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Cuthbert Collingwood, who ranks not far below Kelson in the hierarchy of leaders of the classic days of sail, is always associated with his friend, since their lives touched at so many points. The two men, each in his way so remarkable, were in fact about as different in character as it is possible to be, and it is Nelson's more sparkling qualities that have attracted most attention. For much of the earlier part of their careers, the pair were so close that to study the one is to get to know the other.
Collingwood and Nelson, who made their names against the navies of France and Spain, owed their first dramatic rise in life to the War of American Independence.
For their country, this sad struggle was a story of ineptitude and misfortune; yet, for Collingwood and Nelson it provided their great chance of future fame. During its course, both became post captains, thus ensuring that in the next conflict in which their country engaged, the war with Revolutionary and Napoleonic France which, with only one brief intermission, stretched from 1793 to 1815, they were in positions of such seniority as to ensure that their influence within their profession would be of the utmost consequence.
Until recently, it was not known precisely when Collingwood made the acquaintance of the man under whom he was one day to serve, as second in command, at Trafalgar. But, in 1965, a bequest to the British Museum of a bundle of letters from Collingwood, describing some of the greater events of his career, has disclosed one illuminating fact. When Collingwood and Nelson first met, Nelson was a lad of 15 and Collingwood a man of 25. Neither of them had yet reached commissioned rank, but Nelson had a good deal of varied sea experience. Collingwood—■ having gone to sea at the age of 12 in the frigate Shannon—had still more.
The letter referring to the beginning of the friendship was written soon after death had ended it. It was sent from sea by Collingwood to a kinsman, Walter Spencer-Stanhope, within five months of Trafalgar, where Nelson had died in the hour of victory. It was dated 6 March 1806, and runs as follows:
I have indeed had a severe loss in the death of my excellent friend Lord Nelson. Since the year ’73 we have been on terms of the greatest intimacy: chance has thrown us very much together in service, and on many occasions we have acted in concert. There is scarce a naval subject that has not been the subject of our discussion, so that his opinions were familiar to me, and so firmly founded on principles of honour, of justice, of attachment to his country, at the same time so entirely divested of every thing interested to himself, that it was impossible to consider him but with admiration. He liked fame, and was open to flattery, so that people sometimes got about him who were unworthy of him. He is a loss to his country that cannot easily be replaced.
In 1773, the key date referred to in the letter, Great Britain was at peace, and Nelson, having already visited the West Indies, served in North Sea, Channel and Atlantic waters, and been on an expedition in the Arctic, was preparing for a long voyage to the East Indies. Collingwood had an extensive acquaintance with home, Atlantic, and northern waters, and had visited the Mediterranean more than once, as midshipman and master’s mate.
The actual difference in age between Collingwood and Nelson is valuable to remember, for many works of reference lessen it by two years, asserting that Collingwood was born in 1750, which was not so. The error stems from a memoir written by G. L- Newnham Collingwood, first published in 1828 and for long the principal biography- As the author had the benefit of the information at the disposal of his wife Sarah, the elder of the admiral’s two daughters, his mistake is all the more surprising. The register of what is now the Cathedral Church of St. Nicholas, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, states that Cuthbert Collingwood was baptized on 2^ October 1748. Family records state that he was born on the 26th of the previous month- The matter is of importance as emphasizing that there were ten full years between the pair, since Nelson was born on 29 September 1758. A decade is a long stage in youth, and the slow rise of Collingwood towards rank that would give him command of a ship could well have soured him. He had many virtues, but few people would ever have thought of him as being lucky.
When, after Trafalgar, Collingwood became famous, Joyce Gold, publisher of The Naval Chronicle, wrote to the admiral to ask him to supply a sketch of his life. Collingwood Sent a letter home in which he said he intended to produce something sensational. This teas by way of a joke. What he actually composed was brief and dignified in the extreme: s° much so that the journal employed a hack k> concoct an elaborate article which could have pleased few, and certainly not Colling- teood. Much later, Gold printed the admiral’s Plain text, in which that austere man described his first promotion in less than 50 teords. He wrote: “In 1774 I went to Boston teith Admiral Graves, and in 1775 was made lieutenant by him on the day the battle was i°ught at Bunker’s Hill, where I was with a Party of seamen, supplying the army with tehat was necessary to them.” As an example °f compression, the sentence has everything to commend it. It told a contemporary naval °fficer exactly what he wanted to know.
