r/nelsonsnavy

Painting by Mathieu Van Bree.

The sole account is in the diary of John Wilson Croker, as told to him by Wellington when Croker visited him at Walmer Castle (official residence of the Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports) on 1 October 1834. Croker asked him a question about Nelson’s reputation for egotistical and vain behaviour, and received the following reply:

“Why,” said the Duke, “I am not surprised at such instances, for Lord Nelson was, in different circumstances, two quite different men, as I myself can vouch, though I only saw him once in my life, and for, perhaps, an hour. It was soon after I returned from India. I went to the Colonial Office in Downing Street, and there I was shown into a little waiting-room on the right hand, where I found, also waiting to see the Secretary of State, a gentleman whom, from his likeness to his pictures and the loss of an arm, I immediately recognized as Lord Nelson.

He could not know who I was, but he entered at once into conversation with me, if I can call it conversation, for it was almost all on his side, and all about himself, and in really a style so vain and so silly as to surprise and almost disgust me. I suppose something that I happened to say may have made him guess that I was somebody, and he went out of the room for a moment, I have no doubt to ask the office-keeper who I was, for when he came back he was altogether a different man, both in manner and matter. All that I had thought a charlatan style had vanished, and he talked of the state of this country and of the aspect and probabilities of affairs on the Continent with a good sense, and a knowledge of subjects both at home and abroad that surprised me equally and more agreeably than the first part of our interview had done; in fact, he talked like an officer and a statesman.

The Secretary of State kept us long waiting, and certainly for the last half or three quarters of an hour I don’t know that I ever had a conversation that interested me more. Now, if the Secretary of State had been punctual, and admitted Lord Nelson in the first quarter of an hour, I should have had the same impression of a light and trivial character that other people have had, but luckily I saw enough to be satisfied that he was really a very superior man; but certainly a more sudden and complete metamorphosis I never saw.”'

Schooners were small vessels (crewed by around 30 hands) with two fore-and-aft rigged masts and a bowsprit. The two masts were usually rigged with Gaff sails, and this sail plan made Schooners extremely agile and able to sail very close to the wind - essentially, directly into it.

Their windward performance, coupled with their small size and shallow draft, made them highly valuable to privateers and pirates. In navy employ they served as messenger ships and packet ships. Although they often carried guns for defence, they were not really cut out for combat, as a single hit to a Schooner’s rig can disable it

The most famous schooner of the Napoleonic war was the Pickle (8), which was the first vessel to carry the news of the victory at Trafalgar back to Britain.

Its that time of year again when we remember the capture of the Spanish frigate El Gamo (32) by Commander Lord Cochrane's Speedy (14).

The command in the title was shouted down by Cochrane during the boarding attempt to the Ship's surgeon, who was the only man left on the Speedy.

The battle was fought off the south coast of Ireland, where the French had been resupplying a Jacobite-Irish-French rebellion under the command of the recently deposed King James II. On spotting the English fleet of 19 ships, the French Admiral Châteaurenault (with 24 ships plus frigates) gave orders to weigh anchor and a running battle ensued in which the English were chased out of the bay and away from the landing site.

After four hours of long distance fighting the battle ended with a small French tactical victory - with the English suffering slightly more damage and casualties - and a significant French strategic victory, with Earl Torrington's fleet forced to retire to Portsmouth. However, the French Admiral failed to follow up on this advantage and returned to Brest.

Open question.

Some of the limitations of the aerostat were that it couldn't make out details of enemy movements or supply information effectively in real time, but would these limitations still be relevant at sea?

Battle on land required rapid communication for effective command, but communication at sea had less emphasis on this due to the natural, accepted issues with communicating by signal. In fact in the heat of battle it may have been easier to see signals relayed by aerostat than by flagship. At the same time, finding your enemy was a serious problem - not usually relevant on land - and aerostats could be used for aiding with this purpose.