1
Robert Browning.
2
The Report is given in full in Laughton’s edition of “Nelson’s Letters and Despatches,” pp. 409–11. The editor discovered it in the Record Office, Admiral’s Despatches, Mediterranean, xxxi. 272.
3
See lines on page opposite.
4
A Chippendale arm-chair, which was given to Nelson by his great grandfather, was presented by the boy to Mrs Luckins, his nurse, when he left home to join the Navy. It appeared in an auction room so recently as 1908.
5
In other words, tow the vessels.
6
Ships of war sent to accompany merchantmen during hostilities so as to protect them from the enemy.
7
A private vessel commissioned to attack and capture the vessels of an enemy.
8
See post, Chapter xix.
9
Nelson’s successor and friend.
10
Sir Richard Bickerton (1727–92) sailed from England with a convoy on the 6th February 1782. He took part in an indecisive engagement with Suffrein, off Pondicherry, on the 20th June 1783. Not more than two-thirds of the British crews were effective owing to scurvy.
11
In his Autobiography Nelson gives the number as three.
1
Robert Browning.
2
The Report is given in full in Laughton’s edition of “Nelson’s Letters and Despatches,” pp. 409–11. The editor discovered it in the Record Office, Admiral’s Despatches, Mediterranean, xxxi. 272.
3
See lines on page opposite.
4
A Chippendale arm-chair, which was given to Nelson by his great grandfather, was presented by the boy to Mrs Luckins, his nurse, when he left home to join the Navy. It appeared in an auction room so recently as 1908.
5
In other words, tow the vessels.
6
Ships of war sent to accompany merchantmen during hostilities so as to protect them from the enemy.
7
A private vessel commissioned to attack and capture the vessels of an enemy.
8
See
9
Nelson’s successor and friend.
10
Sir Richard Bickerton (1727–92) sailed from England with a convoy on the 6th February 1782. He took part in an indecisive engagement with Suffrein, off Pondicherry, on the 20th June 1783. Not more than two-thirds of the British crews were effective owing to scurvy.
11
In his Autobiography Nelson gives the number as three.
12
More detailed particulars of this thrilling siege will be found in the author’s companion volume, “The Story of Napoleon,” pp. 60–64.
13
See
14
Captain Benjamin Hallowell (1760–1834). He afterwards assumed the name of Carew, and became a Vice-Admiral in 1819.
15
“The Royal Navy,” by Wm. Laird Clowes, vol. iv., p. 153, vol. v., pp. 9–10.
16
“The Navy League Annual, 1910–11,” p. 226.