The action in which Collingwood had taken Part, a Pyrrhic victory for his side if ever there teas one, was fought out between soldiers, and taught him nothing except coolness under bre, and how to support a force ashore. His conduct had been exceptional, his promotion Merited, but his fate, for the next few years, teas sad. He was sent home, so that he could be appointed to a new ship. The Admiralty °rdered him to the sloop-of-war, Hornet, in tehich he crossed to the West Indies. The flip’s commander, Robert Haswell, proved 1 rripossible to admire, and almost impossible to serve. He had been 18 years on the lieutenant’s list and was to remain as long on that
the commanders before he was at last re- leved because of advanced age. Haswell IrUssed chance after chance of prizes, bullied P's officers and men, and at one stage had Collingwood court-martialled on charges so teivial that his judges must have wondered tehy they had been called upon to waste their time.
Although Collingwood was duly acquitted, he had still many months to endure before Admiral Sir Peter Parker, soon after his arrival in the capacity of Commander-inChief, Jamaica, had him transferred to a crack frigate, the Lowestoffe. Her captain, Cocker, had made a name as a young man
under Lord Hawke, and the ship had brought Nelson out from England. Nelson had only recently been made a lieutenant, but his uncle, Captain Maurice Suckling, was Controller of the Navy, and with Sir Peter Parker also his friend, he was likely to get a good start. This was exactly what happened. In December 1778, Nelson was given command of the brig Badger. Six months later, while still short of the age of 21, Parker transferred him to the frigate Hinchinbrook, which gave the rank of post captain. Collingwood followed his young friend step by step, first to the Badger and then, when Nelson was given charge of a still larger ship, to the Hinchinbrook. So, within a few months from being a despondent lieutenant serving a man he despised, Collingwood had reached a rank, promotion from which, to that of admiral, could in that age only come by iron rule of seniority. In the process, Nelson, with influence behind him, had got ahead. He was nine months senior to Collingwood as a post captain. When the time came, many years in the future, for the pair to gain flag rank, Nelson would do so at the age of 38. Collingwood had to wait until he was over 50.
Collingwood and Nelson remained grateful to Sir Peter Parker for the chance he had given them, and repaid it whenever they could by favoring his relatives and those he recommended. In the entire correspondence which survives from his hand, Collingwood never suggested by a single innuendo that he considered Nelson’s lightning elevation unjustified; neither did he ever show a sign of jealousy at Nelson’s later meteoric rise to fame, as a result of the battles of St. Vincent and the Nile. He and Parker were of exactly the same opinion about this extraordinary little man. They recognized his brilliance, natural leadership, and imagination.
When Spain joined France in support of the Americans, the situation offered to Great Britain an obvious chance to strike at enemy possessions overseas. Nicaragua was supposedly one of the more vulnerable Spanish territories, and an expedition was mounted from Jamaica in which Collingwood and Nelson were both involved. The planners had learned nothing from a succession of past failures in the area of Central America. The
season was ill chosen; the possible advantages of success had not been weighed against the effort entailed, and in any case the force was inadequate. Nelson did well ashore, but went down with fever and was compelled to go home. When Collingwood arrived at the scene of operations, the port of San Juan, he found nothing but desolation. Sickness reigned
supreme. “My constitution survived many attacks,” he wrote in the sketch which he sent to the Naval Chronicle, “and I survived most of my ship’s company, having buried in four months 180 of the 200 which composed it. Mine was not a singular case, all the ships that were as long there suffered in the same degree: the transports’ men all died . . . but transport ships were not wanted, for the troops they brought were no more; they had fallen, not by the hand of the enemy, but sunk under the contagion of the climate.” One misfortune followed that of Nicaragua which Collingwood was never again to experience: he was shipwrecked. After taking the Hinchinbrook back to Jamaica, he transferred soon afterwards to the Pelican. He had not been many months in command of this frigate when in August 1781, in the course of what he called “a most tremendous night,” the ship was driven onto the rocks of Morant Keys, 35 miles southeast of Jamaica, by the force of a hurricane. After great difficulty,
the ship’s company were got ashore on rafts, made of broken yards, and there, with little food and water, they were stranded for ten days. Collingwood contrived to get a boat away to Jamaica, and another frigate came to take them off.
