300 



Monthly litvit'tti qf' Literature, 



[MARCH, 



rally without a man on board; but they 

 were no longer wanted the troops had all 

 been swept away. In 1780, he commanded 

 the Pelican, which was wrecked in a hur- 

 ricane on the rocks of Morant Keys, where 

 with difficulty they escaped on the sands, 

 and remained for ten days on short com- 

 mons, till a boat, despatched to Jamaica, 

 returned with a frigate and took them off. 

 After this mishap, he commanded the 

 Sampson, a 64, which was paid off at the 

 peace, but he himself was transferred to the 

 Mediator, and was again with Nelson on 

 the West India station till 1786, where he 

 and. Nelson took upon themselves the re- 

 sponsibility of enforcing the Navigation 

 Laws not hesitating what course to take, 

 when the alternative was disobeying orders, 

 and disobeying Acts of Parliament. This 

 conduct, however, may be well supposed to 

 have been the prompting of Nelson. 



From the end of 1786 to the year 1790, 

 Captain Collingwood was on shore, making 

 the acquaintance, as he says, of his family, 

 to whom his continued absence, from a 

 child, had made him a stranger. In 1790, 

 he^was sent, under Admiral Cornish, to the 

 West Indies, with an armament destined 

 to act against the Spaniards; but affairs 

 being quickly accommodated, he was soon 

 at home again ; and finding all chance of 

 employment for the time over, he married, 

 and continued on shore till the war broke 

 out in 1793, and, with the exception of a 

 few weeks, was constantly afloat till the end 

 of it. In the action of the 1st of June, 

 1794, he commanded the Barfleur ; but, 

 though he received the thanks and congra- 

 tulations of Admiral Bowyer, no notice was 

 taken of him in Lord Howe's despatches ; 

 and in the distribution of medals his claims 

 were overlooked. From the Barfleur he re- 

 moved to the Excellent, and, in company 

 with the fleet, was cruising in the Mediter- 

 ranean, at Corsica, and along the coast of 

 Italy, but chiefly stationed off Toulon, 

 watching the French Fleet, nearly till the 

 battle of St. Vincent's, Feb. 14, 1797, 

 where he again distinguished himself, and 

 where, moreover, his services were warmly 

 acknowledged. " I did my duty," says 

 he, " to the utmost of my ability, as I have 

 ever done; that is acknowledged now, and 

 there is the only real difference between 

 this and the former action. Take it alto- 

 gether, it is perhaps the most brilliant ac- 

 tion upon xecDrd ; and I cannot help feeling 

 an almost spiteful satisfaction that Lord 

 Howe is outdone." On this occasion, when 

 Lord St. Vincent informed him he was to 

 receive one of the medals, he refused to 

 accept it, while the one for the 1st of June 

 was withheld. I feel," said he, " I was 

 then improperly passed over, and to receive 

 such a distinction now, would be to acknow- 

 ledge the propriety of that injustice." 



" That is precisely the answer I expected 

 from you," was St. Vincent's reply. The 

 two medals were sent together, with an 



assurance dated June, from Lord Spencer, 

 then at the head of the Admiralty, that the 

 first medal would have been transmitted 

 months before, if a proper conveyance had 

 been found for it. 



The spirit of mutiny which prevailed at 

 the Nore in the following summer, was suc- 

 cessfully repressed in the Mediterranean 

 fleet by the exertions of Lord St. Vincent, 

 and none co-operated with more zeal and 

 effect than Captain Collingwood. Of his 

 efficaciousness the Admiral was so con- 

 vinced, that he repeatedly drafted the more 

 ungovernable into the Excellent " send 

 them to Collingwood," he used to say, " he 

 will bring them to order." On one occa- 

 sion, a seaman was sent from the Romulus, 

 who had pointed one of the fore-castle guns, 

 shotted to the muzzle, at the quarter-deck, 

 and standing by it with a match, declared 

 he would fire at the officers, unless he re- 

 ceived a promise that no punishment should 

 be inflicted upon him. On his arrival on 

 board the Excellent, Captain Collingwood, 

 in the presence of many of the sailors, said 

 to him, with great sternness of manner, l I 

 know your character well, but beware how 

 you attempt to excite insubordination in 

 this ship ; for I have such confidence in my 

 men, that I am certain I shall hear in an 

 hour of every thing you are doing. If you 

 behave well in future, I will treat you like 

 the rest, nor notice here what happened in 

 another ship ; but if you endeavour to ex- 

 cite mutiny, mark me well, I will instantly 

 head you up in a cask, and throw you into 

 the sea.' Under the treatment which he 

 met with in the Excellent, this man became 

 a good and obedient sailor, and never after- 

 wards gave any cause of complaint." 



After the victory of St. Vincent's, Cap- 

 tain Collingwood continued with the main 

 fleet, and had not the good fortune to be 

 among those who were detached, under 

 Nelson, to intercept the French on their 

 way to Egypt, but was kept " cruising off 

 St. Lucar's, to intercept the market-boats, 

 the poor cabbage carriers. Oh, humilia- 

 tion," adds he, in a letter to a brother offi- 

 cer. At the end of 1798 he brought his 

 ship to port, which was paid off wanting 

 repairs, and he himself flew to his family in 

 Northumberland. But in a very few weeks 

 he was raised to the rank of Rear-Admiral, 

 and directed to join the Channel Fleet, and 

 was in activity till the end of the war, when 

 for about another twelvemonth, he for the 

 last time was re-united to his family. 



On the renewal of the war in 1803, he 

 was immediately despatched under Corn- 

 wallis to cruise off Brest, and with the 

 Channel Fleet he continued till Nelson took 

 the command in September 1805, and was 

 Nelson's second at the battle of Trafalgar 

 in the following October. On that memo- 

 rable day, he had the honour of leading his 

 ship first into action, and commenced the 

 battle, when a mile a-head of any other 

 English ship. " See," cried Nelson, " hov* 



