Part 14

Several of the French ships were crippled, and some of them went off towed by frigates, or without bowsprits, &c. The Sans Culotte got to Genoa, and others to Vado Bay. The British squadron, with the prizes, which were greatly shattered and very leaky, proceeded to St. Fiorenzo: where it remained till the 22d; and then sailed for Leghorn, to join the Blenheim and Bombay Castle, that it might again go in pursuit of some of the French ships.

Captain Nelson obtained, on this occasion, the highest approbation of our own fleet, and the handsomest and most liberal testimony from that of the enemy.

The fleet having been refitted at Leghorn, and obtained another seventy-four gun ship from the King of Naples, they proceeded to the westward, for reinforcements, about the 10th of May; and afterwards went to Minorca, where they remained some time waiting for a convoy's arrival from Gibraltar.

Having returned to St. Fiorenzo the latter end of June, Captain Nelson was dispatched, on the 4th of July, with the Agamemnon, Meleager, Ariadne, Moselle, and the Mutine cutter, to co-operate with the Austrian general in the recovery of Genoa.

The second day, however, he fell in with the French fleet, which Admiral Hotham had supposed at Toulon, and was chased back to St. Fiorenzo. It appears evident, from all their movements, that they did not know our fleet was in port. The chace continued twenty-four hours; and, owing to the freshness of the winds in these seas, he was occasionally hard pressed; but they being, as he said, neither seamen nor officers, gave him many advantages.

On the 7th, in the morning, Admiral Hotham was much surprised to learn that the above squadron was seen in the offing, pursued into port by the enemy's fleet. Immediately on their appearance, he made every preparation to put to sea after them; having the mortification, in the mean time, to behold Captain Nelson, with his little squadron, for nearly seven hours, almost wholly in their possession. The shore, and his knowledge of it, proved his greatest friends on this occasion.

Though most of the British ships were in the midst of watering and refitting, by very great exertions, the whole fleet got under weigh that night; but a calm, and swell, prevented their going out till the morning.

It was not till day-break, on the 13th of July 1795, that they were discovered by the fleet. At eight o'clock, Admiral Hotham, finding that they had no other view than that of endeavouring to get off, made the signal for a general chace. The baffling winds, and vexatious calms, which render every naval operation in this country doubtful, soon afterwards taking place, a few only of our van ships could come up with the enemy's rear about noon. These they so warmly attacked, that one of the sternmost ships, the Alcide of seventy-four guns, had struck in the course of an hour. The rest of their fleet, favoured by a shift of wind, that placed them to windward, had got so far into Frejus Bay, while the greater part of our's was becalmed in the offing, that it became impossible for anything farther to be effected.

Had the wind lasted twenty minutes longer, the six flyers, as they were called, would have been alongside as many of the enemy. Captain Nelson had every hope of getting the Agamemnon, one of these flyers, alongside an eighty-gun ship, with a flag or broad pendant flying; but the west wind dying away, and the east coming, gave them the advantage, and enabled them to reach their own shore, from which they were not three leagues distant.

Rear-Admiral Mann, who had shifted his flag to the Victory on this occasion, commanded the six ships thus distinguished by their superiority of sailing: he proved himself, Captain Nelson observed, a good man, in every sense of the word.

The disappointment of our brave countrymen, on this day, must have been prodigiously great. In the morning, there had been a hope of taking the whole of the French fleet; and, even latterly, no bad prospect of securing six sail of the line. Instead of which, they had only taken a single ship, the Alcide; and that, such was the fortune of this luckless day, took fire about half an hour after it had struck, and before being taken into possession--said to be occasioned by a box of combustibles in the fore-top--and the whole ship was soon in a blaze. Several boats, from our fleet, were instantly dispatched to rescue as many as possible of the unhappy crew from the devouring flames; and, by great exertion, three hundred were saved: the remainder, consisting of about four hundred, had the melancholy fate of being blown up with the ship.

The Agamemnon, with it's usual good fortune, had none killed in this action, and only one wounded. It received, however, several shot under water, which kept the hands pretty well employed at the pumps: but this, Captain Nelson insisted, must have happened by accident, as he was very certain they only fired high.

The six ships engaged were the Victory, Admiral Mann, and Captain Reeve; Agamemnon, Nelson; Defence, Wells; Culloden, Troubridge; Cumberland, Rowley; and Blenheim, Bazeley.

After anchoring for a few hours at St. Fiorenzo, with the fleet, Captain Nelson was again dispatched, in the Agamemnon, with orders to sail as before directed, when he had been chased back. Accordingly, with a light squadron under his command, consisting of the Inconstant, Meleager, Southampton, Tartar, Ariadne, and Speedy, he proceeded to co-operate with the Austrian General De Vins: and, being informed by the general, that a convoy of provisions and ammunition was arrived at Alassio, a place in the possession of the French army, he proceeded thither on the 25th of August; where, within an hour, he took nine vessels, burnt a tenth, and drove another on shore. Some of the enemy's cavalry fired on the boats when boarding the vessels near shore, but not a single man was killed or wounded. The French had two thousand horse and foot soldiers in the town, which prevented his landing and destroying their magazines of provisions and ammunition.