After the American war had ended, Col- lingwood found himself back in the West Indies, and involved in one of the complications arising out of the separation of the United States from the former Mother Country’ As a result of the independence they had achieved, Americans found themselves debarred from theif old trade with the British Caribbean islands, which had been a source of profit to both parties. Henceforward, since they were foreigners, American traders must be treated as such. This suited no one i° the area, and the way around had been to wink the eye, and to continue the old traffic. But Collingwood, Nelson (who had taken the frigate Boreas to serve on the station), and Collingwood’s younger brother Wilfred, who had charge of the sloop Rattler, were men of zeal who intended to see that the law was enforced, and this despite any lack of firm support from their admiral, Sir Edward Hughes.
That Collingwood was as active as even Nelson, who was always to the fore in trying to suppress the forbidden trade, is shown by a letter dated 16 December 1784 addressed to Governor Shirley of Antigua. In the course of this missive, he reported that his frigate, the Mediator, had detained an American ship and repaired her in so short a time as five hours-—thus preventing her master from taking her cargo into port as had been his intention.
This letter stirred up the wasp’s nest of which Collingwood was fully aware. Soon, governors, local law officers, traders, and even the spineless admiral were ranged against the officious captains. Then, and for the rest
of their service among the Leeward Islands, the two Collingwoods and Nelson found life extremely difficult. Although Nelson took the precaution of writing to the authorities in London to ensure that he and his friends Would be backed up in what they did, he and Collingwood were not pleased when they discovered that the admiral had been officially congratulated on his stand! Hughes, Who in Nelson’s words “bows and scrapes too much” would gladly have winked both eyes in order to prevent trouble.
Collingwood departed for home in the late summer of 1786, leaving his brother Wilfred tn the Rattler under Nelson’s orders, for Hughes also had left for England. The little squadron was reinforced in November by the frigate Pegasus, in charge of Prince William Henry, third son of George III. The prince Was already both a seaman of experience— he had served in battle as a midshipman Under Rodney—and a martinet. He was, U seems, ready enough to fall in with Nelson’s policy against the interloping trade, While Wilfred Collingwood wore himself out m the service, dying at sea on 21 April 1787.
Only once was Collingwood to cross the Atlantic again, though his naval career had over 20 years yet to run. In 1790, at the hme of what was known as “the Spanish Armament,” he was given command of the Ligate Mermaid and proceeded to the West fndies with a squadron under Admiral Cornish. This “Armament,” or war scare, Urose from the fact that the officer command- 'ug two Spanish ships of war seized some British vessels lying at Nootka Sound, off What is now Vancouver Island, which was held to be within waters controlled by Spain. The crews were sent as prisoners-of- 'var to a Spanish port, and since, as a result °f the voyages of James Cook, particularly his third circumnavigation (1776-1779) British interest in the area had much increased, and since, moreover, Spanish sea power was held in some contempt, a high tone was taken Ly the government of George III, and preparations made accordingly. In the upshot, Spain climbed down, since she found no support from France, and Collingwood’s cruise tvus uneventful.
He was wont to complain of his lack of 'nffuence, and his good fortune in being given
the Mermaid' derived from his known zeal and efficiency. Many others were less fortunate, Nelson among them, and the little man was five years on the beach. He made no bones about his envy of those who, through influence or otherwise, found themselves at sea. After he had returned home, Collingwood enjoyed his only really long spell ashore, at home in his beloved Northumberland. In June 1791, he married Sarah, daughter of John Erasmus Blackett, who was then mayor of Newcastle-upon-Tyne and a prosperous man of business. Sarah’s maternal grandfather was Admiral Roddam, under whom Collingwood had served as a young man. The marriage was happy, in spite of the very long separations caused by the exigencies of a service life. There were two children, both girls; Sarah, born in 1792, and Mary Patience, born the year following. Collingwood was destined to see very litcie of his daughters, but his distant care over their education and up-bringing was unceasing, and his directions to that end occupy many pages in his future son-in-law’s Memoir.
Early in 1793, Great Britain found herself once again at war with France, as she had done so often during the course of the century. At first, Collingwood was in his usual state of worry about whether he would get an appointment, but he had made friends with George Bowyer, at that time a rear admiral, and Bowyer invited him to become his flag- captain. Collingwood wrote to his eldest sister on 17 February 1793:
I am well content with my situation for many reasons. In the first place it is an appoint’t of great trust and respectability; in the second, it gives me a claim in future to a line of battle ship in preferance to a frigate, into which I will never go again if I can help it ... I will never command a two-decked ship when I can get one with three; in the third place, it was proposed to me in so handsome a way that I should have been wrong to have refused it.
