Nelson and the twentieth century

Foreword

THE aim of this book is to apply the spirit of Nelson's teaching to some problems of to-day.

With that object the work is divided into two parts : the first contains a study of Nelson and his companions ; the second part deals with Nelson's teachings. In this task I have been helped by many naval officers, among whom are four Admirals on the active list, each of whom has been good enough to give me counsel and information regarding the special subject on which he is an authority. The 682nd Clause in the King's Regulations and Admiralty Instructions prevents the disclosure of their names. They and other officers have given me facts which have been dealt with on my own responsibility. The chapter on Discipline, however, is almost entirely the work of an officer on the active hst who has given prolonged and special study to a subject requiring Parliamentary attention, but which cannot be acceptably treated by landsmen.

Since Nelson fell, a new type of seaman has come into existence. Our bluejackets

247743 vi FOREWORD.

are no longer ignorant and sensual heroes, but educated men who share in the general advancement of culture on shore, and who desire and deserve that the conditions of their service should now be adapted to the facts of the Twentieth Century. The spirit of Nelson's teaching favours reform.

Although I may not publicly acknowledge my gratitude to the officers who have aided me with counsel and information on the subjects of Tactics, Gunnery, and Discipline, I am permitted to acknowledge complete indebtedness for information on Dockyards to Mr. George Crocker, C.B., the Civil Technical Assistant at Devonport, and Mr. R. F. Franklin, Secretary to Vice-Admiral W. H. Henderson, Superintendent of Devonport Dockyard.

To Mr. Seymour Trower, the Chairman of the Navy League, I am indebted for information about the origin of the Navy League.

I thank the nameless Writer of the Preface, who also prepared the anthology of the four victories. But for him this work would not have been undertaken.

Arnold White.

2, Windmill Hilly Hampstead,

September, 1905.

Preface

^^ Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh ! " These few lines are unpremeditated — unrevised.

BY a pure chance (but a delightful one I) from the place where this is now being written one can see nothing else but the figure of Nelson on his column in Trafalgar Square, towering over the trees in St. James's Park, It is delightful, because it reminds one of the golden words on Nelson, attributed to Mr, Gladstone, who compared Nelson to some gigantic mountain, whose grandeur and immensity people only adequately realise when far-off distance has caused all its comparatively puny surroundings to sink below the horizon of our knowledge of them, but the great giant still looms more sublime than ever — grand, majestic^ towering, incomparable. So is it with our Immortal Hero I Pray, who is there of his time, or indeed of any other time, that still lives in our memories as he does ? Not one / And why ? Because in that frail, weak, pain-wracked body dwelt a spirit that knew no fear, possessed no guile; and he saved his Country, not once or twice, and died for her.

viu PREFACE.

Some red tape o-fficial idiot sent him a form once to fill up to get a pension for his wounds {why^ the Prime Minister and the Chancellor of the Exchequer ought to have been running after him with money hags /). He wrote hack to the clerk that he had heen in a hundred fights I His eye went here, his arm went there, the scalp almost torn from his head at the Nile, and so on. Let us thank that official nip-cheese — he gave us a gem I Yes, that simple recital of his hundred fights which this clerk extracted from him tells us of the immortal spirit that animated that weak, frail, wearied, stricken hody and sent him to hattle when more fit for the hospital than the sea, and made him die a comparative pauper hecause he sought always fighting and not prize money. He was seeking the enemy's hattleships while others were seeking fat merchant vessels. ;f 6,000 was the total of his prize money, after two years off Toulon, while £20,000 was often a Captain's share outside the Straits of Gibraltar. The pity of it I He had to ask his country with his dying breath (the only thing he asked) to care for his friend, as he had no money to give her. She was allowed by a grateful country to starve, and found a pauper's grave in a foreign land I A passing Englishman paid for her funeral. What fearful effeminate folly has been

