Nelson
Plan.
1.
Introduction................................................................
.............. 2
2. Early
years.......................................................................
......... 2
3. Service in the
Mediterranean..................................................... 4
4. Battles of Cape St. Vincent and the
Nile.................................... 5
5. Blockade of Naples and battle of
Copenhagen........................... 7
6. Victory at
Trafalgar..................................................................
9
7.
Assessment..................................................................
..............11
8.
Bibliography................................................................
............ 12
Introduction.
Nelson Horatio Nelson, Viscount Duca (duke) Di Bronte, also called
(1797 - 1798) sir Horatio Nelson, or (1798 - 1801) baron Nelson of the Nile
and Burnham-Thorpe (b. September 29, 1758, Burnham Thorpe, Nor-folk, Eng.
- d. October 21, 1805, at sea, off Cap Trafalgar, Spain), British naval
commander in the wars with Revolutionary and Napoleonie France, who won
crucial victories in such battles as those of the Nail (1798) of Trafalgar
(1805), where he was killed by enemy fire on the HMS "Victory". In private
life he was known for his extended love affair with Emma, Lady Hamilton,
while both were married.
Early years.
Horatio Nelson was the sixth of 11 children of the village rector,
Edmund Nelson, and his wife, Catherine. The Nelson were genteel, scholarly,
and poor. The family's most important connection from which Nelson could
expect preferment was that with a distant relation, Lord Walpole, the
descendant of sir Robert Walpole, who had been prime minister earlier in
the century. Decisive for Nelson's life, however, was his mother's brother,
Capt. Maurice Suckling, who was to become comptroller of the British Navy.
When Horatio's mother died, Captain Suckling agreed to take the boy to sea.
Nelson's first years in the navy were a mixture of routine experience
and high adventure. The former was gained particularly in the Thames
estuary, the latter in voyage to the West Indies by merchant ship and a
dangerous and unsuccessful scientific expedition to the Arctic in 1773.
Nelson had his first taste of action in the Indian Ocean. Soon after,
struck down by fever - probably malaria - he was invalided home, and, while
recovering from the consequent depression, Nelson experienced a dramatic
surge of optimism. From that moment, Nelson's ambition, fired by patriotism
tempered by the Christian compassion instilled by his father, urged him to
prove himself at least the equal of his eminent kinsmen.
In 1777 Nelson passed the examination for lieutenant and sailed for
the West Indies, the most active theater in the war against the American
colonies. Promoted to captain in 1779, at the early age of the 20, he was
given command of frigate and took part in operations against Spanish
settlements in Nicaragua, which became targets once Spain joined France in
alliance with the American Revolutionaries. The attack on San Juan was
militarily successful but ultimately disastrous when the British force was
almost wiped out by yellow fever; Nelson himself was lucky to survive.
In 1783, after the end of the American Revolution, Nelson returned to
England by way of France. On his return to London he was cheered by the
appointment, in 1784, to mand a frigate bound for the West Indies. But this
was not to be a happy commission. By rigidly enforcing the navigation Act
against American ships, which were still trading with the British
privileges they had officially lost, he made enemies not only among
merchants shipowners but also among the resident British authorities who,
in their own interest, had failed to enforce the law. Under the strain of
his difficulties and of the loneliness of command. Nelson was at his most
vulnerable when he visited the island of Nevis in March 1785. There he met
Frances Nisbet, a widow, and her five-year-old son, Josiah. Nelson
conducted his courtship with formality charm, and in March 1787 the couple
was married at Nevis.
Returning with his bride to Burnham Trope, Nelson found himself
without another appointment and on half pay. He remained unemployed for
five years, aware of "a prejudice at the Admiralty evidently against me,
which I can neither guess at, nor in the least account for" - but which
may well have been connected with his enforcement of the Navigation Act
Within a few days of the execution of King Louis XVI of France in January
1793. However, he was given command of the 64-gun Agamemnon.
Service in the Mediterranean.
