Nelson: The Essential Hero (44 page)
Read Nelson: The Essential Hero Online
Authors: Ernle Dusgate Selby Bradford
and to go abroad, if the
Thalia
cannot soon be got ready. I have done
all
for him, and he may again, as he has often done before, wish me to break my neck, and be abetted in it by his friends, who are likewise my enemies; but I have done my duty as an honest, generous man, and I neither want or wish for any body to care what becomes of me, whether I return, or am left in the Baltic seeing I have done all in my power for you. And if dead, you will find I have done the same; therefore my only wish is, to be left to myself; and wishing you every happiness, believe that I am, your affectionate Nelson and Bronte.
Only two days later he was concluding a letter to Emma : ‘Kiss my dear, dear godchild for me, and be assured I am for ever, ever, ever, your, your, more than ever yours yours, your only, only your, &c.’
Arriving at Yarmouth Roads on 6 March, Nelson found little to his liking. Expedition was, as he saw it, the order of the day, and here was Sir Hyde Parker more concerned with the arrangements for a forthcoming ball than with getting the fleet to sea. The weather was terrible, cold, foggy, and dank with that bone-chilling miasma of the North Sea. Nelson could only too easily forget how he himself had happily lingered inactive in Naples and Palermo, and was full of indignation at finding Sir Hyde preoccupied with his young bride. Troubridge had recently been appointed to the Board of Admiralty and he, as well as St Vincent, received letters requesting that urgent orders be sent to get the fleet to sea. To Troubridge, Nelson wrote : ‘Consider how nice it must be laying in bed with a young wife, compared to a damned cold raw wind. But, my dear Troubridge, pack us off. I am interested, as I want to return.’ The result of this gadfly approach was that orders came for the fleet to proceed to sea immediately. Lady Parker’s ball never took place. Sir Hyde for his part must have been well aware that this flurry of activity had followed hard on the heels of the arrival of his second-in-command. Relations between him and Nelson were not unnaturally strained, and the latter complained that he seemed unable to get any hard information as to Parker’s intentions. He was aware that negotiations with the Danes were to be attempted first of all, with force being used only as a last resort. He disapproved strongly - ‘A fleet of British men-of-war are the best negotiators in Europe.’ Nelson was certainly right in his desire for immediate action, for the sooner the British moved, the less chance was there of the Danes, the Swedes, and the Russians effecting a juncture of the fleets. Although their quality, and particularly that of the Russians, was not up to the British, they would nevertheless have far outnumbered the fleet assembled under Sir Hyde Parker. This consisted of eighteen sail-of-the-line, eleven frigates, and attendant sloops, fireships and bomb vessels, to the total number of fifty-three ships.
March is no season for the North Sea - that mud-coloured tract of water which can be inhospitable even in midsummer - and this year was no exception. As the fleet headed north the weather grew steadily colder and fog gave place to sleet, and then to snow and ice. Nelson had ended his letter to Emma, ‘I am wet through and cold’, and so was everyone else. Not having worked together before, the fleet had not had time to shake down into a disciplined unit like that miracle-squadron which Nelson had commanded at the Nile. He commented sourly that: ‘Although the Commander-in-Chief made the signal for close order of sailing, yet scarcely one have kept their stations and in particular the good going ships.’ He need not have worried unduly, for the calibre of the officers and men was such that, as they would soon prove, it only needed the stimulus of action for them to become an exceptional fighting force. The quality of the captains alone should have encouraged him, for he had his trusted Foley from the Nile in command of the
Elephant
, Sir Thomas Thompson in the
Bellona
, and Fremantle in the
Ganges.
Among other equally distinguished captains was William Bligh in the 54-gun
Glatton
, who twelve years earlier had survived the famous mutiny in the
Bounty
to complete one of the longest small-boat voyages on record, 4,000 miles in an open boat. Bligh - though much-maligned in later centuries - was one of the finest seamen and navigators of his time.
