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On this Day – Archive
On this day in November
1st November 1803 – To His Excellency Hugh Elliot Esq. from Victory in Agincourt off Madalena Islands: ‘Our crews . . . have now been upwards of five months at sea. But our health and humour are perfection, and we only want for the French fleet out.’
2nd November 1783 – Captain Horatio Nelson writes from St Omer, France, to Captain William Locker Esq, ‘We set off at daylight for Boulogne . . . This place if full of English. I suppose because the wine is so very cheap.’
3rd November 1792 – To HRH The Duke of Clarence: ‘In what way it might be in the power of such an humble individual as myself to best serve my King, has been a matter of serious consideration; and no way appeared to me so proper as asking for a ship’.
4th November 1805 – Lieutenant John Richards Lapenotiere in HM Schooner Pickle conveying Collingwood’s first Trafalgar Dispatch reporting the victory and the death of Nelson lands at Falmouth and immediately sets off on the road for London, arriving at the Admiralty at 1am on 6 November, having made 21 stops along today’s Trafalgar Way.
5th November 1804 – Vice Admiral Horatio Nelson to Nathaniel Taylor, Naval Storekeeper at Malta: ‘Our Master-Ropemaker is a child of thirteen years of age, and the best Rope-Maker in the fleet.’
6th November 1805 – Lieutenant John Richards Lapenotiere CO of HM Schooner Pickle to William Marsden, Secretary to the Navy, ‘We have won a great Victory, but have lost Lord Nelson’.
7th November 1805 – ‘The Times’ carries the news of Trafalgar.
8th November 1800 – Lord Nelson arrives at Nerot’s Hotel, St James Street. A letter to the Reverend Dixon Hoste states, ‘His reception by Lady Nelson I said to have been extremely cold and mortifying to his feelings.’
9th November 1800 – St Vincent remarks to Nepean: ‘It is evident from Lord Nelson’s letter to you on his landing, that he is doubtful of the propriety of his conduct. I have no doubt he is pledged to getting Lady Hamilton received at St James’s and everywhere, and that he will get into much brouillerie about it’.
10th November 1800 – Lord Nelson dines with the Lord Mayor of London and receives the sword voted to him by the City of London: “Sir, it is with the greatest pride and satisfaction that I receive from the Honourable Court this testimony of their approbation of my conduct, and, with this very sword, I hope soon to aid in reducing our implacable and inveterate Enemy to proper due limits; without which, this country can neither hope for, nor ever expect a solid, honourable, and permanent peace”.
11th November 1796 – The opening paragraph of a long letter to the Duke of Clarence: ‘What may be thought of in England of our embarkation from Bastia I know not, but I conceive myself to have a fair right to be well spoken of, as the few facts which I shall state will evince. (I shall relate them to your Royal Highness, to give you an idea of the state of our Army and the Viceroy on my arrival.)’
12th November 1794 – To Fanny from St Fiorenzo: ‘I have been sent to look after the French fleet, who had again given Admiral Hotham the slip. I found them in Toulon. The French say they will take Corsica again. There has been a most diabolical report here, of Agamemnon’s being captured and carried into Toulon, owing to my running into the Harbour’s mouth. I hope it has not reach England. Never believe what you may see in the Papers about us’.
13th November 1798 – Nelson signs his first letter using his new title of honour announced on 7 October. It is from his camp at St Germaines to Spencer and relates to the French Army: ‘Thirty thousand of, as [General] Mack says, “la plus belle Armeé d’Europe”, was drawn out for me to see, and as far as my judgement goes in those matters, I agree, that a finer Army cannot be’.
14th November 1804 – Vice Admiral Nelson of the White to all ships and vessels on the Mediterranean station: ‘Whereas Hostilities have commenced between Great Britain and the Court of Spain; you are hereby required and directed on falling in with any Spanish Ship or Vessel of War, or Merchantmen belonging to the subject of his Catholic Majesty, or which may have Spanish property on board, and on doing so, you will use your utmost endeavour to capture, burn, sink, and destroy them.’
15th November 1804 – ‘Whereas I judge it proper, under the present uncertain state of affairs between Great Britain and the Court of Spain, that all Spanish Ships and Vessels of Wars, as well as the Trade of his Catholic Majesty, shall be detained till further orders. You are hereby required and directed to detain all Spanish Ships of War and Merchantmen’.
