
(ADM 51/1179),
Lowestoffe
(ADM 51/1121 and 1133),
Flora
(ADM 51/1167),
Romulus
(ADM 51/1130) and
Tartar
(ADM 52/3509); the brigs and sloops
Moselle
(ADM 51/4475 and ADM 52/3236),
Speedy
(ADM 51/1243) and
Tarleton
; and the
Resolution
(ADM 51/4492) and
Mutine
(ADM 52/3240) cutters. I have not traced a log for the
Tarleton
.

11
. Genoa’s complaints may be sampled in Nelson to Drake, 30/9/1795,
ND
, 7 (2001), p. 534; Castiglione to Hotham, 31/7/1795, and Hotham to Castiglione, 22/8/1795, both enclosed in ADM 1/393; correspondence enclosed by Drake in FO 28/12: no. 23; Grenville to Drake, 3/9/1795, FO 28/12; ‘Abstract of the different points . . . between . . . Great Britain and the Republic of Genoa since . . . 1793’, FO 28/16: no. 77; Drake to Nelson, 27/9/1795, with enclosures, NMM: CRK/4; and Add. MSS 46828: 27–83. Details of the
Meleager
’s prizes are from Cockburn to Drake, 7/8/1795, Cockburn to McArthur and Pollard, 8/9/1795, and Cockburn to McArthur, Pollard and Udny, 11/2/1796, all in NMM: MRF/D/6; Drake to Grenville, 28/7/1795, 8, 27/8/1795, with their enclosures, FO 28/11, FO 28/12; and Roger Morriss,
Cockburn
, pp. 23–6.

12
. Nelson to Fanny, 5/10/1795, Monmouth MSS, E874.

13
. Nelson to Firpo, 7/8/1795, SRRC, 112/16/33: 331; Fellows to Firpo, 30/8/1795, SRRC, 112/16/33: 359; Aliberti to Firpo, 10/9/1795, 12/1/1796, SRRC, 112/16/33: 367, 414.

14
. Anne Fremantle, ed.,
Wynne Diaries
(1952), p. 255; Brame to Nelson, 29/8/1795, SRRC, 112/16/31. While at Vado Adelaide may have communicated with her mother in Genoa through Nelson’s letters to Brame, the British consul in that town. Brame regularly informed Nelson that his enclosures had been carefully forwarded: Brame to Aliberti, 18/8/1795, SRRC, 112/16/33: 348, and Brame to Nelson, 5/9/1795, SRRC, 112/16/31.

15
. Brame to Nelson, 5/3/1796, SRRC, 112/16/31.

16
. Account by Andrews, 20/8/1795, Add. MSS 34962; log of the
Mutine
(n. 10 above).

17
. Nelson’s letters to Fremantle and Cockburn, both dated 26/8/1795, are filed in Add. MSS 34962.

18
. Nelson’s summons, 26/8/1795, Add. MSS 34902; Nelson to Hotham, 27/8/1795, ADM 1/393.

19
. Nelson to Hotham, 28/8/1795, Add. MSS 34962; Nelson to Drake, 27/8/1795, FO 28/12.

20
. Hoste to his brother, 14/9/1795, NMM: MRF/88/1; log book of the
Inconstant
, ADM 51/1179.

21
. Complaint of Spinola, 28/10/1795, Add. MSS 34933: 54; Hotham to Nelson, 4/9/1795, NMM: CRK/7; Udny to Drake, 1/9/1795, Add. MSS 46926.

22
. Log book of the
Moselle
, ADM 52/3226.

23
. Nelson to Fanny, 1/9/1795, Monmouth MSS, E871; Nelson to Jackson, 2/9/1795, Add. MSS 34962; letter of 10/9/1795, Add. MSS 34962: 37.

24
. Hamilton to Nelson, 31/10/1796, Add. MSS 34904; Nelson to William, 29/7/1795, Add. MSS 34988; Nelson to Suckling, 27/10/1795,
D&L
, 2, p. 92; Nelson to Drake, 28/4/1796, Monmouth MSS, E987; Nelson to Fanny, 2/8/1796, 24/7/1795, Monmouth MSS, E900, E868; Nelson to Hotham, 30/8/1795, ADM 1/393.

25
. Nelson to Clarence, 27/10/1795, NMM: CRK/14; Nelson to Drake, 6, 8/8/1795, Add. MSS 34962; Nelson to Cockburn, 8/8/1795,
D&L
, 2, p. 67; Fellows to Firpo, 10, 13/8/1795, SRRC, 112/16/33: 335, 337; De Vins to Drake, 5/8/1795, Add. MSS 46827.

26
. Drake to Grenville, 29/8/1795, FO 28/12; Trevor to Grenville, FO 67/19; Nelson to Drake, 12/11/1795, Monmouth MSS, E37.

27
. Drake to Nelson, 15/8/1795, NMM: CRK/14; Nelson to Drake, 16/8/1795, NMM: PST/39; Nelson to Jackson, 17/8/1795, Add. MSS 34962; Jackson to Nelson, 21/8/1795, Add. MSS 34904; Hotham’s letters to Nelson in Add. MSS 34904: 44–50, Add. MSS
46835: 134, and NMM: JER/1–2a; Nelson’s account of the Vado campaign, NMM: JER/1–2a; De Vins to Drake, 11/8/1795, Add. MSS 46827; Jackson to Eden, 27/8/1795, FO 67/18; Nelson to Fanny, 1/9/1795, Monmouth MSS, E871.

28
. Drake to Grenville, 29/8/1795, 14, 22/9/1795, FO 28/12.

29
. Nelson to Hotham, 17/9/1795, Add. MSS 34962; Eden to Grenville, 5/9/1795, FO 7/42.

