MS 1. Letter from Horatio Nelson to Admiral Collingwood. October 12th, 1805.
Gift of F. W. Reed.
 
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Transcript
Victory October 12th 1805
My dear Collingwood
Sir J.T. Duckworth comes out in the Acasta Frigate to hoist his flag of course in the Prince of Wales which ship was ordered for Sir Richard Bickerton. I have wrote fully to Sir Robert on the subject and have begged Commisioner Otway to carry it in case Sir Robert chooses to open. He has an ordeal to pass through which I fear he little expects.
The Admiralty could not do less than call your conduct judicious; everybody in England admired your adroitness in not being forced unnecessarily into the Straits. I send you the last papers; return them as I mean to send them to Ball.
Sutton is invalided, he is very unwell. Hoste has Amphion & Sir William Bolton Eurydice; Amphion will take Royal Sovereign's money to Gibraltar & put it on board the Aurora and then proceed to Algiers with the letters & presents.
L'Aimable will take the money from Defiance and with Renommée go to Malta with the Aurora's convoy; and whatever Admiral is in the Mediterranean will be directed to see them safe clear of Cartagena. Defence if she has done with the transports will go & relieve Mars & Colossus.
Ever yours faithfully Nelson & Bronte
Signal will be made when the Royal Sovereign is to send the money -- probably not today. If I find Prince and Britannia cannot move faster, I shall direct them to keep to windward, then the Lee Line can be kept up. I am sure you felt for poor Dreadnought's movements yesterday.
Notes
After abandoning his summer plans for the invasion of England, Napoleon directed the combined French and Spanish fleet to move out of Cadiz harbour. They were to proceed through the Straits of Gibraltar into the Mediterranean to support his Austrian campaign. This letter was written while Nelson waited for the Combined Fleet to emerge from Cadiz.
Life as Commander-in-Chief of the Mediterranean fleet was not all action-packed heroics. This letter gives a vivid impression of the amount of bureaucracy Nelson had to deal with: juggling money, ships, men, internal navy politics, naval tactics and international diplomacy. It has been estimated that in a typical day, Nelson would dictate two dozen general orders, which were copied out by clerks for him to sign, and write an average of ten personal letters in his own hand.
Read about work carried out in Auckland City Libraries’ Preservation Unit on this letter in preparation for the exhibition 200 years ago : expanding horizons, shrinking world.
- Sir John Thomas Duckworth. Vice Admiral 1804, joined the fleet at Cadiz after the battle of Trafalgar.
- Sir Richard Bickerton was Nelson’s second-in-command. When Nelson was chasing the French fleet to the West Indies in the summer of 1805, Bickerton was left in charge of the remaining British fleet in the Mediterranean. He was called home to take up office in the Admiralty.
- Sir Robert Calder. In July 1805 Calder had fought an engagement with the Combined French and Spanish Fleet under Villeneuve as it tried to slip into Ferrol in northern Spain. Calder captured two Spanish ships despite being hampered by thick fog. Thinking that the Spanish might come out of Ferrol to attack, Calder did not pursue the fight and Villeneuve escaped. In England he was criticized for this and decided to return to face a court martial to clear his reputation. The Admiralty ordered him to sail home in Dreadnought which needed docking, but Nelson let him sail home in his flagship Prince of Wales. At his trial, Calder was severely reprimanded and never served at sea again.
- William Otway was a naval officer, holding the post of Commissioner of Malta Dockyard. Malta was the Mediterranean base from which victuals and naval stores were shipped to Nelson’s preferred base at the Maddalena Islands on the northern coast of Sardinia.
- Nelson’s comment on Collingwood’s adroitness refers to a stand-off between Collingwood’s three ships and 16 of the Combined French and Spanish Fleet near Cadiz. By means of bluff and clever sailing Collingwood averted an open uneven skirmish and the Fleet returned to Cadiz harbour.
- Sir Alexander Ball. Naval officer and governor of Malta since 1801, who worked closely with Nelson. Algiers. Nelson spent a considerable amount of diplomatic energy and money ensuring that the Dey of Algiers continued to supply his ships with stores and welcome them into Algerian ports. Algiers was the home of the Barbary pirates and privateers who harried trade and vessels of all nations.
- Collingwood had transferred from Dreadnought to Royal Sovereign. It was in this ship that he led the second line of the English fleet into battle on 21 October off Cape Trafalgar.
- Britannia, Prince and Dreadnought were the slowest of the 3-deckers in the British fleet.
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