by a Captain, or some other trivial matter, and he reprimanded the Officer, the Officer would say, 'Sir, I think it properly done, and I shall write for a Court-martial to vindicate my conduct from your unjust accusation.' If this was to be allowed, farewell Discipline: the Service is ruined: his Majesty may be deprived of the services of his Officers; and the best-laid schemes may be frustrated by the malignity of individuals, or pique against their Commanders. As the Rattler is to sail for England on the 1st of June, I have sent her down with his Royal Highness, not only as there may not be Ships enough collected to hold a Court, but to carry Home his Royal Highness's dispatches, which he must be very anxious should reach the King before any reports get to him. Extraordinary to tell, in the last month Mr. Schomberg wrote me a letter, requesting to know what charges I intended to exhibit against him, as he supposed I was to be his prosecutor, having ordered him into Arrest. My answer of course was, that I thought I had complied with his wishes in taking him from under the immediate command of his Royal Highness, and that from the tenor of his letter of January, I took for granted he meant to prove he never had, in the instance alluded to, disobeyed his Captain's commands, and it was therefore he supposed himself unjustly accused. I am, &c., HORATIO NELSON. TO HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS PRINCE WILLIAM HENRY, [Transmitted to the Admiralty in Captain Nelson's Letter of the 10th July, 1787. Vide p. 242, post.] By Horatio Nelson, Esq., Captain of his Majesty's Ship Boreas, &c. You are hereby required and directed to take his Majesty's Ship Rattler under your command, ber Captain having my orders to follow your directions; and proceed 4 Vide p. 223, ante. with all possible dispatch to Port Royal in the Island of Jamaica. When your Royal Highness has no further commands for the Rattler, you will order Captain Wallis to proceed to Spithead, making known his arrival to the Secretary of the Admiralty. Given under my hand, on board his Majesty's Ship Boreas, in Nevis Road, 20th May, 1787. HORATIO NELSON. TO PHILIP STEPHENS, ESQ. [Original, in the Admiralty.] Boreas, Spithead, July 4th, 1787. Sir, I have the honour to acquaint you of the arrival of his Majesty's Ship under my command, in obedience to orders from Commodore Parker. I am much distressed that their Lordships should think I had directed the Prince not to do what was right in respect to the Muster-Book for the Clerk of the Cheque at Antigua.5 I assure the Board that I was guided, when his Royal Highness did me the honour of asking me relative to the Book, by the eleventh and fourteenth of the Captain's, and thirteenth Articles of the Purser's Instructions. If I have erred, I fear it has been by too strict a compliance with those Articles. As I have been under the necessity of mentioning his In a Letter to Captain Nelson, dated on the 9th March 1787, the Admiralty said, that "they are much disappointed and disatisfied at the little attention you have shown to the rules and practice of the Service, as well as the directions contained in the 10th and 11th Articles of the General Printed Instructions, in having authorized his Royal Highness to disregard the applications of the Deputy Muster Master to be furnished with a perfect Musterbook ;" and their Lordships added that "they are the less able to judge of your motives on that occasion as they conclude you have not been wanting yourself in furnishing such a Book on your first arrival on the Station, no complaint having been made to them by the Navy Board of the contrary."—Original, in the Nelson's Papers. Royal Highness's name, I feel I should be remiss in my duty, did I neglect to acquaint their Lordships that the Pegasus is one of the first disciplined Frigates I have seen; and his Royal Highness the most respectful and one of the most attentive obedient Officers I know of.6 I trust their Lordships have done me the honour of confirming the Appointments to the Rattler and Boreas, which were made thirty days before Commodore Parker arrived at Barbadoes, as they were made agreeably to the Board's Instructions left with me by the late Commander-in-Chief at the Leeward Islands. Having given Commodore Parker a Return of the Squadron, and the services they were employed upon, which doubtless he has transmitted, it is needless for me to trouble you with a repetition. I have the honour to be, &c., HORATIO NELSON. Herewith I transmit you the State and Condition of his Majesty's ship Boreas under my command. TO WILLIAM LOCKER, ESQ., KENSINGTON. [Autograph, in the Locker Papers.] My dear Sir, Portsmouth, July 9, 1787. Your truly kind letter I received last night: you are, as ever, too kind. What is to be my