PREFACE. ix

written of Nelson and Lady Hamilton I It was perhaps the only time he erred, and did he even then really err ? If he did — well, let us think of that memorable scriptural scene and ask ourselves which of us shall first cast a stone ('' and they went out one hy one, beginning at the eldest, even to the last '' — Was there ever a scene so wondrously depicted ? But that's a sermon — not Nelson /). Truly, Lady Hamilton exemplifies Nelson's glory I She had thrown herself with all the enthusiasm of her enthusiastic nature into his service, and that of his fleet ; had tended his wounds ; nursed him in his illness ; gave him that boundless sympathy he had never known before, and which won his simple heart {never lost before). She battled for the victualling of his ships against all the machinations and obstacles of an intriguing hostility at the Neapolitan Court and triumphed ; and got his ships -fit for sea at Syracuse with all they wanted. Finally when Nelson, all worn out with illness and sufferings, wearied in mind and by bodily fatigue, would have stayed ashore, she forced him to sea and to Trafalgar I Well might he exclaim, '^ If there were more Emmas there would be more Nelsons'' He felt all he owed her (nor was he ever so mean as to disguise it) and often asked his Captains (that Band of Brothers / But — where are their

X PREFACE.

statues ? those immortal heroes of the Nile, Copenhagen, and Trafalgar /) to drink her health and bless her memory I As Southey, after all his best biographer, so truly says, it was not the surpassing loveliness nor the charming manners and great accomplishments of Lady Hamilton (fascinating as they all and each were) which excited Nelson's ardent and romantic admiration. Nor was it that these were accompanied by still more uncommon intellectual endowments — though she was an uneducated woman. No ! the real secret was, her character, both in its strength and in its weakness, exactly resembled his own. That was the real bond I The man who was familiar with wounds and death suffered like a woman when a man was flogged.

But what shall we say, what can we say, of his mighty genius for war ? The "' Nelson touch,'' as the sailors dearly loved to call it, that magnetic thrill which went through the fleet when they saw his flag on the horizon on his joining the fleet ; his resistless enthusiasm, which swept away all obstacles like an avalanche ; his indomitable will which discarded the word '' insuperable " ; his considered rashness, which was really the height of prudence. Look how he braved the broadsides of the combined fleets at Trafalgar, when leading his -fleet into battle ; look perhaps above all at

PREFACE. xi

that most memorable of all his memorable glories y '' the lurid splendours of the Nile '* — sighting the enemy at sunset — fighting him at midnight — without charts — without fear — but his fighting instinct told him what Napoleon said truly was the secret of victory, '' Uaudace, Vaudace, toujours V audace ! '* Look again at Copenhagen — a marvel of daring {for which no medal was given /).

A great French Admiral has written, '* La genie de Nelson c'est d' avoir compris notre faiblesse'' Yes, that's just it ! Nelson knew when to be rash and how to be rash ; he studied his enemy. Commenting on this supposed rashness some envious Admiral said to George the Third, '' Sire, that Commodore Nelson of yours is mad I ^' '' Mad, is he?'' replied the King, '' I wish to heaven he would bite some of my Admirals ! ''

Nelson was not only a great man, he was a good man. Read this — his last day on earth : —

Soon after daylight Nelson came upon deck. The 2ist of October was a festival in his family, because on that day his uncle, Captain Suckling, in the " Dreadnought,'' with two other line-of-battle ships, had beaten off a French squadron of four sail of the line and three frigates. Nelson, with that sort of superstition from which few persons are entirely exempt, had more than once expressed his persuasion that this was to he the day of his xii PREFACE.

battle also, and he was well pleased at seeing his prediction about to be verified. The wind was now from the west — light breezes, with a long heavy swell. Signal was made to bear down upon the enemy in two lines, and the fleet set all sail. Collingwood, in the " Royal Sovereign,''^ led the lee line of thirteen ships ; the " Victory " led the weather line of fourteen. Having seen that all was as it should be, Nelson retired to his cabin and wrote the following prayer : —

*• May the great God whom I worship grant to my country, and for the benefit of Europe in general, a great and glorious victory, and may no misconduct in any one tarnish it, and may humanity after victory be the predominant feature in the British fleet !! For myself individually, I commit my life to Him that made me, and may His blessing alight on my endeavours for serving my country faithfully I To Him I resign myself, and the just cause which is entrusted to me to defend. Amen, Amen, Amen.^^

Will Heaven be denied him mho thus died in battle for his Country and made this great prayer ?

