Part 8 (1/2)
IV.
”When I came home from the Baltic, I and others were landed at Yarmouth, and sent to the hospital. I was some time in getting well. I'll tell you what set me on my legs again. One day as I was lying on my bed in the crowded ward, thinking if I should ever recover, and be fit for sea again, the news came that a brig of war had entered the harbour with Lord Nelson on board. Would you believe it, I was thanking Heaven that our brave admiral had come back safe, and was in a half dreamy, dozing state, when I heard a cheer, and opening my eyes there he was himself going round from bed to bed, and talking to each of the men. He knew me at once, and told me that I must make haste and get well and join his s.h.i.+p, as it wouldn't be long probably before he again hoisted his flag.
”'You shall have any rating you like, remember that,' said he, taking my hand. 'We must have medals and prize-money for you; you have gallantly won them, all of you.'
”He pa.s.sed on, for he had a kind word to say to many hundred poor fellows that day. When I got well I went home for a spell; but before long I heard that Lord Nelson had hoisted his flag as commander-in-chief of the channel squadron on h.o.a.rd the 'Medusa' frigate. I went on board, and the admiral instantly rated me as quartermaster. We had plenty of work before us, for General Bonaparte, who was now Emperor of France, wanted to come and invade England. He had got a flotilla of gunboats all ready to carry over his army, and he had a large fleet besides.
Many people thought he would succeed. We knew that the wooden walls of old England were her best defence, and so we afloat never believed that a French soldier would ever set foot on our sh.o.r.es.
”They had, however, a large flotilla in Boulogne harbour, and it was determined to destroy it with the boats of the squadron. I volunteered for one of out boats. The boats were in three divisions. We left the s.h.i.+ps a little before midnight. It was very dark, and the divisions got separated. We knew that it was desperate work we were on. Ours was the only division which reached the harbour. There were batteries defending the place, and troops on the sh.o.r.e, and soldiers on board the flotilla, and the outer vessels were guarded with iron spikes, and had boarding nets triced up, and were lashed together. In we darted. It was desperate work, and the fire of the great guns and musketry soon showed our enemies to us, and us to them.
”'Just keep off, you brave Englishmen, you can do nothing here,' sung out a French officer in very plain English.
”'We'll try that!' was our reply, as we dashed on board, in spite of iron spikes and boarding nettings. On we went; we cut out several of the vessels, and were making off with them with loads of Frenchmen on board, when, would you believe it, if the enemy didn't open their fire on the boats, killing their own people as well as us. To my mind, those French, in war, are as bad as cannibals--that's what Lord Nelson always said of them. If it hadn't been for this we should have burned or captured most of them. While I was just springing on board another vessel, among the flashes from the guns, the flames and smoke, the hissing and rattling shot, I got a knock on my head which sent me back into the bottom of the boat. I knew nothing more till I found myself on board my own s.h.i.+p, and heard that we had lost some hundred and seventy poor fellows. I was sent to the hospital, where one of our gallant leaders, Captain Parker, died of his wounds.
”The next s.h.i.+p I found myself on board was the 'Victory.' There wasn't a finer s.h.i.+p in the navy, more weatherly or more handy--steered like a duck, and worked like a top. Lord Nelson himself got me appointed to her. Away we sailed for the Mediterranean. While Admiral Cornwallis watched the French fleet at Brest, we kept a look-out over that at Toulon under the command of Admiral La Touche Treville, who had commanded at Boulogne, and boasted that he had beat off Lord Nelson from that port. He could not boast, though, that he beat him off from Toulon; for, for eighteen long months, from the 1st of July, 1803, to the 11th of January, 1805, did we keep watch off that harbour's mouth.
If such a gale sprung up as would prevent the French getting out, we went away, only leaving a frigate or so to watch what took place; but we were soon to be back again. Thus the time pa.s.sed on. We saw the sh.o.r.e, but were not the better for it; for few of us, from the admiral downwards, ever set foot on it. At last the French admiral, La Touche Treville, died, and a new one, Admiral Villeneuve, was appointed. We now began to hope that the French would come out and fight us; for you see Lord Nelson did not want to keep them in--only to get at them when they came out. If it hadn't been for the batteries on sh.o.r.e, we should have gone in and brought them out. We had gone away to the coast of Sardinia, when news was brought that the French fleet was at sea.
Instantly we got under weigh, pa.s.sing at night through a pa.s.sage so narrow that only one s.h.i.+p could pa.s.s at a time, and fully expecting the next morning to be engaged with the enemy. First we looked for them about Sicily; then after them we ran towards Egypt, and then back to Malta, where we heard that they had put into Toulon. Now, we kept stricter watch than ever, without a bulkhead up, and all ready for battle.
”It was on the 4th of April, that the 'Phoebe' brought us news that Admiral Villeneuve, with his squadron, had again slipped out of Toulon, and was steering for the coast of Africa. Frigates were sent out in every direction, to make sure that he had not gone eastward; and then after him we stood, towards the Straits of Gibraltar, but the wind was dead against us, and we had hard work to get there. I had never seen the admiral in such a taking before. We beat backwards and forwards against the head-wind, but all to no purpose--out of the Gut we could not get without a leading-wind, and so we had to anchor off the Barbary coast; there we got supplies.
”At last, on the 5th of May, an easterly breeze sprung up, and away we went, with a flowing sheet, through the Straits. We called off Cadiz, and the coast of Portugal, and then bore away for the West Indies, where we heard the French had gone. We sighted Madeira, and made Barbadoes, then sailed for Tobago; and next we were off for the Gulf of Paria, all cleared for action, making sure that we should find the enemy there. We thought it would have killed the admiral when he found that he had been deceived. Back we sailed, and heard that the French had captured the Diamond Rock. You've heard about it. It's a curious place, and was commissioned like a man-of-war. If it hadn't been for false information, and if Lord Nelson had stuck to his own intentions, we should have caught the French up off Port Royal, and thrashed them just at the spot Lord Rodney thrashed Admiral de Gra.s.se--so I've heard say.
