undecisive effect, remarked that it would "serve to convince the enemy that they could not come out of their harbours with impunity." "My dearest Emma, " 'Medusa, off Boulogne, August 4th, 1801. "Boulogne is evidently not a pleasant place this morning. Three of their floating batteries are sunk; what damage has been done to the others, and the vessels inside the pier, I cannot say, but I hope and believe that some hundreds of French are gone to hell this morning; for if they are dead assuredly they are gone there. In fire or out of fire I am, "Yours, "NELSON And Bronté. "Tell the Duke and Lord William that the embarkation of the French army will not take place at Boulogne. Beyond this I cannot say. In my visits to the bombs in my barge, friends think the French have been very attentive to me, for they did nothing but fire at the boat and the different vessels I was in, but God is good." my "Medusa, off Calais, 7 o'clock, August 4th, 1801. "My dearest Emma, "Your kind and affectionate letters up to yesterday are all received. Ten times ten thousand thanks for them, and for your tender care of my dear little charge Horatia. I love her the more dearly, as she is in the upper part of her face so like her dear good mother, who I love, and always shall with the truest affection. I am on my way to Ostend and Flushing, and shall probably be off Margate on Friday. Captain Gore is very kind and good to me, for I must be a great plague to him. I have to thank him even for a bed. I have only one moment to write this, as Admiral Lutwidge sent his own boat with my letters of this day's post. Best regards to Mrs. Nelson, kind love to Horatia, and believe me, "Yours, "NELSON AND BRONTÉ. "This goes through my kind friend, Admiral Lutwidge. I wrote to you to-day through Troubridge." "There is not in this world a thing that I would not do to please my dearest friend, but you must not take things amiss. that never were intended. I know not that I wrote to my father more news than to you; in fact, I know not my own movements, they are as uncertain as the wind. I can always tell you where I am when I write, but at what spot where letters may find me is impossible. I intend going towards Flushing, from thence towards Margate, Hosely, or Harwich; but if I was to die for it, I cannot tell which. I really wish you would buy the house at Turnham Green. I have £3000. which I can pay in a moment, and the other I can get without much difficulty. It is, my dear friend, extraordinary, but true, that the man who is pushed forward to defend his country, has not from that country a place to lay his head in; but never mind, happy, truly happy, in the estimation of such friends as you, I care for nothing. How great has been Sir James Samaurez's success! From my heart I rejoice. The Spaniards will never surely go to sea again. My command is only against small craft, therefore small must be my services in the taking and destroying way, but you know I will not be inactive. I hope soon to be able to get to London for a day or two, at least I will try. Make my best regards to Mrs. Nelson, the Duke, and Lord William. "Ever yours, "NELSON And Bronté.” "My dearest Emma, "Medusa, back of the Goodwin Sands, "The wind being easterly, and the Sea Fencibles not being so forward as I could wish them, I have deferred my visit to Flushing until they are embarked, and our floating batteries placed in the places assigned them. All your dear kind letters received yesterday made me much better, for I was not quite so well as when in London. I could not drink Champagne, a sure sign that all is not right; but indeed I His celebrated victory off Algeziras. am not to call ill, but sometimes the exertion of my mind is beyond the strength of my body. I hope you will be able to get the house at Turnham Green, either to hire or buy. Shall I desire my lawyer to call and talk to you, if you think it will suit me, and he shall hire or purchase it, Messrs. Booth and Haslewood, No. 4, Craven Street, Strand. I really want a house. I am grieved to hear you complain.Keep well, get well, for the sake of all your friends, and for the sake of none more than "Yours, "NELSON AND BRONTÉ. "The Guardian Angels, although lying by in their cases, are not hung up in this ship. Best regards to Mrs. Nelson, the Duke, and Lord William." Of the proceedings off Boulogne (which certainly were not deserving or rather demanding the service of an officer of the rank and importance of Nelson) he writes on the 5th to his Royal Highness the Duke of Clarence: "The whole of this business is of no farther moment than to shew the enemy, that, with impunity, they cannot come outside their ports." The operations of the 4th were noticed by Nelson in laudable terms: "Lord Nelson has reason to be very much satisfied with the Captains of the bombs, for their placing of the vessels yesterday. It was impossible that they could have been better situated; and the artillery officers have shewn great skill in entirely disabling ten of the armed vessels out of twenty-four opposed to them, and many others Lord Nelson believes are much damaged."1 On the 6th he directed the following to Captains Shield,1 Hamilton, Schomberg,3 and Edge* : To the Squadron. See Naval Chronicle, Vol. vi. p. 160. 