immediate destination I Another Officer of high reputation entertained a similar opinion of the Prince's merits. Captain the Honourable William Cornwallis, (afterwards an Admiral, and a Knight Grand Cross of the Bath, whose celebrated Retreat was more than equal to a Victory,) in a Letter to Nelson, dated Phoenix, Diamond Harbour, 13th August 1790, observed:-"Our Royal Duke is, I hear, almost tired of the shore, but how he will be able to employ himself in time of peace at sea, is not easy to determine. It would, however, be a pity that any of the zeal and fondness he has so evidently shown for the Service, should be suffered to abate, as there is every reason to believe that with his ability he will one day carry its glory to a greater height than it has yet attained." 7 The Appointments were not confirmed, Captain Nelson not having had authority to make them.-Vide p. 245. VOL. I. R know not, but I rather think I shall go out with the Fleet now at Spithead. We are ultimately to be paid off at Woolwich. I have rum and tamarinds for you, and in what quantity you wish, for I have abundance. My dear wife is much obliged by your kind inquiries. I have no doubt but you will like her upon acquaintance, for although I must be partial, yet she possesses great good sense and good temper. We are at a Court-Martial. Ever yours truly, HORATIO NELSON. Charles Pole desires me to say everything kind for him. TO PHILIP STEPHENS, ESQ., ADMIRALTY. [Original, in the Admiralty.] Boreas, Spithead, July 10th, 1787. Sir, As I understand that no official accounts are yet received by their Lordships of the reasons why his Majesty's Ship Pegasus, commanded by his Royal Highness Prince William Henry, proceeded by the way of Jamaica to Halifax in Nova Scotia, I think it my duty to acquaint the Board that on the 23rd of January last, Lieutenant Isaac Schomberg, First Lieutenant of his Majesty's Ship Pegasus, wrote me a letter of which No. I. is a copy. From his Royal Highness having but a few days before released Lieutenant Schomberg from Arrest, and from other antecedent circumstances, together with the extraordinary attack of accusing his Royal Highness of having put his name to what had not happened, I judged it proper to suspend him from duty, and directed his Royal Highness, as by No. II.9 Other reasons which influenced my conduct were, by being convinced that it was impossible Lieutenant Schomberg could ever serve properly after what had happened; and I was not without hope that when a Commander-in-Chief arrived, some mode might be adopted by him 8 Vide p. 209, ante, 9 Vide p. 208, ante. to prevent a Court-Martial, and to get Lieutenant Schomberg removed from the Pegasus. His Royal Highness also acquainted me that Lieutenant Schomberg had told him before the Officers of the Pegasus, that his Royal Highness was now grown so very particular that no Officer could serve under him, and that sooner or later he must be broke; therefore he should stand a Court-Martial, and if they did not break him, he should apply to quit the Ship. This, I hope, their Lordships will consider a sufficient reason for my suspension of Lieutenant Schomberg. Indeed I was so much inclined to think that some other Officers would write for Court-Martials to vindicate their conduct, that I thought it proper to give out the Order No. III; and I was convinced from appearances that if I had not suspended Mr. Schomberg, I should soon have had an application from another quarter. On the death of Captain Wilfred Collingwood, I sent a blank Commission to his Royal Highness, which he filled up. I thought it was the least compliment I could possibly pay him. By return of the Rattler his Royal Highness acquainted me that Lieutenant Hope wished to exchange out of the Pegasus into the Boreas. This request I thought proper to comply with. I transmitted to Commodore Gardner by his Royal Highness their Lordships' secret orders. I also desired H. R. H. to give Commodore 'Gardner a copy of Commodore Sawyer's orders. If there were Ships enough assembled a Court-Martial might be held, the prisoner released, and H. R. H. made easy in his mind. If the Ships could not be assembled, H. R. H. had ample time to comply with Commodore Sawyer's orders. My reason for attending to the Commodore's order, although it was in some measure contrary to their Lordships' orders, was, that had the Pegasus fell in with the ice, and any unfortunate accident happened, it might have been said Captain Nelson should have paid more attention to what an old Officer and Commander-in-Chief directed. Their Lordships will not impute any other reason for my not sending the Pegasus away agreeable to their orders, as she sailed completely refitted for her voyage to North America, and every object of his Royal 1 Vide p. 210 ante. |