'' If the chariot and the horses of fire had been vouchsafed for Nelson's translation, he could scarcely have departed in a brighter Maze of glory.'*

'' Prcelio occisusJ'

Chapter I

NEI<SON. PAGE

Nelson and Trafalgar Square — " There is but one Nelson " His Contradictory Qualities — The " Happy Warrior " — Nelson's Guiding Star — His magnetic Personality — The Devotion of his Corarades-in-Arms — Nelson's Loyalty to Officers in Trouble — His Fits of Despondency — The Nelson Portraits — Nelson and the Italian Artist — Nelson's Physical Sufferings — His Tenacity — Duty and Lady Hamilton — The Misfortune of his IVfarriage — Domestic Troubles — Lady Hamilton's Enthusiastic Nature — Nelson's Love of Flattery — Irritability — The " Guardian Angel " — " I beseech your Lordship leave off " — Nelson's Last Bequest to his Country — The Nation's Neglect — Opposing Sides of Nelson's Character— His Religious Feeling — " Not a Great Sinner " — The Growth of his Fame — His Last Departure from England — A Hundred Years After . . . . i

Chapter II. His " Band Of Brothers."

The Hero as Sailor — Nelson and Henry V. — Nelson's Debt to Jervis — The Grimness of John Jervis — Discipline in the Navy — Jervis at the Battle of St. Vincent— His Understanding of Nelson — Nelson's Letter — Sir Thomas Troubridge — His Friendship with Nelson — " Troubridge on Shore " — A Nonpareil — Nelson's Petulance — Death of Troubridge at Sea — The Gallant Berry— Nelson's " Right Hand "—The Stormy Petrel of the Fleet — Captain Foley's Decision — Nelson's " Blind Eye " — Hardy and Nelson — *' I'll not Lose Hardy ! "—The Last Day at Trafalgar— The xiv CONTENTS.

PAGE

Seal of Friendship — The Neglect of Collingwood — His " Ocean Seclusion " — Collingwood's I^ong Connection with Nelson — Thackeray's Praise — Collingwood's Passionate Patriotism — The I^ee Line of Battle — His Last Years at Sea — " Dreams of the Dead " . .38

Chapter III

nei<son's victories.

Nelson's Mental Daring — A " Heaven-born Admiral " — A Famous Saying — A Century's Changes in Naval War — The Strain on Modern Admirals — Weather Gauge and Light — Battle of St. Vincent — Nelson's Tactical Insight — The Captain against the Spanish Fleet — " Patent Bridge for Boarding First-Rates " — The Nile — Nelson's Resistless Attack at Sunset — French Ships and Egyptian Shoals — Burning of L' Orient — " Not a Victory, but a Conquest " — Lord Minto's Tribute — Battle of the Baltic — Nelson's Great Exertions — Nervous Pilots —The First Broadsides — Sir Hyde Parker's Signal— The Triumphant Truce — The " Crowning Mercy " of Trafalgar— The " Nelson Touch " — The Attack as it was really carried out — " A Pell-mell Battle " — Collingwood in the Royal Sovereign — Incidents of the Action — Nelson's Supreme Greatness — The Famous Signal — Nelson Wounded — His Last Hours — Dr. Scott's Account — The Close of the Battle . . ... 72

Chapter IV

gunnery of 1805 AND I^ATER.

Century's Conservatism — " The Practical Sea-Gunner's Companion " — Nelson's Gunnery Tactics — Rough Guides — National Delusions — The War of 18 12 — " The Yacht " — The Straight-shooting Shannon — Masts and Yards — Stereotyped Gunnery — A Pioneer — The Prize- Firing Stage — The Parting of the Ways . . -US

CONTENTS. XV

Chapter V

THE GUNNERY OF 1905. PAGE

Reality in War Preparation — English laisser faire — The Blind God of War— The Duties of a Naval Officer-r-The Gunnery lyieutenant — Navigation, Torpedoes, and Signalling — Seamanship — Naval Cramming — Evils of Watch-keeping — "Spit and Polish" — The Curse of Routine — The End Subservient to the Means — The Ship the School of Instruction — The Naval Captains — Sir John Fisher's Example — Technical Education Insufficient — A True Paradox — The Importance of History — Emerson's Dictum — Discussion on Naval Subjects — American and German Intelligence — Our Debt to Captain Mahan — Encouragement of Naval Thought. . . .132

Chapter VI. The Admirai<'s Task

The Great Game of War — Nelson's Tactics — Crossing the (T) — The Admiral's Post in Action — Absurdity of Ordinary Peace Manoeuvres — Wind and Steam — When Hostile Fleets Meet — " A Certain Manoeuvre " — Strategical and Tactical Ability — Importance of' Signals — Flag Rank . . . . . .163