Collingwood’s decision was justified. Although rather senior on the post-captain’s list for such a position, he knew and liked Bowyer both as an officer and an individual, and it soon became clear that the ship, the Prince, would be ordered to serve under Lord Howe in the Home Fleet, the situation which
Collingwood would have chosen at that stage of the war. Howe was the most accomplished admiral then flying his flag at sea. He was the elder brother of General Sir William Howe, the British commander at Bunker Hill, and an abler though far less genial man.
It was not in the Prince but the Barfleur, a faster ship, to which Bowyer and Collingwood transferred, in which they took part in the first fleet action of the war, the Atlantic battle of 1 June 1794. The encounter itself was the climax of an intricate series of maneuvers as the result of which the French commander, Villaret-Joyeuse, saved a large convoy, originally assembled off the Chesapeake, which was carrying grain to a starving France. The fleets themselves were equal. Howe’s tactical defeat of his opponent, with the capture of six ships and the sinking of a seventh, without loss to himself, was a triumph. Although no one rejoiced more than George III at his favorite admiral’s success, it was the King who wrote to his First Lord of the Admiralty, “one cannot help being mortified that probably the great convoy from America will arrive safe in France.” Villaret-Joyeuse had won a strategic victory. Had he not done so, he would, so he told a friend, certainly have lost his head to the guillotine.
Collingwood fought the Barfleur splendidly in action and as, during the course of the fight, Rear Admiral Bowyer was badly wounded and lost a leg, Collingwood was disappointed in the extreme not to be included among captains who were cited for honors by Howe. Bowyer got a medal and a baronetcy; Collingwood got nothing; the fact was anguish to him, and so remained. Many fellow captains in the fleet were surprised at the omission, which had the effect on Collingwood of making him wish for the opportunity of showing Lord Howe the full measure of his injustice.
The chance came nearly three years later, after a grueling and dull spell of blockade. It was eagerly taken, and was followed by the most flattering recognition. Collingwood had been sent in the Excellent to the Mediterranean, where he once again became the close companion of Nelson, who was serving in that area. On 14 February 1797, the pair took a leading part in Sir John Jervis’
victory over the Spaniards—who had by that time joined the French—off Cape St- Vincent. There, 15 British ships defeated 27 of the enemy, capturing four ships of the line in the process. Collingwood wrote an account of the action to his cousin, Edward Collingwood of Chirton, which is included among the new and hitherto unpublished letters bequeathed to the British Museum. It bears out Nelson’s well-known description in every respect. The friends were near one another in action, and could see exactly hoW well they were doing. Collingwood wrote:
On Valentine’s day in the morning we discovered them, and immediately made an impetuous assault upon them, which divided them into two parts; then, turning our whole force on the larger division . . . stuck close to them ’till near close of day, when we collected the fruits of our victory, two first rates ... of 112 guns each, an 80, and a 74 gun ship. I had the good fortune to get the Excellent early into action and was warmly and well engaged all day ... We fought our way through their line until we got up to the Santissima Trinidada of 130 guns ... I had an envious longing for the Santissima Trinidada which is the largest ship in the world, a four decker, and at one time had no doubt of her . . . Three ships that Excellent engaged was not more distant than the breadth of your dining room, so we literally burnt their whiskers. Two of them that ran on board of each other Commodore Nelson boarded and took sword in hand and (what may never happen again) received the submission and swords of the officers on the quarter deck of the first rate San Josef, while one of his seamen made a bundle of them, with as much composure as if he had been tying faggots. I lost eleven men and have a few wounded; the protection of Providence was great, considering what a scene we were engaged in.
The Barfleur had also been in the battle) and it was particularly sweet for Collingwood to receive the warmest notes from her cap' tain, Dacres, and her admiral, Waldegrave> both of whom remembered Collingwood’^ sadness after Howe’s victory. As for the Admiralty, they seemed determined to right an old wrong as well as to recognize fresh service) for Lord Spencer, who was then reigning over the Board, sent Collingwood gold medals for both actions, suitably inscribed. At long last, honor was satisfied.
Over eight hard and weary years spent at Sea in watching the enemy’s Atlantic ports, 'vith but a few months at home during the brief Peace of Amiens, lay between the Tories and consolations of St. Vincent and the autumn of 1805, the climax of Colling- 'vood’s career. Then, in the waters off Spain "'hich they both knew so well, Collingwood And Nelson faced the combined fleets of France and Spain under Admiral Villeneuve.