1 Captain William Shield acquired a notoriety from an action brought against him, and tried before Lord Chief Justice Loughborough in the Court of Common Pleas, in 1792, in which Mr. Leonard, the plaintiff, complained of an assault and violence offered to him in consequence of the disobeyance of an order of Captain Shield, at that time Lieutenant of the Saturn of 74 guns. The usage of the service was proved, and the thirty-sixth naval article of war authorized Lieutenant Shield in the measure he had adopted, and the jury gave a verdict in his favour accordingly. The Court, moreover, finding that a spirit contrary to the maintenance of good discipline prevailed among the Midshipmen of the "Medusa, August 6th, 1801. "As there can be no doubt of the intention of the French to attempt the invasion of our country, and as I trust, and London and Edgar, submitted to the Admiralty the propriety of trying Mr. Moore of the London, for the same, as a necessary means of preserving good order, and preventing improper combinations. The trial took place, and Mr. Moore was sentenced to one month's imprisonment in the Marshalsea. Mr. Shield was promoted to the rank of Commander, in La Sincère of 20 guns, one of the Toulon prizes, and he afterwards commanded the Berwick, and also the Windsor Castle. He was made a Post Captain in 1794. In 1795 he commanded the Audacious, and was present at the destruction of L'Alcide off Frejus, July 13th, 1795. He was then employed in the Southampton under Lord Nelson's orders, harassed the enemy on the coast of Genoa, and co-operated with the Austrian army encamped at Sarone. After this service he was appointed to L'Unité in the North Sea, was with Nelson off Boulogne, and in 1805 commanded the Illustrious, of 74 guns, on the coast of Spain. In 1807 he was made Naval Commissioner at Malta, then appointed to superintend the payment of ships afloat at Portsmouth, thence transferred as Commissioner of the Cape of Good Hope, after which he was placed at the Navy Board. In 1814 he was made Deputy Comptroller of the Navy, and in the following year Resident Commissioner at Plymouth. He retired as Rear-Admiral, January 9, 1829; was placed on the Active List, as Admiral of the White, November 12, 1840; and died June 25, 1842. 2 Sir Charles Hamilton, Bart. is lineally descended from the Earl of Mallent, in Normandy, whose nephew is celebrated in history for the part he took at the Battle of Hastings. The Captain above mentioned is the son of Sir John Hamilton, Bart. who acquired his Baronetcy for his conduct during the siege of Quebec, where he commanded the Lizard frigate, and was born August 25, 1767. He served as a Midshipman with his father, on board the Hector in 1776, and afterwards studied at the Royal Naval Academy at Portsmouth. He was made Lieutenant of the Tobago on the Jamaica station. He was made a Post Captain November 22, 1790, having previously been elected M.P. for St. Germains in Cornwall. He afterwards represented Honiton in Devonshire, and Dungannon in the County of Tyrone. Upon the commencement of the Revolutionary War in 1793 he was appointed to the Dido of 28 guns, and cruised off Norway, and then with Lord Hood at Corsica. Upon his return to England in 1794 he was appointed to the Melpomene, and remained in the command of that vessel upwards of seven years. He was engaged under Admiral Mitchell in the expedition against the Helder, at the blockade of Amsterdam. In 1800 he had the chief command on the coast of Africa, and took possession of Porto Praya. In the Ruby he commanded the Sea Fencibles at Harwich. In 1802 he acted as Commissioner at Antigua in the West Indies, and in the following year commanded the Illustrious of 74 guns, in the Channel fleet. In 1809 he obtained a Colonelcy of the Marines; in 1810 was made a Rear-Admiral, and Commander-in-chief in the Thames, and in 1814 was advanced to the rank of Vice-Admiral. In 1818 he was made Commander-in-chief and Governor of Newfoundland, and returned to England in 1822. He is the present senior Admiral of the Red, and K.C.B. * Captain Isaac Schomberg was made a Post Captain, November 22, 1790. He was in Lord Rodney's action in 1782, and commanded the Culloden in am confident, that if our sea-faring men do their duty, that either the enemy will give over the folly of the measure, or, if they persist in it, that not one Frenchman will be allowed to set his foot on British soil; it is, therefore, necessary that all good men should come forward on this momentous occasion to oppose the enemy, and, more particularly, the Sea Fencibles, who have voluntarily enrolled themselves to defend their country afloat, which is the true place where Britain ought to be defended, that the horrors of war may not reach the peaceful abodes of our families. And as the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty have been pleased to appoint me to command the sea defence of Great Britain, within the limits of your district, it is my duty to request that you will have the goodness to acquaint all the Sea Fencibles under your command, and all other sea-faring men and fishermen, that their services are absolutely required at this moment on board the ships and vessels particularly appointed to defend that part of the coast where the enemy mean to attempt a landing, if unopposed. "I am authorized to assure the Fencibles, and other seafaring men who may come forward on this occasion, that they shall not be sent off the coast of the kingdom, shall be kept as near their own houses as the nature of the service will admit, and that the moment the alarm of the threatened invasion is over, that every man shall be returned to their own homes; and also, that during their continuance on board ship, that as much attention as is possible shall be paid to their reasonable wants. And I flatter myself, that at a moment when all the volunteer corps in the kingdom are Lord Howe's action of the 1st of June, 1794. He was appointed to the Command of the Sea Fencibles at Hastings. He was afterwards made a Deputy Comptroller of the Navy, which he resigned, and had a seat given to him at the Navy Board. He published the Naval Chronology, an useful work. He died at his house in Cadogan Place, January 20, 1813. + Captain William Edge, a Captain of the Royal Hospital at Greenwich, to which he was appointed in 1809; was made a Commander in the Alert, a French brig taken at Toulon and fitted as a fire-vessel. He honourably distinguished himself in this dangerous service under Sir Sidney Smith upon the evacuation of Toulon. He was afterwards appointed to the Vulcan fire-ship, and thence removed to the Prince George of 98 guns, in which he was present at the attack on the French fleet off L'Orient in 1795. On the 29th of June, 1795, he was made a Post Captain, and appointed to the Sea Fencibles between Harwich and Yarmouth, and thus came under Lord Nelson's command. |