CHAPTER VII. DISCIPIylNE

Delusions about Discipline — The Mental and Moral Factors — Ships' Police — "10 A" — ^Leave-breaking — Japanese Discipline — A Comparison between Seamen and Stokers — Suppression of Initiative — A Different Routine — The Ethics of Patriotism 185

Chapter VIII. Dockyards : Historicai

Importance of Dockyards — Nelson's Founding of Milford — Deptford and HaulbowHne — The Importance of Oak Trees — Dockyard Reorganisation in 1849 — Admiralty Control — Henry VIII. and the Navy — Elizabeth's Visit to Deptford — The Decline of the Cinque Ports — Chatham— Launch of Nelson's Victory — Plymouth — The Great Fire at Devonport Dockyard — Pepys at Sheerness 209 xvi CONTENTS.

CHAPT:^R IX.

DOCKYARDS I ADMINISTRATIVE. PAGE

Resident Commissioners of the Dockyards — Cromwell's Services to the Navy — The Pepysian Manuscripts — " Horrid Consternation " at Chatham — Dockyard Thefts on the Thames — Lord St. Vincent's Reforms — The Officers of the Dockyards — Apprentices — Construction of Ships — School of Naval Architecture — Modern Methods — Spasmodic Amendment . . 240

Chapter X. Had Nei^son Survived

Hardy the I/ink with Nelson — His Far-sightedness — Captain Basil Hall's Experiences — Sheltering Behind Nelson — A Significant Action — American Privateers — The Navy at its " Lowest Level " — The Crimean War . . 266

CHAPTE^R XL HIS I^IVING MEMORY.

Forgetful Generation — Captain Mahan's Influence — Trafalgar Square — Its Purpose Perverted — The Lesson of Sea Power — The Formation of the Navy League — The Japanese Debt to Nelson — "Too much Nelson" 281

Conclusion

The Essence of Nei^son's Teachings . . . .298

Appendix

Nei<son's Letter to Captain Locker .... 299

The Nii,e (from Denon) 300

The Nii,e (from Ewot Warburton) .... 300 part I.

A STUDY OF NELSON AND HIS COMPANIONS.

Chapter I. Nelson

" There is none like him, and there shall be none. When England bears again as great a son, He can but follow fame where Nelson led.''

A. C. Swinburne.

The national monument to Nelson in Trafalgar Square represents the Admiral with indomitable face gazing southwards and seawards. His eye rests on the House of Commons, where the affairs of the fleet are dealt with, not by seamen, but by soldiers and civilians — among whose Members no naval officer is found. Far below the horizon, beyond the place of talk, is the scene of action — ^Trafalgar, St. Vincent, and the Nile. To England Nelson's outlook is symbolic. Thus, after a hundred years of praise, of forgetfulness, of renewed devotion, Nelson towers among his contemporaries — a spirit inspired, a leader of men.

^' There is but one Nelson/' said St. Vincent, and history confirms that saying. This sailor, who embodied England's genius for the sea, had something of the resistlessness and certainty of fate — each blow he struck was irresistible and terrible, a thunderbolt of battle. About his deeds there is a note of the inevitable ; chance and circumstance gave way before him. From birth to death he lived weighted by the burden of a great destiny — a destiny dimly guessed at by himself, only half realised by those around him. Implanted in his heart was a consuming thirst for glory and for that honour which, as Bacon says, '' may be ranked amongst the greatest, which happeneth rarely : That is^ of such as Sacrifice themselves, to Death or Danger, for the Good of their Country." Nelson's glory was his country's, his triumphs were her salvation, his name her safeguard.

The Nile, the Baltic, Trafalgar! What a bulwark of victories for this one seaman to have raised between England and the foe ! But there is a danger of Nelson being lost behind his battles — it was not circumstance or chance that made those battles what they were, but the very character of Nelson himself. The temper that flamed at the Nile, the keen brain that snatched victory at the Baltic, and the final fusion of spirit and genius that marked the '' crowning mercy '' of Trafalgar, were Nelson in apotheosis. '' England expects that every man will do his duty '* has had such an abiding influence because it was the sudden inspired crystallisation into nine words of the whole secret of Nelson's life. Those words were backed by a lifetime of deeds — many actions, many wounds gave them force. Behind that last signal, in the memory of the fleet and of the nation, were weary vigilant blockades, long sea chases, and great sea battles.

