25 - The First French Breakout, January–March 1805

Summary

That story begins on 19 January 1805, in Agincourt Sound at La Maddalena, Sardinia. Nelson was there with his fleet, replenishing his stores and water, when the frigates Seahorse and Active appeared from the north-west, flying the signal, ‘Enemy at Sea’. From their captains Nelson learned that the French fleet had put to sea the previous day, heading south.

The first letter in this chapter, to Captain Courtenay Boyle of the Seahorse (445), shows Nelson's instant reaction to the news. Seahorse is immediately sent out again, this time down the west coast of Sardinia, to see whether the French fleet has been seen there. In the meantime, Nelson takes the battlefleet down the east coast, expecting to intercept the French off the south of Sardinia. As he tells his second in command, Sir Richard Bickerton (446): ‘I am a little anxious naturally but no man has more real cause to be happy. I hope tomorrow we shall get hold of them and the result I ought not to doubt.’ The same mood of tense anticipation can be felt in his letter to Captain Robert Stopford (447), explaining that he wants the Spencer and the Leviathan to be ready to move ahead of the fleet to attack the enemy's rear and force them to turn and give battle.

The French were, of course not heading eastwards round Sardinia at all but westward out of the Mediterranean. But this point was academic for Villeneuve had encountered a severe storm and, by 21 January, even as Nelson arrived in position off the south of Sardinia, he was already putting back into Toulon for repairs. Four days later, the first note of real anxiety begins to creep into Nelson's notes. Sending Captain Richard Moubray in the frigate HMS Active to Cagliari for information, he says (448): ‘consider how anxious I must be for information of the Enemy and one moments delay may enable them to accomplish their object’. He writes a string of letters on the same day, all charged with the same tension. The one to Francis Magnon, the British Consul at Cagliari (449), was obviously sent with Moubray, as was the one to the Viceroy of Sardinia (450): ‘I am all anxiety for the return of the officer who I entreat Your Royal Highness will not detain one moment.’