From this moment, Nelson the enthusiastic professional was gradually
replaced by Nelson the commander of genius. The coming months were probably
his most tranquil emotionally. At home waited a living wife, whose son he
had taken to sea with him. His ship, fast and maneuverable, and his crew,
superbly trained, pleased him. His task was to fight the Revolutionary
French and support British allies in the Mediterranean. Assigned to the
forlorn defense of the port of Toulon against the revolutionaries - among
them a 24-year-old officer of artillery, Napoleon Bonaparte - Nelson was
dispatched to Naples to collect reinforcements. He later gratefully
recognized that he owed the success of his mission largely to the British
minister - the adroit and scholarly Sir William Hamilton, who was had lived
at Naples for 30 years and whose vivacious young wife, Emma was in the
queen's confidence.
When Toulon fell, Lord Hood, Nelson's commander, moved his base to
Corsica, where Nelson and his ship's company went ashore to assist in the
capture of Bastia and Calvi, where a French shot flung debris into Nelson's
face juring his right eye and leaving it almost ughtless. At the end of
1794, Hood was replaced by the uninspiring Admiral William Hotham, who was
subsequently replaced by Sir John Jervis, an officer more to Nelson's
liking. At the age of 60, Jervis was an immensely experienced seaman who
quickly recognized Nelson's qualities and who regarded Nelson "more as an
associate than a subordinate officer". The arrival of Jervis coincided with
an upsurge of French success by the so that the British were forced too
abandon their Mediterranean bases and retreat upon Gibraltar and the Tagus.
Battles of Cape St. Vincent and the Nile.
Making for a rendezvous with Jervis in the Atlantic off Cape St.
Vincent, Nelson found himself sailing in mist through a Spanish fleet of 27
ships. The Spaniards were sailing in two divisions and Jervis planned to
cut between the two and destroy one before the other could come to its
assistance. But he had miscalculated, and it became clear that the British
ships would not be able to turn quickly enough to get into action before
the Spanish squadrons closed up. Without orders from Jervis. Nelson hauled
out of line and attacked the head of the second Spanish division. While the
rest of Jervis' fleet slowly turned and came up in support. Nelson held the
two Spanish squadrons apart, at one time fighting seven enemy ships. The
efficiency of British gunnery was decisive and he not only boarded and
captured one enemy man-of-war but, from her deck, boarded and took a
second.
The Battle of Cape St. Vincent won for Jervis the earldom of St.
Vincent and for Nelson a knighthood, which coincided with his promotion by
seniority to rear admiral. His first action in command of major independent
force, however was disastrous. In the cours4e of an assault on Tenerife, a
grapeshot shattered his right elbow, and back in his flagship the arm was
amputated. In the spring of 1798 Nelson was fit enough to rejoin the Earl
of St. Vincent, who assigned him to watch a French fleet waiting to embark
an expeditionary force.
Cruising off the port in his flagship, the Vanguard, Nelson was struck
by a violent northwesterly gale that blew his squadron off station and
carried the French well on their way to their destination, Egypt. The
British set out in pursuit, Nelson believing that the French were going
either to Sicily or Egypt. After a somewhat confused chase the British
caught up with the French squadron in the harbour at Alexandria near the
mouth of the Nail. There the British saw the harbour crowded with empty
French transports and, to the east, an escorting French squadron of 13
ships anchored in a defensive line across Abu Qir Bay near the months of
the Nile. Once the signal to engage had been hoisted in the Vahguard,
Nelson's ships attacked the French. With the French ships immobilized, the
attacking British ships could anchor and concentrate their fire on each
enemy before moving on to demolish their next target. Its outcome never in
doubt from its beginning at sunset, the battle raged all night. By dawn the
French squadron had been all annihilated. The strategic consequences of the
Battle of the Nile were immense, and Nelson took immediate steps to
broadcast the news throughout the Mediterranean as well as hastening it to
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