Men of Honour (39 page)

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Authors: Adam Nicolson

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lack of good men 14-17, 18

pay 87

ships in poor condition 15

Trafalgar, casualties 220-1, 287-8

Trafalgar, Churruca speaks to men on morning of 93-4

Trafalgar, first contact with British 220-1,
221

unavailability of skilled labour 16-17
see also
Combined Fleet

Spartiate
88

Spencer
90

Spencer, Lady 6

Spithead mutiny 180-1, 231, 290

St Paul's Cathedral 276

St Vincent, Earl 44, 54, 55, 59, 103, 116, 125, 137, 173-4, 183, 231, 232-3

Stanhope, Lord 114-15

Steele, Sir Richard 164-5

Stroehling, PE 124

Superbe
90

Swiftsure
10, 19, 229, 298, 302-3, 310

Sykes, John 237

Telford, Thomas 70

Téméraire
91, 92, 98, 246, 260-1, 262, 264, 268, 282

Tenerife 103

Terpsichore
137

Thanksgiving Odes
314-15

Theory of Moral Sentiments
(Smith) 44

Thunderer
60, 304

Toland, John 165

Tonnant
229, 257, 292

Touches, Auguste Gicquel des 278, 279, 280, 281-2, 283, 287

Toulon 23, 29, 74, 78, 79, 99, 145, 194, 195, 277

TRAFALGAR, BATTLE OF xv, xviii

aggression of English fleet xi, 224, 258

average age of sailors 53

battle for trade 42

battle shock 291-2

British approach to battle 3-8, 46-8, 49-52, 96-9, 130-1, 157,
158
,
159
, 160

British liberation of individual energies to ensure victory 45-6, 184-5

British rescue French and Spanish sailors in post-battle storm 289-90, 303, 309, 310, 311

British sailors request to leave fleet prior to 87-9

British shipboard orderliness 53-7, 58, 59-63, 69, 72-3, 131-2, 133-4, 178, 201-2

British tactics 91, 162, 183-5, 196-201, 217, 217-18, 240, 242, 260, 277, 279, 281

British victory won before battle begins 9, 23

casualties 9-10, 20, 220-1, 225-6, 227, 229, 230, 239, 263, 268, 287-8, 302-3, 306-7, 309

