APPENDIX TO CHRONICLE. 



381 



yer lost his leg by the side of cap- 

 tain Collingwood, yet no epithet 

 of approbation was officially be- 

 stowed on the captain of the Bar- 

 fleur! The battles of St. Vincent 

 and Trafalgar have since pro- 

 claimed his merit ! Captain Col- 

 lingwood was appointed to the 

 Excellent, after lord Howe's vic- 

 tory, and went with lord Hood to 

 Toulon. From that station he 

 joined admiral Jervis, and follow- 

 ing the manoeuvres of his tried 

 friend commodore Nelson, these 

 two commanders, with the ill- 

 fated Trowbridge, contributed to 

 accomplish one of the most signal 

 victories off Cape St. Vincent, ever 

 recorded in theannals of naval war. 

 The English consisted of fifteen 

 ships, the Spanish of twenty-seven ; 

 the former had only 1,232 guns, 

 the latter 2,308; and, notwith- 

 standing this inferiority, four of 

 the enemy's ships were captured, 

 two by Nelson and two by Col- 

 lingwood ; the San Josef of one 

 hundred and twelve guns, and San 

 Nicholas of eighty, struck to Nel- 

 son ; and the Salvador del Mundo 

 of one hundred and twelve, and 

 the San Isidro of 74 to Collingwood. 

 The prodigies of valour displayed 

 by Nelson and Collingwood, on 

 this extraordinary occasion, are 

 well depicted by the former at a 

 perilous moment of the engage- 

 ment. " The Salvador del Mundo, 

 and the San Isidro," said his lord- 

 ship, " dropped a stern, and were 

 fired into in a masterly style by the 

 Excellent, captain Collingwood, 

 who compelled the San Isidro to 

 hoist English colours ; and I 

 thought tiie large ship Salvador 

 had struck ; but captain Colling- 

 wood, disdaining the parade of 

 taking possession of a vanquished 

 enemy, most gallantly pushed up 

 with every sail set to save his old 



friend and messmate, who was to 

 appearance in a crippled state." It 

 was not the fortune of Colling- 

 wood, although anxiously desired 

 by both, to accompany his friend 

 to fresh victories at the Nile, and 

 he remained in the painful oflRce 

 of blockading the enemy's ports 

 till 1799, when he was made rear- 

 admiral of the White, and in 1801 

 rear-admiral of the Red. In May 

 1802 he returned to Spithead, and 

 proceeded tohis family and friends 

 in Northumberland. But the pe- 

 riod of domestic enjoyment was 

 again very short ; and in April 

 1804< he was made vice-admiral of 

 the Blue, and resumed the block- 

 ade of Brest with admiral Corn- 

 wallis. The very irksome life of 

 an indolent blockade always ap- 

 prehensive that the enemy may 

 escape, and yet without the hope 

 of his coming to action, can only 

 be understood by those who have 

 spent some time aboard ship in 

 such service. In 1805, however, 

 admiral Collingwood was called 

 upon to exercise his talents in 

 the blockade of Cadiz, with only 

 four ships, with which he had to 

 deceive the enemy, and impress 

 them with an idea that he had a 

 powerful fleet. This delusion he 

 effected with the happiest result, 

 by means of well-conceived signals 

 from two ships off the harbour to 

 two others at a greater distance. 

 The arrival of Nelson relieved him 

 from the arduous task of watching 

 a fleet of thirty-four ships of the 

 line with only four, and prepared 

 the way for the glorious, but 

 melancholy, battle of Trafalgar, in 

 which twenty-seven British were 

 opposed to thirty-three French 

 and Spanish ships. The particu- 

 lars of this engagement are yet 

 too deeply engraven on the minds 

 of the public to require repe- 



