The Immortal Memory

Issue number: 17 – November 2006 (KA 17)

Frederick Hoffman was a new midshipman in October 1793 when he wrote the following lines after joining his first ship: ‘The wind was blowing strong, and we were more than an hour before we reached the frigate, which was lying at Spithead. My eyes during that time were fixed on twelve sail of the line ready for sea. As I had never seen a line of battleship, I was much struck with their noble and imposing appearance, and I imagined everybody who served on board them must feel pride in belonging to them.’

Twelve years later on 21 October 1805 he was a lieutenant standing on the quarterdeck of the Tonnant fourth ship in line astern of Collingwood in the Royal Sovereign. He certainly felt the ‘pride in belonging’ that morning, and after the battle wrote that the British cheers alone ‘must have shaken the nerve of the enemy’, adding that, ‘We were saved the trouble of taking in our studding sails, as our opponents had the civility to effect it by shot before we got into their line.’

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