Richard Holmes - Southey on Nelson - The Life of Nelson by Robert Southey

EDITED WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY

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Title Page Southey on Nelson The Life of Nelson by Robert Southey EDITED WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY

INTRODUCTION INTRODUCTION 1 Once he became a fleet-commander, Nelson always liked to lead his ships into battle flying naval signal number sixteen from his topgallant mast-head. Signal number sixteen consisted of two flags, one above the other: the uppermost white with a blue cross, the one below a patriotic red, white and blue. Even at the battle of Trafalgar, after he had issued the immortal message ‘England expects that every man will do his duty’, Nelson hoisted signal number sixteen as his last general command to his battle fleet. Its meaning was a dare as much as an order, and it was particularly relished by his officers, his ‘band of brothers’, who considered it typical of Nelson’s attitude to life in general. Signal number sixteen, applicable in all conceivable circumstances, meant: ‘Engage the enemy more closely’. It was flying at 1pm on 21 October, 1805, when Nelson was hit by a musket ball on the quarter deck of the Victory; and it was still flying when he died three hours later, in the surgeon’s cockpit, asking Captain Hardy to kiss him farewell, and to tell him how many enemy ships had surrendered.

SELECT CHRONOLOGY SELECT CHRONOLOGY 1758 (29 September) Horatio Nelson born at Burnham Thorpe, Norfolk 1774 Robert Southey born in Bristol 1771 Nelson joins the Royal Navy as a midshipman at Chatham 1773 Nelson sails to the Arctic 1777 Nelson sails to the West Indies 1787 Nelson marries Mrs Fanny Nisbet on Nevis, in the British Caribbean 1788 Nelson retires to Norfolk on half-pay 1792 Southey goes to Oxford University 1793 (January) Nelson given command of HMS Agamemnon (September) Nelson first meets Emma Hamilton at Naples 1794 (July) Nelson loses sight of right eye while besieging Calvi, Corsica 1795 Southey lectures with Coleridge in Bristol 1796 Southey sails to Spain 1797 (February) Nelson ‘breaks the line’ at the Battle of Cape St Vincent (July) Nelson loses right arm at Santa Cruz 1798 (August) Nelson wins the Battle of the Nile (Aboukir Bay) Southey publishes his ballads, ‘The Inchscape Rock’ and ‘The Battle of Blenheim’ 1799 Nelson in Naples with Emma Hamilton Execution of Caraccioli, and Neapolitan ‘rebels’ 1800 Nelson separates from Lady Nelson 1801 (April) Nelson disobeys orders at the Battle of Copenhagen Nelson’s illegitimate daughter, Horatia, born Southey publishes Thalaba, the Destroyer 1803 (June) Nelson takes command of the Mediterranean fleet Southey moves to the Lake District 1805 (August) Nelson’s last summer in England with Emma and Horatia (15 October) Nelson dies at the Battle of Trafalgar 1810 Southey begins publishing his History of Brazil Southey reviews several Nelson biographies for The Quarterly 1813 Southey publishes The Life of Nelson Southey appointed Poet Laureate 1815 Emma Hamilton dies in Calais 1820 Southey publishes The Life of John Wesley 1833 Southey publishes his Lives of the British Admirals 1843 Southey dies in Keswick, Cumberland

AUTHOR’S PREFACE AUTHOR’S PREFACE Many lives of Nelson have been written: one is yet wanting, clear and concise enough to become a manual for the young sailor, which he may carry about with him till he has treasured up the example in his memory and in his heart. In attempting such a work I shall write the eulogy of our great Naval Hero; for the best eulogy of NELSON is the faithful history of his actions; the best history, that which shall relate them most perspicuously. ROBERT SOUTHEY

THE LIFE OF NELSON THE LIFE OF NELSON

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Once he became a fleet-commander, Nelson always liked to lead his ships into battle flying naval signal number sixteen from his topgallant mast-head. Signal number sixteen consisted of two flags, one above the other: the uppermost white with a blue cross, the one below a patriotic red, white and blue. Even at the battle of Trafalgar, after he had issued the immortal message ‘England expects that every man will do his duty’, Nelson hoisted signal number sixteen as his last general command to his battle fleet.

Its meaning was a dare as much as an order, and it was particularly relished by his officers, his ‘band of brothers’, who considered it typical of Nelson’s attitude to life in general. Signal number sixteen, applicable in all conceivable circumstances, meant: ‘Engage the enemy more closely’.

It was flying at 1pm on 21 October, 1805, when Nelson was hit by a musket ball on the quarter deck of the Victory; and it was still flying when he died three hours later, in the surgeon’s cockpit, asking Captain Hardy to kiss him farewell, and to tell him how many enemy ships had surrendered.

Even before his heroic death at Trafalgar aged forty-seven, Nelson had become a national legend in a way that was virtually without precedent. His personal bravery, his astonishing aggression in battle, his loyalty to his fellow officers and his kindness towards his able seamen (especially his young midshipmen), were famous throughout the Royal Navy. But his gallantry, his self-sacrifice, and his fervent patriotism had made him a celebrity, in a quite modern sense, throughout the whole of England. Nelson was a new breed of war hero, a profoundly Romantic figure, who had caught the popular imagination and become the embodiment of a new kind of English nationalism.

There were, of course, historical reasons for this. The patriotic war against revolutionary France, which began in earnest in 1793, brought growing fears of invasion and subversion. By 1800, the military successes of Bonaparte had personalised this threat, and even brought fears of defeat and dictatorship. This slowly transformed the mood of radical discontent, and popular disaffection, that had gripped England (and especially its writers and intellectuals) for over a decade. Nelson became the personal focus of a deep, stirring movement of national unity and recovered common purpose. It was no coincidence that he led the most glamorous and successful of the British armed services of the period, and that there were very few families of the landed and middle classes–the families of Jane Austen’s novels–who did not have a father, brother, son, grandson, or uncle in the navy.

The Royal Navy was also a powerful and modern force. An English warship or ‘ship of the line’, carrying upward of seventy-four, eighty-six, or a hundred guns and a crew and armed personnel of 500 was the most sophisticated, complex and expensive military machine of its time. The English fleets were small compared to those of France or Spain, but they were better equipped and disciplined, with fierce loyalties among the crews, and strong family affections (and rivalries) between the officers. English navigation and gunnery could not be matched, and when Nelson boasted that ‘one Englishman was worth three Frenchmen’, he meant that his crews could sail across the Atlantic twice as fast, and his gunners fire three broadsides to their one.