16th November 1803 – To Nepean, at the Admiralty: ‘You will be pleased to acquaint the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty, that this morning the Squadron under my command captured Le Rénard, French National Schooner, mounting twelve four-pounders, with six swivels, and manned with eighty men; also Le Titus, transport, having on board ninety-six soldiers from Corsica bound for Toulon’.
17th November 1798 – Rear Admiral Horatio Nelson to His Excellency the Admiral commanding the Ottoman Fleet: ‘The Grand Signor having condescended to notice my earnest endeavours to serve the cause of humanity against a set of impious men, I should feel sorry to miss an opportunity of expressing to you how anxious I am for the success of the Ottoman arms, and how happy your Excellency would make me by telling me how I can be most useful to you’.
18th November 1795 – To HRH The Duke of Clarence from Foudroyant, Genoa Roads: ‘Every day produces such changes in the prospect of our affairs that in relating events I hardly know where to begin. A superior force to the French must always be kept here; but I own, I think the French will make a push from Toulon to drive us away’.
19th November 1795 – To HRH The Duke of Clarence on assisting the Genoese: ‘My situation is more awkward, as what has happened does not relate to the English Minister, the breach of Neutrality being an Austrian business . . . I think I shall be attacked very soon by a much superior force from Toulon’.
20th November 1798 – Parliament votes Nelson £2000 per year for life. To his brother: ‘As to myself, the probability is that I shall never take my Seat in the House of Peers. My health has declined very much, and nothing keeps me on service but the thought that I am doing good’. Two years later he takes his seat in the House of Lords and is introduced between Lords Grenville and Romney.
21st November 1800 – Lord Nelson to Hercules Ross: “San Joseph [captured by Nelson at the Battle of Cape St Vincent in 1797] is to be my next Flagship.” He hoists his Vice Admiral of the Blue flag on 17th January 1801.
22nd November 1799 – Nelson appears to have identified a soul mate in Admiral Suwarrow. To Lord William Bentinck; ‘We are anxious to hear of the success of our friend Suwarrow. Although I never had the pleasure of seeing him, yet, as an individual of Europe, I love, honour, and respect him. Others may love the great hero – Nelson loves the man, for I hear he despises wealth, if it stands in the road to fame’.
23rd November 1803 – To Captain Cracraft, Anson: ‘You will take every means in your power for the effectual protection of Trade in the Adriatic, and in the Mouth of the Archipelago, and give such convoys as may be wanted, not only from Malta, but also from Trieste, Venice, Fuime, Patras, Zante, &c. The French Fleet are ready for sea, but where they are bound I cannot tell you’.
24th November 1803 – Lord Nelson to Sir John Acton, writing from HMS Victory off Toulon: ‘The French Fleet yesterday at 2 o’clock was in appearance in high feather, and as fins as paint could make them. Our weather-beaten ships . . . will make their sides like plum-pudding.’
25th November 1804 – To Dr John Snipe, Physician to the Fleet: ‘The Commissioners for taking care of the Sick and Hurt Seamen and Marines, having acquainted me that they had appointed Mr John Grey to be Surgeon of a Naval Hospital to be established in Malta, I am, therefore, to desire you will proceed immediately, in Narcissus for Malta, for the purpose of examining the situation and necessary accommodation of such Hospital’.
26th November 1804 – To Marsden: ‘Having acquainted you that the Squadron under my command had detained the Spanish Schooner Ventura which appeared in every respect well calculated for the service of this Country, you will be pleased to acquaint their Lordships that as Vessels of her description are particularly wanted for the service of Malta, I have ordered her to be . . . placed under immediate direction of Sir Alexander Ball’.
27th November 1795 – The Austrains defeated, Nelson writes to Drake: ‘nothing has been wanting on my part to give every possible energy to the operations of the Austrians’.
28th November 1803 – Vice Admiral Nelson to Hookham Frere, Madrid: ‘I trust that we shall be received in the Spanish Ports in the same manner as the French. I am ready to make large allowances for the miserable situation Spain has placed herself in; but there is a certain line beyond which I cannot submit to be treated with disrespect.’
29th November 1796 – Captain Horatio Nelson to Captain William Suckling: “My professional reputation is the only riches I am likely to acquire in this war . . . however it is satisfactory to myself”.
30th November 1798 – To William Wyndham: ‘I have been thinking all night of the General and Duke of Sangaro’s saying that the King of Naples had not declared war against the French. Now, I assert, that he has, and in a much stronger manner than the ablest Minister in Europe could write a Declaration of War. Has he not received, as a conquest made by him, the Republican Flag taken at Gozo’.
