introduced me to him. There was something irresistibly pleasing in his address and conversation; and an enthusiasm, when speaking on professional subjects, that showed he was no common being…. I found him warmly attached to my Father, and singularly humane: he had the honour of the King’s service, and the independence of the British Navy, particularly at heart.16
Unfortunately, Nelson’s devotion to the royal family was extended to the dissipated and undisciplined prince, and earned him no regard from King George.
Lady Hughes, who travelled to the West Indies in the Boreas under Nelson’s command, provided a vivid account that was published by Southey. There were thirty young midshipmen onboard, and some of them were naturally timid. Nelson apparently never rebuked them. He
always wished to show them he desired nothing of them that he would not instantly do himself: and I have known him say – ‘Well, Sir, I am going a race to the mast-head, and beg I may meet you there.’ No denial could be given to such a wish, and the poor fellow instantly began his march. His Lordship never took the least notice with what alacrity it was done, but when he met at the top, instantly began speaking in the most cheerfull manner, and saying how much a person was to be pitied who could fancy there was any danger, or even anything disagreeable, in the attempt. After this excellent example, I have seen the timid youth lead another, and rehearse his Captain’s words.17
When on the West Indies Station, Nelson was discovered by John Herbert, the President of the Nevis, under a table playing with the young son of his widowed niece Fanny. Nelson was introduced to Fanny, and they soon married.
His attitude to subordinates was both firm and considerate. As a young man he had been impressed by the First Lieutenant of the Carcass, on which ship he sailed on a voyage north of Spitzbergen, who, whatever the dangers or difficulties, ‘never was heard … to enforce his commands with oath, or to call a sailor by any other than his usual name.’18 As a young captain in the West Indies he was reprimanded by the Admiralty for pardoning a sailor who had been condemned to death for desertion, and discharging him from the service. He went to considerable trouble to establish a plea of insanity for another of his men who murdered a prostitute. During the early years of the French Revolution, while he was unemployed, he became actively concerned by the agitators preaching social revolt in his native Norfolk, but when he considered how hard was the lot of the poor labourers he felt indignation that the landlords had not long before increased their wages to keep pace with rising costs. On the other hand, he did not shrink from inflicting the tough punishments that were such a feature of naval life.
Towards his superiors whom he thought deficient in their duty he was resolute. His efforts to ensure that officers did not abuse their authority to enrich themselves during his service in the West Indies did not endear himself to the Admiralty and may explain the five years he was unemployed before the outbreak of war with France in 1793. He always sought the annihilation of his enemy, and was intolerant of commanders with lower standards. When in 1795 he commanded the 64-gun ship, Agamemnon, in action under the command of Admiral Hotham and captured a French 80-gun ship, Ça Ira, he was bitter about the failure to pursue the defeated enemy. Fourteen British ships had taken on seventeen French, and captured only two. In indignation Nelson wrote his wife: ‘had we taken ten Sail, and allowed the eleventh to escape, when it had been possible to have got at her, I could never have called it well done … We should have had such a day as I believe, the annals of England never produced … Nothing can stop the courage of English seamen.’19
When one of the captains who commanded a ship at the battle of Camperdown in 1797 was court-martialed for misconduct, Nelson commented to Captain Bertie, who was one of the members of the court, that he wanted officers going into battle to have in mind that the chance of being shot by the enemy if they did their duty was less than the certainty of being shot by their friends if they failed in it.20 However, the mellowing effect of experience increased his willingness to comprehend the limitations of others. He was to be more sympathetic with Vice Admiral Sir Robert Calder, who, in the campaign leading to Trafalgar, conducted a battle against the odds with technical skill but broke off the engagement without seeking annihilating results.
Nelson rightly regarded the spirit and ability of his officers and men as more important than the materiel strength of the fleets placed under his command. Writing to Lord Melville in support of one of his captains who had been censured and broken by a court martial for wrecking his ship, he said that he did not ‘regret the loss of the Raven compared to the value of Captain Layman’s services, which are a National loss’.21
Writing to an old friend during the long blockade of Toulon in 1804, Nelson commented that
The great thing in all Military Service is health; and you will agree with me, that it is easier for an Officer to keep men healthy, than for a Physician to cure them…. I have, by changing the cruizing ground, not allowed the sameness of prospect to satiate the mind – sometimes by looking at Toulon, Ville Franche, Barcelona and Rosas; then running round Minorca, Majorca, Sardinia and Corsica; and two or three times anchoring for a few days, and sending a Ship to the last place for onions, which I find the best thing that can be give to Seamen; having always good mutton for the sick & cattle when we can get them, and plenty of fresh water.
A pencil sketch of Nelson drawn by Simon De Koster. It was, apparently, done for Lady Hamilton herself, at Merton, a few days before Nelson sailed for Copenhagen. It is of particular interest as it was the portrait that Nelson believed to be most like him.
(National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London)
Admiral Cornwallis, he complained, who commanded the Channel Fleet blockading Brest ‘has great merit for his persevering cruise, but he has everything sent him: we have nothing; We seem forgotten by the great folks at home.’22 The burden of contracting locally for supplies, and of corresponding with the surgeons at Gibraltar to ensure that his men in hospital were properly cared for, he resolutely shouldered. Ball observed that Nelson
looked at everything, not merely in its possible relation to the Naval Service in general, but in its immediate Bearings on his own Squadron; to his officers, his men, to the particular ships themselves, his affections were as strong and ardent as those of a Lover. Hence, though his temper was constitutionally irritable and uneven, yet never was a Commander so enthusiastically loved by men of all ranks, from the Captain of the Fleet to the youngest Ship-boy. Hence too the unexampled Harmony which reigned in his Fleet year after year, under circumstances that might well have undermined the patience of the best balanced Dispositions, much more of men with the impetuous character of British Sailors.23
It is hardly surprising that he inspired devotion amongst his men. In a boat action at Cadiz he had his life saved three times by his coxswain who even interposed his hand to ward off a sword blow aimed at Nelson’s head.24 A sailor writing home after Trafalgar said
I never set eyes on him, for which I am both sorry and glad, for to be sure I should like to have seen him, but then, all the men in our ship who have seen him are such soft toads, they have done nothing but Blast their Eyes and cry ever since he was killed. God bless you! chaps that fought like the Devil sit down and cry like a wench.25
Nelson’s sense of the theatrical, while entirely natural to him, was also a useful tool of leadership. Like several other well-known commanders, he wore distinctive headgear: he wore his cocked hat in line with his shoulders, which was not the contemporary fashion. His taste for the gaudy stars of chivalry helped to identify him to sailors who would not otherwise have recognised him.
William Beatty, Nelson’s personal physician during the
