Nelson: The Essential Hero by Ernle Dusgate Selby Bradford Page B
Authors: Ernle Dusgate Selby Bradford
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Bay of Honduras, from the depredations of the American privateers’. One letter from this period of his life tells us more about the young man, his enthusiasm, his affection for friends and his dedication to his calling than a ream of words. Captain Locker had fallen ill, as did most who spent much time in the West Indies, where everything from yellow fever to malaria, manchineel poisoning and the pox had played havoc with European man ever since Columbus had first stumbled upon this outwardly smiling sea. ‘A bloody war and a sickly season’ had long been the toast amongst those who aspired to promotion among the offshore islands of the New World.
Nelson’s letter to Locker was dated aboard the Badger 30 April 1779:
I hope with all my heart you are much better than when I left you, and that you will not be obliged to go home on account of your health. I wish sincerely it was in my power in some measure to show some small return for the many favours I have received, but I am sure you do not think me ungrateful. If you come on the North Side [of Jamaica], and I hear of it, I will come in. I know you will be pleased with this little earnest of success, but we have had a great deal of plague with her. [He had captured the 80-ton La Prudente.] Two days before we could find the French papers, at last found them in an old shoe. There is a polacre [a three-masted merchantman without topmasts] coming this way; I hope we shall fall in her way. I wish I could give a good character of Mr Capper; he is a drunkard; I need say no more. We shall part whenever we can get Mate of a Merchant ship. George Cruger behaves very well. If you have heard from Mrs Locker, I sincerely hope she and all the family are in good health; and that you and they may continue so, and enjoy every blessing of this life.
Some years later, a fellow captain, envious of the charm (though it was a great deal more than that) with which Nelson seemed able to captivate his senior officers, wrote to him : ‘You did just as you pleased in Lord Hood’s time, the same in Admiral Hotham’s, and now again with Sir John Jervis; it makes no difference to you who is Commander-in-chief’. So now, with Captain Locker returned sick to England, with Maurice Suckling dead, Nelson continued to advance as steadily as if both these old friends and protectors had been there to help him.
Sir Peter Parker and his lady took to Nelson as if he were their own son, and Lady Parker’s regard (like that of many other admirals’ wives over the centuries) meant almost more than her husband’s on the station he commanded. On 11 June 1779, Nelson was appointed to the frigate Hinchinbrooke of 32 guns. He was now a post-captain, that is to say rated capable of being in charge of a ship of over 20 guns. The frigate’s previous captain had been killed by a random shot. Nelson was, in the phrase, ‘made’. That is to say, no junior officer could be passed over him, and he had only to stay alive and commit no grave misdemeanour, and nothing could prevent him in due course from rising to flag rank. ‘I got my rank’, he wrote, ‘by a shot killing a Post-Captain, and I most sincerely hope I shall, when I go, go out of the World the same way.’ He was still under twenty-one.
At the same time as promoting Nelson to the Hinchinbrooke Admiral Parker also moved Lieutenant Cuthbert Collingwood, who had followed in Nelson’s footsteps in the Lowestoffe , into the command of the Badger. Two lifelong friends went up the ladder together, both chosen for their commands by the same man, and both to share in the glory of Trafalgar, when together they led into action the two columns of the British fleet. Collingwood was ultimately to die worn out by the exigencies of the Mediterranean command, which had so nearly crippled his chief, and Admiral Parker, aged eighty-two, was to be present as chief mourner at Nelson’s funeral. The destinies of the three men were strangely linked.
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Nelson’s letter to Locker was dated aboard the Badger 30 April 1779:
I hope with all my heart you are much better than when I left you, and that you will not be obliged to go home on account of your health. I wish sincerely it was in my power in some measure to show some small return for the many favours I have received, but I am sure you do not think me ungrateful. If you come on the North Side [of Jamaica], and I hear of it, I will come in. I know you will be pleased with this little earnest of success, but we have had a great deal of plague with her. [He had captured the 80-ton La Prudente.] Two days before we could find the French papers, at last found them in an old shoe. There is a polacre [a three-masted merchantman without topmasts] coming this way; I hope we shall fall in her way. I wish I could give a good character of Mr Capper; he is a drunkard; I need say no more. We shall part whenever we can get Mate of a Merchant ship. George Cruger behaves very well. If you have heard from Mrs Locker, I sincerely hope she and all the family are in good health; and that you and they may continue so, and enjoy every blessing of this life.
Some years later, a fellow captain, envious of the charm (though it was a great deal more than that) with which Nelson seemed able to captivate his senior officers, wrote to him : ‘You did just as you pleased in Lord Hood’s time, the same in Admiral Hotham’s, and now again with Sir John Jervis; it makes no difference to you who is Commander-in-chief’. So now, with Captain Locker returned sick to England, with Maurice Suckling dead, Nelson continued to advance as steadily as if both these old friends and protectors had been there to help him.
Sir Peter Parker and his lady took to Nelson as if he were their own son, and Lady Parker’s regard (like that of many other admirals’ wives over the centuries) meant almost more than her husband’s on the station he commanded. On 11 June 1779, Nelson was appointed to the frigate Hinchinbrooke of 32 guns. He was now a post-captain, that is to say rated capable of being in charge of a ship of over 20 guns. The frigate’s previous captain had been killed by a random shot. Nelson was, in the phrase, ‘made’. That is to say, no junior officer could be passed over him, and he had only to stay alive and commit no grave misdemeanour, and nothing could prevent him in due course from rising to flag rank. ‘I got my rank’, he wrote, ‘by a shot killing a Post-Captain, and I most sincerely hope I shall, when I go, go out of the World the same way.’ He was still under twenty-one.
At the same time as promoting Nelson to the Hinchinbrooke Admiral Parker also moved Lieutenant Cuthbert Collingwood, who had followed in Nelson’s footsteps in the Lowestoffe , into the command of the Badger. Two lifelong friends went up the ladder together, both chosen for their commands by the same man, and both to share in the glory of Trafalgar, when together they led into action the two columns of the British fleet. Collingwood was ultimately to die worn out by the exigencies of the Mediterranean command, which had so nearly crippled his chief, and Admiral Parker, aged eighty-two, was to be present as chief mourner at Nelson’s funeral. The destinies of the three men were strangely linked.
CHAPTER FIVE -
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