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Returning with his bride to Burnham Trope, Nelson found himself without another appointment and on half pay. He remained unemployed for five years, aware of "a prejudice at the Admiralty evidently against me, which I can neither guess at, nor in the least account for" - but which may well have been connected with his enforcement of the Navigation Act Within a few days of the execution of King Louis XVI of France in January 1793. However, he was given command of the 64-gun Agamemnon.
Service in the Mediterranean.
From this moment, Nelson the enthusiastic professional was gradually replaced by Nelson the commander of genius. The coming months were probably his most tranquil emotionally. At home waited a living wife, whose son he had taken to sea with him. His ship, fast and maneuverable, and his crew, superbly trained, pleased him. His task was to fight the Revolutionary French and support British allies in the Mediterranean. Assigned to the forlorn defense of the port of Toulon against the revolutionaries - among them a 24-year-old officer of artillery, Napoleon Bonaparte - Nelson was dispatched to Naples to collect reinforcements. He later gratefully recognized that he owed the success of his mission largely to the British minister - the adroit and scholarly Sir William Hamilton, who was had lived at Naples for 30 years and whose vivacious young wife, Emma was in the queen's confidence.
When Toulon fell, Lord Hood, Nelson's commander, moved his base to Corsica, where Nelson and his ship's company went ashore to assist in the capture of Bastia and Calvi, where a French shot flung debris into Nelson's face juring his right eye and leaving it almost ughtless. At the end of 1794, Hood was replaced by the uninspiring Admiral William Hotham, who was subsequently replaced by Sir John Jervis, an officer more to Nelson's liking. At the age of 60, Jervis was an immensely experienced seaman who quickly recognized Nelson's qualities and who regarded Nelson "more as an associate than a subordinate officer". The arrival of Jervis coincided with an upsurge of French success by the so that the British were forced too abandon their Mediterranean bases and retreat upon Gibraltar and the Tagus.
Battles of Cape St. Vincent and the Nile.
Making for a rendezvous with Jervis in the Atlantic off Cape St. Vincent, Nelson found himself sailing in mist through a Spanish fleet of 27 ships. The Spaniards were sailing in two divisions and Jervis planned to cut between the two and destroy one before the other could come to its assistance. But he had miscalculated, and it became clear that the British ships would not be able to turn quickly enough to get into action before the Spanish squadrons closed up. Without orders from Jervis. Nelson hauled out of line and attacked the head of the second Spanish division. While the rest of Jervis' fleet slowly turned and came up in support. Nelson held the two Spanish squadrons apart, at one time fighting seven enemy ships. The efficiency of British gunnery was decisive and he not only boarded and captured one enemy man-of-war but, from her deck, boarded and took a second.
The Battle of Cape St. Vincent won for Jervis the earldom of St. Vincent and for Nelson a knighthood, which coincided with his promotion by seniority to rear admiral. His first action in command of major independent force, however was disastrous. In the cours4e of an assault on Tenerife, a grapeshot shattered his right elbow, and back in his flagship the arm was amputated. In the spring of 1798 Nelson was fit enough to rejoin the Earl of St. Vincent, who assigned him to watch a French fleet waiting to embark an expeditionary force.
Реферат опубликован: 16/03/2006