Well, at last, we found that the French had left the West Indies for Europe, so back across the Atlantic we steered, but though we knew we were close astern of them, they kept ahead of us, and at last we sighted Cape Spartel, and anch.o.r.ed the next day at Gibraltar.
”I know it for a fact, that it only wanted ten days of two years since Lord Nelson himself had last set his foot on sh.o.r.e. It was much longer than that since I and most on board had trod dry ground. That was serving our country, you'll allow--most of the time, too, under weigh, battling with tempests, and broiling under the sun of the tropics.
”We victualled and watered at Tetuan, then once more stood to the west'ard--then back to Cadiz, and once more crossed the Bay of Biscay, thinking the enemy were bound for Ireland. Foul winds made the pa.s.sage long. Once more the enemy had baffled us, and at last, when off Ushant, we received orders to return to Portsmouth to refit.
”That very fleet Sir Robert Calder fell in with on the 22nd of July, just thirty leagues westward of Cape Finisterre, and, although his force was much smaller, he captured two of their line-of-battle s.h.i.+ps. It was a very gallant affair; but people asked, 'What would Nelson have done?'
While the admiral was on sh.o.r.e we were busily employed in refitting the 'Victory,' while a number of other s.h.i.+ps he had wished to have with him were got ready for sea. On the 14th of September he once more came aboard the 'Victory,' and hoisted his flag. The next day, we sailed for Cadiz. We arrived off that place on the 29th, where we found the squadron of Admiral Collingwood blockading the French and Spanish fleets under Admiral Villeneuve.
”What Lord Nelson wanted, you see, was to get the enemy out to fight him. He wanted also, not only to win a victory, but to knock the enemy's s.h.i.+ps to pieces, so that they could do no more harm. To get them out we had to cut off their supplies; so we had to capture all the neutral vessels which were carrying them in. You must understand we in the 'Victory' with the fleet did not go close into Cadiz, but kept some fifty or sixty miles off, so that the enemy might not know our strength.
We had some time to wait, however. Lord Nelson had already given the French and Spaniards such a taste of his way of going to work, that they were in no hurry to try it again. You'll understand that there was a line of frigates, extending, like signal-posts, all the way from the fleet to the frigate cruising just off the mouth of the harbour--that is to say, near enough to watch what was going on there.
”Early in the morning on the 19th of October, the 'Mars,' the s.h.i.+p nearest the chain of frigates, repeated the signal that the enemy were leaving port, and, at two p.m., that they were steering south-east. On this Lord Nelson gave orders for the fleet to chase in that direction, but to keep out of sight of the enemy, fearful of frightening them back into port. Still, you'll understand, the frigates kept in sight of them, and gave notice to the admiral of all their movements. The enemy had thirty-three sail of the line, and seven frigates, with above 4000 riflemen on board. Our fleet numbered only twenty-seven sail of the line, and four frigates. We were formed in two lines. Admiral Collingwood, in the 'Royal Sovereign,' led fourteen s.h.i.+ps, and Lord Nelson, in the 'Victory,' eleven.
”On the morning of the 21st of October, 1805--you'll not forget that day, it was a glorious one for England, let me tell you--we sighted the French and Spanish fleet from the deck of the 'Victory' off Cape Trafalgar. They were formed in a double line in a curve, one s.h.i.+p in the further line filling up the s.p.a.ce left between the s.h.i.+ps of the nearest line. They also were trying to keep the port of Cadiz under their lee, that they might escape to it. Lord Nelson determined to break the line in two places. We led the northern line with a light wind from the south-west. Admiral Collingwood led the southern, and got into action first, just astern of the 'Santa Anna.' We steered so as to pa.s.s between the 'Bucentaur' and the 'Santissima Trinidade.'
”'Well, there are a lot of the enemy,' exclaimed Tom Collins to me, as I was standing near the gun he served.
”'Yes, mate,' said I; 'and a pretty spectacle they will make at Spithead when we carry them there.'
”'Ay, that they will,' cried all who heard me, and I believe every man in the fleet felt as we did.
”We were watching all this time the magnificent way in which the brave and good Admiral Collingwood stood into action and opened his fire.
That was about noon. There was a general cheer on board our s.h.i.+p and all the s.h.i.+ps of the fleet. At our masthead flew a signal. We soon knew what it meant. It was--'England expects that every man will do his duty.' For nearly half an hour the n.o.ble Collingwood was alone among the s.h.i.+ps of the enemy before any of his followers could come up. We, at the same time, had got within long range of the enemy. On we floated slowly, for the wind was very light, till at last our mainyard-arm was touching the gaff of the 'Bucentaur,' which s.h.i.+p bore the flag of Admiral Villeneuve; and though our guns were raking her and tearing her stern to pieces, we had ahead of us in the second line the 'Neptune,'
which poured a heavy fire into our bows. Our helm was then put up, and we fell aboard the 'Redoubtable,' while the 'Temeraire,' Captain Blackwood, ranged up on the other side of her, and another French s.h.i.+p got alongside the 'Temeraire.' There we were all four locked together, pounding away at each other, while with our larboard guns we were engaging the 'Bucentaur,' and now and then getting a shot at the big Spaniard, the 'Santissima Trinidade'. Meantime our other s.h.i.+ps had each picked out one or more of the enemy, and were hotly engaged with them.
At the tops of all the enemy's s.h.i.+ps marksmen were stationed. The skylight of the admiral's cabin had been boarded over. Here Lord Nelson and Captain Hardy were walking. More than one man had fallen near them.