Nelson's character is so natural, so spontaneous and fresh that time cannot touch it — through the mists of a hundred years his spirit still shines undimmed in its radiance, unparalleled in its pathetic reality. He reveals himself in his letters with a childlike simplicity, and stands confessed vain, irritable, excitable, passionate and perverse ; but also generous to the point of foolishness, fearless of responsibility, far-sighted, a statesman as well as a fighter, sincerely religious though a breaker of the Seventh Commandment.

A strange and contradictory mixture of qualities, but welded into the whole which is Nelson by that final and crowning gift of a genius whose sheer supremacy at sea has never been equalled. There is an amazing sincerity in every line he wrote, every word he uttered ; he was too impetuous to hide or palliate his own weaknesses as other men do, to cover up the thoughts in his candid heart, yet from it all he emerges entirely lovable — through every fault and every failing he is still '' the adored, the incomparable Nelson.'' Shortly after the hero's death at Trafalgar Wordsworth wrote a poem which he called '' The Happy Warrior." This poem was founded largely on Nelson's character and sets it forth at its noblest — the ideal of courage, of tenderness, of patriotism and devotion which serves as a model to all ardent and aspiring souls. Nelson was truly a Happy Warrior — joyous and inspired in the heat of battle — but as a man he was unhappy and suffered greatly : he was frequently — especially in his later years — deeply and intensely miserable. All his life he was conscious of something missed. He had a dauntless and heroic spirit, but a sad, unsatisfied heart. It is impossible to ignore the wrong into which he was driven by this craving heart of his, but the incomparable greatness of his character overshadows all its blemishes. The guiding motive of his life, the ideal he pursued — not, indeed, without stumbling — was love of honour, love of country, scorn of ease. From his early youth Nelson belonged to the scanty company of those like the Happy Warrior

" Whose high endeavours are an inward Hght That makes the path before him always bright."

When he was returning as a midshipman from the East Indies, wasted by sickness and depressed to the point of despair, he was suddenly visited — as he himself loved to tell — by this '' inward light '' which was to lead him thenceforward all the years of his life. Before this, '' I felt impressed," he said, *' with a feeling that I should never rise in my profession. My mind was staggered with a view of the difficulties I had to surmount, and the httle interest I possessed. I could discover no means of realising the object of my ambition. After a long and gloomy reverie, in which I almost wished myself overboard, a sudden glow of patriotism was kindled within me, and presented my king and country as my patron. ' Well, then,' I exclaimed, * I will be a hero ! and confiding in Providence, I will brave every danger ! ' "

From that time, as he often said, '' a radiant orb was suspended in his mind's eye which urged him onward to renown.'' So vivid was this spiritual experience after his extreme dejection that, as Southey says, *' He always seemed willing to believe that the sunshine which succeeded bore with it a prophetic glory, and that the light which led him on was ' light from heaven/ "

This story is famihar enough to all readers of Southey, but is repeated because of its real and deep significance — for, unlike the majority of such early visions, it did not '' fade into the light of common day.'*

The other stories of Nelson's youth, both the genuine and the galley-yarns manufactured to suit his fame when it had reached maturity, can be ignored here. It is not necessary to trace him, as his early biographers, Clarke and M' Arthur, did, '' from his infancy to the rank of Commander." But one gift the fates gave him at his birth in the obscure Norfolk parsonage must not be forgotten, and that was the gift of a magnetic personality, a charm and persuasiveness of bearing that few could resist.

It was a good gift to the future Admiral, for had he been less loved by his comrades and superiors in the service his promotion would have been slower — which in itself would have been disastrous to England — and he would have lacked that inspiring power which lifted heavier men to heights they could not attain alone, and made of the British Fleet, when led by Nelson, a weapon terrible in its unity and cohesion.

This charm and the influence he had on those about him was marked throughout his career and was not in any way dependent on the degree of his fame, for in his unknown youth it was the same as in the flush of his

glory, when he was

" lifted high, Conspicuous object in a Nation's eye."