As they neared the Dogger Bank a certain Lieutenant Layman who was aboard the
St George
remarked that he had once before caught a fine turbot in that area. Nelson was interested, knowing that Hyde Parker was fond of the pleasures of the table, and asked the lieutenant to have a try again. In due course to Nelson’s delight a small turbot was caught and the Admiral immediately said : ‘Send it across to Sir Hyde.’ Although it was near nightfall with a rising sea, and there was some disquiet at sending a boat across under such conditions, Nelson was determined to make this small gesture — a turbot rather than an olive branch - towards his chief. The action was appreciated, the ice between the two men thawed, and Parker sent back a friendly note of thanks. Layman later maintained that the victory that was to follow was won by the turbot, for if Nelson had not made this gesture he would not have been taken into his chief’s confidence, and would not have been given the detached squadron which ensured the triumph of British arms at Copenhagen.
On 18 March, after a severe gale and dismal weather conditions, the British sighted the northernmost part of Jutland, the long arm known as the Skaw. On the twentieth, the wind being fair for Copenhagen, they anchored some eighteen miles above Hamlet’s Elsinore. A Foreign Office official had already been sent on ahead with instructions that gave Denmark forty-eight hours to withdraw from the coalition of Armed Neutrality, or else face the consequences represented by this fleet that now lay poised against her shores. The Crown Prince of Denmark, who acted as Regent to his father (who was even more insane than Tsar Paul), would probably have been willing to accede to this request but he was far too frightened of offending the Russians
The Baltic with the route of the British Fleet
to do so. Three days passed before the British diplomat returned with the answer that Denmark refused the offer. Nelson, who had already paid a visit to Sir Hyde but had been unable to get any satisfactory statement as to his intentions, was delighted when a message reached him to join a general council aboard the
London.
Affairs clearly were to be settled by action - and not by pen and ink. He wrote a brief line to Emma: ‘Now we are sure of fighting, I am sent for. When it was a joke I was kept in the background; tomorrow will, I hope, be a proud day for England.’
Lieutenant Layman, who accompanied Nelson, noted the gloomy atmosphere as the council opened. Nicholas Vansittart of the Foreign Office had painted a gloomy picture of the strength of the defences of Copenhagen, while the accepted viewpoint of the period that ships could not prevail against strong and well-sited shore batteries had had a depressing effect upon Parker and his assembled captains. Nelson was immediately determined to inject some fire and enthusiasm into this assembly and began questioning Vansittart about the disposition of the Danish fleet. Having learned that they had placed their strongest ships at the head of the line, he immediately suggested that the British should take them by surprise by attacking their rear. The drawback to this was that it would necessitate their entering the Baltic by the Great Belt - a difficult passage - rather than by the Sound.
But in any event, as he quickly made clear, the sooner the ships got into action the better. Every moment that they delayed gave the Danes further opportunity for strengthening their defences and bringing their ships to readiness ‘Let it be by the Sound, by the Belt, or any how, only lose not an hour.’
Copenhagen
Nelson’s
genius in his hard trade never showed itself more clearly than at Copenhagen. Immediately upon returning to the
St George
he sat down and composed a letter to Sir Hyde Parker which set out explicitly the options that lay before him. Not only does it reveal his grasp of overall strategy and his appreciation of the tactical options, but at the same time it tactfully manages to put the necessary fire into an indecisive Commander-in-Chief. Whatever Nelson may have felt about Sir Hyde Parker, it is clear from the whole attitude towards his senior that he had more regard for him than he had ever entertained towards Lord Keith in the Mediterranean.
