The Naval Miscellany by Susan Rose

Author:Susan Rose [Rose, Susan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781000341751
Barnesnoble:
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Published: 2020-11-25T00:00:00+00:00

At that time, Lutwidge was one of three admirals commanding British forces opposed to the French in the Channel – the other two being Admiral Archibald Dickson, Commander-in-Chief, North Sea, and Vice Admiral Alexander Graeme, the Commander-in-Chief at the Nore. St Vincent decided that the best way to deal with the threat was to create a new, unified and mobile force of small vessels, with the sole purpose of ‘frustrating the enemy’s designs’. And, to show the French that he meant business, he gave this command to the victor of the Nile and Copenhagen. Nelson took up his appointment on 27 July and remained in post for almost three months, until 22 October.

Nelson’s biographers tend to deal with this period in his career fairly cursorily and to downplay the importance of the command. Certainly, when measured against the achievements of his other great campaigns, the three months he spent in the Channel appear almost an interlude. But the force he had under his direct orders was far from insignificant: indeed in terms of numbers it was the largest that he ever commanded. The actual composition of the squadron was never static but at the height of the campaign, in early August, he had over seventy ships and vessels at his disposal (see the list on pp. 253–5). These ranged from third-rate battleships to tiny revenue cutters and included a number of specialist vessels, including seven bombs. However, the core of the force, over thirty in all, were small, handy gun brigs and gun vessels, mounting between 12 and 14 guns. About half had been built in 1797 to deal with an earlier invasion scare: the remainder had been rushed out in April and May 1801 to meet the present emergency.

To assist him with the administration of this large and widely scattered force, Nelson applied to the Admiralty for permission to employ as his aide-de-camp one of his young protégés, Commander Edward Parker who had served with him in the Mediterranean and at Copenhagen.1 It was Parker, therefore, who had responsibility for promulgating all Nelson’s orders to his squadron and one of the ways this was achieved was by using the ‘Public Order Book’ that is printed below. The first order in the book announced Parker’s appointment as ADC and instructed that ‘all messages or orders, whether verbal or written, delivered by him in my name be obeyed as coming from me’ [1].

Apart from the two public letters by Nelson and Lord St Vincent [28, 28A] none of the material in this book has been published before. Although lodged in the Manuscripts Collection of the Admiralty Library,2 it appears to have escaped notice until recently: certainly, it has not been used by any of Nelson’s biographers. However, when the Manuscripts Collection was moved to Portsmouth, and placed under the curatorship of the Royal Naval Museum, the Order Book was identified by the Museum’s Curator of Manuscripts, Matthew Sheldon. He drew it to my attention and I judged it sufficiently interesting to

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