30
. Of the many studies of Bonaparte, personal favourites are August Fournier,
Life of Napoleon I
, and David G. Chandler,
Campaigns of Napoleon
. The most recent study of the Italian campaign is Martin Boycott-Brown’s
The Road to Rivoli
.

31
. Trevor to Grenville, 1/8/1795, FO 67/17; Drake to Grenville, 28/8/1795, FO 28/12; Drake to Elliot, 29/8/1795, 11/9/1795, NMM: ELL/25; Eden to Grenville, 13/10/1795, FO 7/43.

32
. Nelson to De Vins, 11/9/1795, FO 28/12; Nelson to De Vins, 14/9/1795, NMM: JER/1–2a; De Vins to Drake, 14/9/1795, Add. MSS 46827.

33
. Nelson to Hotham, 17/9/1795, Add. MSS 34962; De Vins to Drake, 14, 19/9/1795, Add. MSS 46827.

34
. Udny to Drake, 1/9/1795, Add. MSS 46826.

35
. Drake to Grenville, 5/9/1795, FO 28/12.

36
. For these paragraphs see Hotham to Nelson, 10, 25/9/1795, Add. MSS 34904; Nelson to Hotham, 17, 20/9/1795, Add. MSS 34962 and NMM: JER/1–2a; and Fremantle to William Fremantle, 26/11/1795, CBS, D-FR/45/2.

37
. Drake to Grenville, 26/9/1795, FO 28/13; Nelson’s account of the Vado campaign, NMM: JER/1–2a (part also in NMM: CRK/14, and the whole reprinted in
D&L
, 7, p. xix); Hotham to Nelson, 9/10/1795, Add. MSS 34904; various documents in NMM: CRK/14.

38
. Nelson, undated letter in NMM: CRK/14.

39
. Nelson to Nepean, 13/11/1795, ADM 1/2225; Nelson’s account of the Vado campaign, NMM: JER/1–2a.

40
. Trevor to Elliot, 21/10/1795, NMM: ELL/101; Drake to Grenville, 29/9/1795, and enclosures, FO 28/13; Nelson to Trevor, 6, 7/11/1795, FO 67/19; Nelson to Wallis, 7/11/1795, and Nelson to De Vins, 8/11/1795, both in NMM: JER/1–2a; the
Moselle
log.

41
. Drake to Grenville, 5 and 11(with enclosure)/9/1795, 2/11/1795, FO 28/12; FO 28/13: no. 42.

42
. Drake to Grenville, 29/9/1795, 1, 3, 9/10/1795, FO 28/13; Nelson to Jackson, 19/9/1795, Add. MSS 34962; Nelson’s account of the Vado campaign, NMM: JER/1–2a; Brame to Udny and Trevor, 10/10/1795, SRRC, 112/16/31; log of the
Southampton
, ADM 51/1131.

43
. Nelson statement, November 1795, NMM: CRK/14; Drake to Nelson, 7/11/1795, NMM: CRK/4.

44
. Nelson to Parker, 20/11/1795, FO 67/19; Goodall to Nelson, 8/11/1795, Add. MSS 34904; Hotham to Spencer, 1/11/1795, Add. MSS 75780. For a favourable view of Parker see Fremantle to William Fremantle, 26/11/1795, CBS, D-FR/45/2.

45
. Drake to Nelson, 12, 15/11/1795, NMM: CRK/4. For the
La Brune
affair see Nelson to Nepean, 13/11/1795,
D&L
, 2, p. 98*; Drake to Grenville, 14, 19/11/1795, FO 28/13; Drake to Elliot, 21/11/1795, NMM: ELL/125; Brame to Udny, 14/11/1795, SRRC, 112/16/31.

46
. Nelson to Parker, 20/11/1795, 23/12/1795, Add. MSS 34962, and NMM: JER/1–2a.

47
. The watering parties are mentioned in Drake to Grenville, 3/12/1795, with enclosures, FO 28/13. Noble, Withers and Newman were taken to Nice and Marseilles before being returned to Genoa, where they were discharged to Brame on 23 February 1796, on the condition that the British would release three French officers of equivalent rank in return: Drake to Nelson, 1/12/1795, NMM: CRK/4; Brame to Noble, 15/12/1795, and Brame to Drake, 24/2/1796, both in SRRC, 112/16/31; Noble to Drake, 20/11/1795, SRRC, 112/16/33: 382; and documents filed at SRRC, 112/16/33: 401, 455. Withers believed
that Nelson had oiled these negotiations by releasing clothes he had captured from the French, but although a valise and personal accoutrements belonging to a French artillery officer were sent to France’s minister plenipotentiary in Genoa, this was done afterwards and quite gratuitously. See
United Service Journal
, 1843, ii, p. 640; Brame to Elliot, 11/6/1796, NMM: ELL/124; and Faypoult to Nelson, 23/6/1796, SRRC, 112/16/33: 740. However, Nelson was concerned to effect the release of his officers: Nelson to Brame, 16/12/1795, 27/1/1796, SRRC, 112/16/33: 390, 430. Withers and Noble have already been mentioned. Samuel Newman began his naval career as an able seaman on the
Speedy
in July 1793, and joined the
Agamemnon
as a twenty-year-old midshipman at St Fiorenzo on 4 February 1795. He continued to serve on her till she was paid off in September 1796. Newman passed for lieutenant on 7 May 1800 (ADM 6/98) but never received his commission.

48
. Drake to Grenville, 7/12/1795, Add. MSS 39793; Nelson to Hoste, 12/12/1795, Monmouth MSS, E298; Nelson to the commanding officer at Leghorn, 25/11/1795, NMM: ELL/125.