‘My Dear Sir Hyde,’ he wrote :
The conversation we had yesterday has naturally, from its importance, been the subject of my thoughts; and the more I have reflected, the more I am confirmed in opinion, that not a moment should be lost in attacking the Enemy : they will every day and hour be stronger; we shall never be so good a match for them as at this moment. The only consideration in my mind, is how to get at them with the least risk to our Ships. By Mr Vansittart’s account, the Danes have taken every means in their power to prevent our getting to attack Copenhagen by the Passage of the Sound. Cronenburg has been strengthened, the Crown Islands fortified, on the outermost of which are twenty guns pointed mostly downwards, and only eight hundred yards from very formidable batteries placed under the Citadel, supported by five Sail of the Line, seven Floating batteries of fifty guns each, besides Small-craft, Gun-boats, &c. &c.; and that the Revel Squadron [in the Gulf of Finland] of twelve or fourteen Sail of the Line are soon expected, as also five Sail of Swedes. It would appear by what you have told me of your instructions, that Government took for granted you would find no difficulty in getting off Copenhagen, and in the event of a failure of negotiation, you might instantly attack; and that there would be scarcely a doubt but the Danish Fleet would be destroyed, and the Capital made so hot that Denmark would listen to reason and its true interest. By Mr Vansittart’s account, their state of preparation exceeds what he conceives our Government thought possible, and that the Danish Government is hostile to us in the greatest possible degree. Therefore here you are, with almost the safety, certainly with the honour of England more intrusted to you, than ever yet fell to the lot of any British Officer. On your decision depends, whether our Country shall be degraded in the eyes of Europe, or whether she shall rear her head higher than ever: again do I repeat, never did our Country depend so much on the success of any Fleet as on this. How best to honour our Country and abate the pride of her Enemies, by defeating their schemes, must be the subject of your deepest consideration as Commander-in-Chief; and if what I have to offer can be the least useful in forming your decision, you are most heartily welcome.
I shall begin with supposing you are determined to enter by the Passage of the Sound, as there are those who think, if you leave that Passage open, that the Danish Fleet may sail from Copenhagen, and join the Dutch or French. I own I have no fears on that subject; for it is not likely that whilst their Capital is menaced with an attack, 9,000 of her best men should be sent out of the Kingdom. I suppose that some damage may arise amongst our masts and yards; yet perhaps there will not be one of them but could be made serviceable again. You are now about Cronenburg; if the wind be fair, and you determine to attack the Ships and Crown Islands, you must expect the natural issue of such a battle - Ships crippled, and perhaps one or two lost; for the wind which carries you in, will most probably not bring out a crippled Ship. This mode I call taking the bull by the horns. It, however, will not prevent the Revel Ships, or Swedes, from joining the Danes; and to prevent this from taking effect, is, in my humble opinion, a measure absolutely necessary - and still to attack Copenhagen.
Two modes are in my view; one to pass Cronenberg, taking the risk of damage, and to pass up the deepest and straightest Channel above the Middle Grounds, and coming down the Garbar or King’s Channel, to attack their Floating batteries &c. &c., as we find it convenient. It must have the effect of preventing a junction between the Russians, Swedes, and Danes, and may give us an opportunity of bombarding Copenhagen. I am also pretty certain that a passage could be found to the northernward of Southholm for all our Ships; perhaps it might be necessary to warp a short distance in the very narrow part. Should this mode of attack be ineligible, the passage of the Belt, I have no doubt, would be accomplished in four or five days, and then the attack by Draco could be carried into effect, and the junction of the Russians prevented, with every probability of success against the Danish Floating batteries. What effect a bombardment might have, I am not called upon to give an opinion; but think the way would be cleared for the trial.
Supposing us through the Belt with the wind first westerly, would it not be possible to either go with the Fleet, or detach ten ships of three and two decks, with one Bomb and two Fire-ships, to Revel, to destroy the Russian Squadron at that place ? I do not see the great risk of such a detachment, and with the remainder to attempt the business at Copenhagen. The measure may be thought bold, but I am of the opinion the boldest measures are the safest; and our Country demands a most vigorous exertion of her force, directed with judgement. In supporting you, my dear Sir Hyde, through the arduous and important task you have undertaken, no exertion of head or heart shall be wanting from your most obedient and faithful servant, Nelson and Bronte.