The pattern of the Trafalgar campaign is too well known to bear repetition. What is seldom realized is that it was Collingwood 'vho, with a minute force, shepherded Villeneuve into Cadiz, and watched over him tight and day until at last he emerged to face Annihilation, and that it was Collingwood Vyho, unrelieved until his death, bore the full height of his friend’s burden of command After death had struck Nelson down on 21 October.
During the course of the next four-and-a- half years, that burden, the Mediterranean Vommander-in-Chief, was to wear Collingwood out,
And there are two remarkAble facts about it to recall.
"Phe first was that, even before the news of Trafalgar bad been properly assimilated, it was simply taken for granted that Colling- Vvood, who was then a vice Admiral of only 18 months’
Seniority in that rank, and Vvith no experience whatsoever except in subordinate sea commands, would be Nelson’s only possible successor. The second was the strange way in which Collingwood, although he himself had proved an admirable flag-captain in his hme, was totally unable to delegate, even in the smallest particulars. The fesult was that a position, which would in any case have proved taxing, became one of whose difficulties he never ceased to complain. Collingwood, who never appointed a Captain °f the Fleet or Chief of Staff to ease his way Administratively, was without Nelson’s gift °f trust in his subordinates. In this respect
he resembled Howe, who liked to see to everything in person, in his case because experience had taught him not to rely on his captains.
The matter of succession to the command was decided by George III in person. The moment he had had detailed news of Trafalgar, that sovereign, who knew a man when he saw one, caused his secretary to write as follows to the Admiralty:
. . . every tribute of praise appears to His Majesty due to Lord Nelson, whose loss he can never sufficiently regret . . . His Majesty considers it very fortunate that the command, under circumstances so critical, should have devolved upon an officer of such consummate valour, judgement and skill, as Admiral Collingwood has proved himself to be, every part of whose conduct he considers deserving his entire approbation and admiration. The feeling manner in which he has described the events of that great day and those subsequent, and the modesty with which he speaks of himself, whilst he does justice, in terms so
This letter became Collingwood’s proudest possession. “It is there,” he wrote to his wife, “I feel the object of my life attained.” Next to the letter, in his regard, was the praise of
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every officer in the fleet. “Many of the captains here,” he wrote, “have expressed a desire that I would give them a general notice whenever I go to Court; and if they are within 500 miles they will come up to attend me.” But the letter also sealed his fate. Wherever the King commanded, there his place would be, however protracted his exile from the home he loved, and though it wore him out.
All the time that Collingwood was in charge in the Mediterranean, Britain’s affairs were never less than complicated, and her policy sometimes uncertain. Moreover, the slowness and the unreliability of communications required that commanders on the spot should take decisions without, in many cases, the chance to consult their superiors. Collingwood’s habit was to anticipate orders, and never once was his judgment questioned or his dispositions deemed less than adequate.
The result of Trafalgar, so far as France was concerned, confirmed Napoleon in his pursuit of a continental strategy: he realized, once and for all, that any project for the invasion of Britain was doomed to failure. His fleet, such of it as remained operational, would be used first to contain his enemy and then, when the chance offered, to further his designs in Italy. In 1806, Britain had only two bases which she could use in the Mediterranean. One was Sicily, where a small army supported the Bourbon dynasty, exiled by force of arms from Naples, and the other was Malta, which flourished under the protection of Collingwood’s fleet. They proved to be enough. Schemes for the conquest of Sicily failed. Malta was never in danger.
In 1807, relations with Turkey grew difficult, owing to aggressive action by the Tsar of Russia, who was at that time the ally of George III. Collingwood sent a force under Admiral Duckworth up the Dardanelles to try to persuade the Sultan’s government to return to an earlier benevolence, but Duckworth failed, and had to withdraw. Collingwood himself anchored off Imbros a few months later, but could do nothing. Presently, the Tsar, defeated at Friedland by Napoleon, began to change his allegiance, a movement which was concluded when he met the French Emperor at Tilsit, and agreed to exclude British trade from his dominions.
A graduate of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, in 1925, Mr. Warner was a
Member of the Secretariat, |Ki§j ,. British Admiralty during World War II, and Secretary, Naval Honours and Awards Committee from 1944 to 1946. He served on the Council of the Society for Nauticaj Research from 1961 to 196 and on the Council of the Navy Records Society frorn 1966 to 1967. A Fellow of the Royal Society 0 Literature, his books include Victory, the Life of L°r Nelson (1958); The Glorious First of June (1961); Cm2 Sea Battles (1967); Cunningham of Hyndhope: Admit11 of the Fleet and a recent life of Collingwood.