Captain Freemantle of the Inconstant, was sent, in the mean time, with the Tartar, to Languelia, a town on the west side of the Bay of Alassio; where, Captain Nelson observes, in his dispatches to Admiral Hotham, published October 3,1795, in the London Gazette, that commander executed his orders in a most officer-like manner. "I am indebted," he concludes, "to every officer in the squadron, for their activity: but, most particularly so, to Lieutenant George Andrews, first-lieutenant of the Agamemnon; who, by his spirited and officer-like conduct, saved the French corvette from going on shore."

The vessels taken were--a French corvette of ten guns, four swivels, and eighty-seven men; a French gun-boat of one brass gun, four swivels, and forty-nine men; a French galley of one brass gun, four swivels, and thirty men; a like galley, with twenty-nine men; a French brig, in ballast, burden a hundred tons; a French bark, burden seventy tons, laden with powder and shells; a French brig, burden a hundred tons, laden with wine; a galley, burden fifty tons, in ballast; and a tartane, burden thirty-five tons, laden with wine: those destroyed--a bark, laden with powder, drove on shore; and a ditto, laden with provisions, burnt.

Though this enterprise called for no particular exertion of great ability, it was executed with very complete success; and the result was both advantageous to the captors and their allies, and distressful to the common enemy.

Admiral Hotham, in his dispatches to government, inclosing the account of this business which he had received from Captain Nelson, handsomely remarks that "his officer-like conduct upon this, and indeed upon every occasion, where his services are called forth, reflects on him the highest credit."

Admiral Hotham was a very brave and highly respectable commander; and, being also a worthy man, he did whatever was in his power to serve Captain Nelson, whose superior ability he would, probably, have himself readily acknowledged on any occasion. He might not be sufficiently what Captain Nelson called a man of business, to admire the agreed co-operation with the Austrian army, though as ready as any man to encounter the fleet of the enemy at sea: when, therefore, that co-operation became necessary, Captain Nelson's known habits of soldiering, immediately directed the admiral's attention to the Brigadier; who had, accordingly, a not altogether unpleasant command of the squadron at Vado Bay, consisting of thirteen sail of frigates and sloops. This little fleet, however, with the exception of the above expedition, did very little important business, not a single frigate being allowed to chase out of sight.

It was about this period, that Captain Nelson had the satisfaction of learning that he had, on the 6th of June preceding, in consequence of the then promotion of flag-officers, been appointed one of the Colonels of Marines.

He had, it seems, been in some expectation of this promotion, but little imagined that it had already taken place: for, writing to Captain Locker on the 18th of June, off Minorca, he observes that great changes had taken place in the fleet, and that more were on the eve of doing so. "Perhaps," adds he, "the Admiralty may commission me for some ship here: if so, provided they give me the marines, I shall feel myself bound to take her, much as I object to serving another winter campaign without a little rest."

His health, indeed, had been considerably impaired before Lord Hood quitted the station; but as he had, after the reduction of Corsica, less occasion for much continued exertion, it was now, on the whole, rather increased than diminished; and this timely promotion appears to have operated as a powerful cordial restorative.

With the Austrian General De Vins, at Vado Bay, on the coast of Genoa, he continued to co-operate during the whole time that Admiral Hotham retained the command; who quitted it in November 1795, and was succeeded by Sir John Jervis; the present Earl of St. Vincent.

This change seems to have been a very fortunate circumstance for Captain Nelson; and, perhaps, on the whole, little less so for Sir John Jervis. The new commander in chief was much too shrewd and discerning a character not to see the full value of such an officer as Captain Nelson. Himself a man of the highest bravery, and of the first professional knowledge, he could not fail to recognize, in every act, the vigorous intellect, and undaunted valour, which Captain Nelson possessed. It was no slight shade of an uncertain tint, but a plain and decided distinction of character clearly perceptible at a single glance. Bravery and skill abound, and will, it is hoped, always abound, in the British navy; and great, indeed, must be the merits of any one who shines with superior lustre in a constellation of such general brilliancy. Sir John had, under his command, many able officers; but he immediately perceived that Captain Nelson was a star of the first magnitude, and nobly resolved to remove every intervening cloud which might prevent his appearing in full splendour.

The great importance, not only to both these exalted naval characters, but to their country, which has been so much benefitted by their respective and united services, must prevent the necessity of any apology for reverting to the very origin of their acquaintance with each other: a communication which the author of these memoirs has the honour of being enabled to give, on no less authority than that of the Earl of St. Vincent himself.

His lordship, while Sir John Jervis, was returning from the House of Commons, of which he was then a member; when, in the Treasury Passage, he perceived Captain Locker at a distance, whom he instantly knew, from the singularity of his looking through an eye-glass fitted at the head of his cane. Sir John immediately hailed his old friend: and Captain Locker, coming up, expressed his happiness at seeing Sir John Jervis; as he wished, he said, to introduce his eleve, Captain Nelson.

From that period, till the time when Sir John Jervis took the command of the Mediterranean fleet, he had never again beheld Captain Nelson; who, having served much with Lord Hood, and not knowing Sir John Jervis's generous intentions to bring him still more forward, expressed a wish to return to England in the Agamemnon. That ship, indeed, from it's then bad state, was expected to be soon sent home: but Sir John Jervis seems to have felt more unwilling to part with Captain Nelson than his ship.

On the death of Lord Hervey, the captain of the Zealous, which happened soon after, Sir John Jervis immediately offered Captain Nelson the command of that ship; which he declined, still persisting in his desire to go home.