Captain Locker, who was one of Nelson's early commanders and a lifelong friend, quickly succumbed to the fascination of his young lieutenant and regarded him with the warmest affection; and as he moved on up the ladder of promotion, serving under many admirals, it was always the same. As a brother captain said to him, *' You did just as you pleased in Lord Hood's time, the same in Admiral Hotham's, and now again with Sir John Jervis ; it makes no difference to you who is Commander-in-Chief.''

One of the secrets of this gift of Nelson's was his generous and enthusiastic disposition, which caused those who came in contact with him not merely to serve and follow him because it was a duty, but because it was their greatest happiness. Lady Hughes's well-known story of how Nelson, when commander of the Boreas^ used to invite timid midshipmen to meet him at the masthead and thus encourage them to the dreaded ascent^ shows that '' the young gentlemen " were fortunate '* who had the happiness of being on his quarter-deck/' As she said, '' This kindness and attention made the young people adore him ; and even his wishes, could they have been known, v/ould have been instantly complied with/'

Lady Hughes was writing of 1784, when Nelson was a young captain of twenty-six. But twenty-one years later, when he was Admiral of the White and the glory of his country, the testimony is still the same. Captain Duff, who fell at Trafalgar and first met the Admiral three weeks before that battle, said of him, '' This Nelson is so lovable and excellent a man, so kindly a leader, that we all wish to exceed his desires and anticipate his orders." Mr. Scott, Nelson's public secretary, who was killed on the Victory's deck an hour before the Admiral fell, said of him, ''He is so cheerful and pleasant that it is a happiness to be about his hand." The private secretary. Dr. Scott, wrote after Trafalgar, *' Setting aside his heroism, when I think what an affectionate, fascinating little fellow he was, how dignified and pure his mind, how kind and condescending his manners, I become stupid with grief for what I have lost." Captain Pulteney Malcolm, who knew both Nelson and Wellington, said, '' Nelson was the man to love.''

With his courage and kindness went compassion : '' For indeed,'' as Carlyle says, *' Valour is the fountain of Pity too.*' Nelson, who found the '' full tide of happiness " in the terrific battle of the Nile and the '' warm work " of Copenhagen, and was before all things an inspired fighter, was also singularly pitiful to those in any kind of grief or adversity. The instances of this are many. When Captain Layman was court-martialled early in 1805 for the loss of the Raven sloop. Nelson was greatly distressed, and wrote a most generous letter to Lord Melville, which he concluded characteristically by saying : '' You must, my dear Lord, forgive the warmth which I express for Captain Layman ; but he is in adversity, and therefore has the more claim to my attention and regard. If I had been censured every time I have run my ship, or fleets under my command, into great danger, I should long ago have been out of the Service, and never in the House of Peers."

Nothing is more characteristic than the reason he gave for his deep attachment to Commander Edward Parker : '' He is my child/' said the Admiral, " for I found him in distress/' When that brave yoting officer was mortally wounded in the unsuccessful attack of the Boulogne Flotilla in 1801 Nelson was grieved to the heart. Parker's hurt was hopeless from the first, but he lingered for more than a month, and to his bedside Nelson dedicated every free moment, almost every thought — hardly a letter of his at that time in which he is not mentioned. When at last the poor fellow died Nelson's sorrow for his '' child " was extreme. To Davison he wrote, '' My dear Parker left this world for a better at nine o'clock this morning. It was, they tell me, a happy release ; but I cannot bring myself to say I am glad he is gone ; it would be a lie, for I am grieved almost to death." To St. Vincent he said, *' All will agree, none fell more nobly than dear Parker ; and none ever resigned their life into the hands of their Creator with more resignation to the Divine Will than our Parker. ... I fear his loss has made a wound in my heart which time will scarcely heal."

This was how Nelson felt for those he loved, but even an officer who merited little at his hands met with gentle treatment if he was in misfortune. On the eve of Trafalgar, when the Admiral needed every ship

NELSON. II

for the coming battle, he permitted the broken Sir Robert Calder to go home to his court-martial in his 94-gun ship Prince of Wales rather than grieve and humiliate him by the transfer to another ship, though to do so was against the orders of the Admiralty and the counsels of prudence. *' But I trust,'' he wrote, *' that I shall be considered to have done right as a man, and to a brother officer in affliction ; my heart could not stand it, and so the thing must rest."