An unexpected turn of the tide came 1)1 1808, when, after their royal family had been humiliated and a French monarchy impose on them, the Spanish people made spontaneous attempts to throw off their foreign yoke- Collingwood was welcomed when he lande in August at Cadiz, and was able to glVe active and continuing support to the nations - ist forces active in Andalusia and Catalonia-
There had been a single chance of a fur" ther fleet action during his tenure of command, when the French Admiral Ganteaume eluded the guard off Toulon and made 3 sortie to Corfu. Owing to a succession 0 mischances, the battle to which Collingwoo had looked forward with the utmost conn dence never took place. Ganteaume even tually returned to his base, having accomplished nothing.
In 1810, British land forces successful!) invaded and occupied the islands of Zante, Cephalonia, Ithaca, and Cerigo, while Co' lingwood’s admirals defeated a French at' tempt to supply Barcelona, destroying tw'° ships of the line and 13 transports in the pr°' cess. He had shown that he remained mastei at sea in the Mediterranean, just as, far away in the north, Sir James Saumarez continue dominant in Baltic waters.
Collingwood wrote to his sister-in-law:
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While I can serve to the satisfaction of my King, and benefit of the country, I feel the reward in my act, and look no further for it- But my fear, my only fear, is that my strength of body, impaired by length of days and weight of years, should unfit me for the
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arduous duties I have to fulfill. Fourteen or sixteen hours of every day I am employed. I have about eighty ships of war under my orders, and the direction of naval affairs from Cadiz to Constantinople, with an active and powerful enemy, always threatening, and though he seldom moves, keeps us constantly on the alert. I leave nothing undone that I can devise for the public good. Where I fail it will be my misfortune, not my neglect. When there is fault it will be all my own. In the plan, I involve no one, for I never ask for council, and this I do from principle, not pride. But I look for success, and I know I shall glad your heart when the world allows I deserve it.
His fear was not unfounded. In March 310, he became so ill and weak that he was 'teed to resign, dying—still at sea—in his reat flagship, the Ville de Paris, on his way t»me from Majorca. He was buried in St. iul’s, beneath one of the plainest tombs in te cathedral, and among the mourners were ir Peter Parker, the Earl of St. Vincent, ho as Sir John Jervis had won the fight of alentine’s Day, 1797, and a succession of irst Lords of the Admiralty whom he had ;fved so ably. Collingwood’s life had been a id one, illuminated by brilliant flashes, and tiring his last few years he had conducted the 'Hire policy of his country’s government in 'ie Mediterranean theater of war.
When he lay dying, Collingwood found Urope a sad place, and he saw little any- here to comfort him. He could not know that >s great adversary, Napoleon, was later to ty that what he called “the Spanish ulcer” Js a major cause of the downfall of his em- l|re. Although final victory was still five years 11 the future, Britain, to all appearances so Evolved and shaken, would emerge from the °nflict more powerful than ever before. It ’4*5 the skill and endurance of Collingwood and his like, and the land victories of Wellington in Spain and Portugal, which had helped to ensure that result. Collingwood and Nelson had been among the first to realize that they were involved in what was for the time a new kind of war, and that the price of defeat might well be national extinction.
Collingwood was by no means a colorless personality, but he was unknown outside the Navy, and within it had only one close friend, Nelson. He founded no school of tactics, and fellow officers were apt to regard his standards as impossibly high, his detachment almost inhuman. All admitted that he was peerless in the exercise of his profession, but only his family, which he never saw during the last seven years of his life, knew what a many-sided and even laughter-loving person he could be, when the times allowed him to be his fullest self.
Famous men of letters wrote tributes to Collingwood, among them the Frenchman, Alfred de Vigny, who saw in his whole career the apotheosis of Roman virtue, and his fellow countryman Thackeray, who in The Four Georges asked when in history there could be found “a nobler, kinder, more beautiful life of duty, a gentler, truer heart?”
The verdict that Collingwood himself might have valued most, because it was brief and exact, came from a frigate captain to whose vessel he transferred his flag when the Royal Sovereign had been critically damaged at Trafalgar. It was in the cabin of the Euryalus that Collingwood composed the despatches which so moved all who read them. Blackwood, the captain in point, described Collingwood, in a letter home to his wife which was sent off immediately after the battle, as “a reserved, though a very pleasing good man, and as he fought like an angel I take the more to him.”
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On the field, of battle, the happiest inspiration is often only a recollection.
Napoleon