closeness of battle 219-20

Combined Fleet approach to battle 4, 46-8, 93-4, 157,
158
,
159
, 160

Combined Fleet first shot 155

Combined Fleet tactical mistakes 94-5, 276-9, 282-3

Combined Fleet, authoritarian pattern of 24-34, 45-6

Combined Fleet, problems within 8-10, 20, 94

density of gunfire 163, 209-10

desertions 53

devastation of Spanish ships 287

Dumanoir's failure to come to aid of fleet 277-9, 282-3

early fighting 203

end of battle 289-91, 298

first minute devastates Spaniards 220-1

French and Spanish fear of British 11-12

French navy, weakness of 23, 34, 35
see also
French Navy

honour as a concept comes to identify 116, 127

horrifying nature of 204, 209-10, 226-8, 257-8, 291-3

humanity within 251, 258, 264, 288-9, 297, 303, 309, 310, 310-11

intimacy of 219, 244

Intrépide
's suicide mission 277-84, 287

last stage of
261

moment of contact
161
, 162

Nelson's signals to fleet 3-4, 5, 128-9, 160, 183, 215

Neslon's tactics 162, 183-5, 196-201, 217, 217-18, 240, 260, 277, 279, 281

noise of gunfire 209-10

Northesk's reluctance to engage 275-6

officers required to stand under fire 162-3

pressed men 53

prisoner exchanges 312

prize money 264, 269-70, 299-300, 302, 304, 306, 307, 308, 309, 312

Quarterdeck as killing zone 148

Romantic Battle 316-17

satisfaction of image to 19th Century mind 314

sense of order in British fleet on morning of 66-7

size of British fleet 72

Spanish lack of seamen on board ship 18

state of British fleet on eve of 89-90

storm following 300-12

technological parity of fleets 10

three phases of 217-19

Victory
, role in
see Victory
victory won by British at Toulon and the Nile 23

Villeneuve strikes his flag 268-9

Villeneuve's tactics
see
Villeneuve

violence of 219-20
see also
violence

Virgilian and Homeric inheritance at play at xix

Treatise on Practical Navigation and Seamanship, A
(Nichelson) 131-3

Troubridge, Sir Thomas 230-6

Truguet, Vice-Admiral Laurent Jean-François 27

Turner, JMW 71-2, 245-6, 263, 269

Tyler, Captain 257

Ulm, Battle of 84

Uriarte, Don Fransico de 270

Ushant 79, 86, 87

Vanguard
235

Vernon, Admiral Edward 58, 177

Victory
5, 45, 50, 85, 88, 89, 108, 119, 127, 144, 156

chases Villeneuve to Caribbean 81

construction 65-6

punishments on 138

TRAFALGAR 290, 293

anxiety level of men on morning of battle 90-1

approach to battle 157, 160, 239-40

battle around
221

Bucentaure
, battle with 244-5, 251, 260, 268

careful maintenance 241

carronades 244-5

casualties 227, 239-40, 245-6, 264, 269

damage sustained 202, 203, 227, 239-40, 254, 264

last stage of battle
261

Nelson carried below so as not to dishearten men 256-7

Nelson describes plan to Captains on 196

Nelson plans for great damage to before a shot can be fired 240

Nelson's relationship with 265

paintings of 269

prepares to collide with Combined fleet 241-2

Redoubtable
, battle with 246-7, 258-60, 262-3

return to England 312

storm, damage sustained in 298, 301

surgeons 227, 239

Villeneuve, Pierre-Charles-Jean-Baptiste-Silvestre:

background and class 28-9

Cape Finisterre 86, 87

Caribbean, leaves Nelson behind in 80, 81, 131

Churruca criticises tactics of 94-5, 277

complains of state of French Navy 19

Council of War, presence at 9

despairs at state of Spanish allies 15

Dumanoir, relationship with 277-8

Grand Strategy, first informed of 77

Grand Strategy, role in 75, 84-5

Napoleon forbids informing his captains of French Grand Strategy 45

Napoleon, relationship with 45, 47, 85, 86

personality 92

portraits 285

Toulon, breaks out of 78, 79

Trafalgar tactics 46, 48, 94-5, 120, 197, 268-9, 276-8

Trafalgar, surrenders 268-9

Vincent, John 144-5, 147, 155

violence:

biblical xii

British culture of xi, 230, 237-8

definition of 209

ending of 258

heroism, relation to 215

honour in exposure to 224-5, 240

millennial apocalyptic xii-xiii

Nelson's instinct for devastation and 190, 232-3, 262

Trafalgar, presence at 209-38, 244-5, 257-8, 270, 272, 288, 289-91, 292-3

Troubridge's nature of 231-2, 233, 235-6

Wordsworth views as divine virtue 314-15

Virgil xviii, xix, 57, 235, 284-5, 317

Voltaire 169

Walker, Henry 307-8

Walpole, Horace 36, 37-8, 106, 167, 180

Walpole, Robert 36, 40

war:

as foundation of beauty 314-17

change in attitudes towards after First World 317

Waterloo, Battle of 263, 314

Wealth of Nations
(Smith) 44

Wellington, Duke of 76, 172, 251

Wemyss, John 88-9

West Indies 78, 80, 133

West, Benjamin 124, 251, 252, 253, 272, 273

Wharton, Lieutenant 87

Wilkes, John 142-3

Wolfe, General 251, 252, 253, 272

Wordsworth, Dorothy 70

Wordsworth, William 52, 70, 115, 191-2, 193-4, 237, 291-2, 314-15

Wyatt, James 124

‘Young Sea Officer's Sheet Anchor, The'
26

Yule, Lieutenant John 91

zeal:

Bayntun's 134

definition of 3

French Revolutionary 19

Nelson's 44

Royal Navy encourages individual 43-6

Acknowledgements

Any book of this kind relies entirely on the work of scholars over many decades and I happily acknowledge my debt to all those who have written about the 1805 Royal Navy in the past. In particular, the outstanding volumes of naval records produced annually since 1893 by the Navy Records Society make any exploration of this extraordinary and fascinating world the greatest of pleasures. I have quoted extensively from those records and I gratefully acknowledge the permission to do so. Anyone wishing to become a member of the Society, and receive the annual volumes as part of their subscription, should apply to the Hon. Secretary, Department of War Studies, King's College London, Strand, London wc2r 2
LS
.

I would also very much like to thank my editors, Susan Watt and Hugh van Dusen, as well as Katie Espiner, Marie Estrada, Vera Brice, Amanda Russell and Helen Ellis, all of whom have, with practised skill, guided this book through its various paths. Caroline Dawnay and Zoe Pagnamenta remain sources of great encouragement, for which I am immensely grateful.

About the author

E
NDPAPERS
: Nelson's Undress Coat in the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich. The star sewn on to its wool serge cloth is of the German Order of St Joachim, founded in 1755, of which Nelson had been appointed Knight Grand Commander in 1801. The motto,
Junxit Amicus Amor
, Love has United Friends, represents a powerful strand of medievalist 18th-century thought, one of the formative influences on the behaviour of officers at Trafalgar.

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Copyright

HarperCollins
Publishers
77-85 Fulham Palace Road,
Hammersmith, London w6 8jb

www.harpercollins.co.uk

Published by HarperCollins
Publishers
2005

135798642

Copyright © Adam Nicolson 2005

Adam Nicolson asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

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EPub Edition © SEPTEMBER 2009 ISBN: 978-0-007-34781-0

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