Nelson – In His Own Words

Summary

On Thursday 2 May 1793, the 64-gun battleship, HMS Agamemnon was on a routine patrol off Cape Barfleur. She was under the command of Captain Horatio Nelson, at 34 already a seasoned naval commander. At noon, he sighted a small French squadron at anchor. At first, the French displayed an inclination to attack him but then, realising they had encountered a superior force, changed their minds and ran for shelter among the nearby shoals. In a report to his Commander-in-Chief, Admiral Lord Hood, Nelson described what happened next:

I stood close in with the Islands of St Marcou and when on the other tack nearly fetched the Sternmost frigate, they immediately tack'd but we soon got into their wake&stood after them plainly seeing the one a Black frigate of 28 guns on the Main Deck & 10 on her quarter deck, the other a Yellow sided 32 gun frigate & two 16 Gun Brigs. I had now to lament the want of a Pilot and not a man in the ship have ever been on this coast. It blew Strong Gale, we were close in with the rocks to windward and sand breaking under our lee, had the ship touched the ground she must have been inevitably lost and without the destruction of their vessels which I own I had much at heart. But the Risk was too much and I was under the Mortification of ordering the Ship to be wore.

This is classic Nelson. His instinctive decision is to attack at once, despite the fact that he is already sailing in dangerous waters, and he only gives up the chase when the danger becomes too extreme. He longs not just to defeat his opponents but to ‘destroy’ them. He displays superb seamanship, handling his battleship like a frigate – indeed, at one point tacking almost in the wake of one of the lighter, more manoeuvrable ships. Finally, as well as being so clearly a man of action, he also has a way with words: his description is so vivid that the incident comes alive on the page.

This is not the only version of the story. Nelson also sent an account of the action to Admiral Sir Peter Parker, the Commander-in-Chief at Portsmouth.