Nelson & His World

This thread has been started with the intention of highlighting the many other naval officers of Nelson's time, who should also be awarded hero status due to their bravery, leadership, dedication, resourcefulness and other qualities. I am sure others will want to add their own particular favourites but perhaps it might be an idea to also include some of those who are less well known, but whose exploits are just as heroic and who hardly ever receive a mention.

I will start off with one of my own favourites, William Hoste. A contemporary of Nelson, at least for part of his life, he was his protogé having first gone to sea with him in the 'Agamemnon' in 1793. He served under Nelson for several years, was present at St. Vincent and the Nile and went with him to Italy, where he met Emma Hamilton. It was she who said of him, 'I say he will be a second Nelson' and so it was to prove after Nelson's death. Hoste missed Trafalgar to his great sorrow and the death of Nelson hit him deeply, particularly as he had become almost as a second father.

It was in the Mediterranean, and more particularly the Adriatic, that he was to make his name. Here, he so harrassed and disrupted the coastal shipping to the detriment of the French, that they attempted to put him out of action in the famous Battle of Lissa in 1811. His fleet of four frigates fought and defeated a similar one composed of French and Venetian vessels, possibly a unique event since all the vessels were of the same type. Just before the battle he famously hoisted the signal 'Remember Nelson', following which his French counterpart ironically tried to cut his line 'a la Trafalgar.' Needless to say, the attempt failed.

Perhaps his greatest exploits came with his efforts to aid the Montenegrins in their fight against the French, which included his sieges of the cities of Cattaro, and Ragusa (now Dubrovnik.) Battling against the trechourously mountainous terrain and appalling weather, his ship's crew manhandled guns up to positions from where they could fire down on the cities from above, and ultimately force their surrender. The situation at Ragusa dictated that they hauled a gun along an aqueduct, which was only a few feet wider than the gun itself and any deviation from it would have meant that the gun and possibly the men hauling it would have fallen into the chasm below. One of the churches in Dubrovnik today still bears the scars of Hoste's cannon.

Like Nelson, whom he copied, he had the love of his men and he treated them with respect and consideration. Earlier he had contracted a lung infection which was partly to be the cause of his death from tuberculosis in 1828 at the young age of 48, just one year more than Nelson on his death at Trafalgar. A recommended book is 'Remember Nelson - the Life of Captain Sir William Hoste', by Tom Pocock.

An interesting website is at:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Hoste

Kester

It was brave of you to start the thread, Kester.

Like you I admire Hoste, and when I was at the Naval Museum in Venice recently the handbook mentioned The Battle of Lissa so I shot up several flights of stairs only to find that it was the second Battle of Lissa in 1866 that the display was about. No mention of Hoste. This was the first battle using iron and steam apparently.

One of my heroes: Alexander Ball, a man of many talents who excelled in them all: a brilliant seaman, a brave warrior and Nile Captain, a wise, outstanding and beloved colonial administrator in Malta and a widely read and cultured man. After his initially frosty relationship with Nelson, they became great friends. Ball was an admirer of Emma Hamilton, not only because of her personal qualities but because of her care of Nelson when he was under stress. He always addressed her as 'My dear sister' in his letters. Emma has a mixed press. I would trust the judgement of Alexander Ball on Emma, since it proved so valid and reliable in other spheres.

I have in my possession an unpublished letter written by Nelson to Ball. In it he says: 'I hope the fall of the Valette will soon happen and so far your labours finish, but for the benefit of the poor islanders, I wish your stay may be prolonged, never, never agn [again] will they be so honorably governed, and so far as my voice will be attended to, your great merits shall be known in England.' A deserved and generous tribute from a valued friend.

Ball had an equable temperament, in contrast to Nelson. It is interesting that three close friends of Nelson's - Ball, Hardy and Collingwood - were all much more phlegmatic in character, yet were able to manage his mercurial spirit.

Tycho,

It seems rather strange that the museum mentions only the second Battle of Lissa, with no reference to Hoste at all. On the SN site I posted something about Hoste and someone replied with a link to a site about the island of Vis, originally Lissa, which had been concocted by someone who lived on the island. It was quite interesting, but when I clicked on the Battle of Lissa link, again it was all about the second battle - and in great detail - with no mention of the first and no mention of Hoste in this regard! I cannot believe that they don't know of it, so why this omission? Apparently this is not the case in Dubrovnik, where he is still regarded as almost a saviour of their country.

Ball stands high in my estimation too, particularly in the incident where he took the 'Vanguard' in tow. There is a very good description of this in Brian Lavery's excellent book 'Nelson and the Nile', where Ball exhibited his superb seamanship. As you know this is where Nelson's view of him changed. Can you recommend any good books about him, particularly with a view to the siege of Malta and his term as Governor? I believe he was well respected by the Maltese and have seen pictures of his monument. It would be nice to go there sometime.

Kester

As the Royal navy prepares to rescue stranded travellers, perhaps it is a good time to mention another great humanitarian act at sea - the heroic rescue by Sir Edward Pellew of the passengers aboard the 'Dutton' in 1796:


http://www.plymouthdata.info/Dutton.htm

Adam Duncan, a great commander (in size as well as ability), with a personality strong enough to halt a mutiny on his own ship and one other. This gave him the barest minimum to blockade the Dutch and prevent a potential invasion. Loved by his men and respected by his enemies (he and De Winter remained firm friends until his death), he took the worn out ships of the North Sea Fleet, manned with men who had been in open mutiny months before, and fought a professional navy in their home waters. The victory at Camperdown was spectacular, with nine ships taken; equal to St Vincent and First of June together, and yet all we tend to hear of is Crawford nailing the colours to the mast.