Horatio Nelson Informs One of His Admirals of the Decisive Victory of Lord Keith Over a French Squadron, in the Struggle for Control of the Mediterranean

A remarkable and unpublished letter from the collection of Dr. Otto O. Fisher, who bought primarily in the 1930s and 1940s, so this not been offered for sale in nearly a century

At the start of 1799 the Royal Navy exercised dominance in European waters. In Northern Europe the Channel Fleet enforced a blockade against the French Atlantic Fleet, based at Brest. Although the Brest fleet was strong, numbering 25 ships with five more nearing completion, it had suffered a series of defeats that had left it demoralized. In Southern Europe the French position was altogether more desperate. In the summer of 1798 the French Mediterranean Fleet had departed its base of Toulon escorting a large fleet of transports carrying an army under Napoleon for his invasion of Egypt. To intercept the French expedition to Egypt, the Admiralty ordered John Jervis, the Earl St. Vincent to dispatch a fleet of his own under Rear-Admiral Horatio Nelson. Nelson tracked the French across the Mediterranean but was unable to discover the invasion fleet until after the troops were ashore. On August 1, 1798 Nelson attacked the French fleet anchored in Aboukir Bay. The ensuing Battle of the Nile was a crushing victory for Nelson: eleven of the 13 French ships of the line were captured or destroyed and Napoleon’s army was trapped in Egypt.

In early 1799 the French Directory ordered the commander of the Atlantic Fleet, Vice-Admiral Bruix, to take his fleet to sea, with the express intention of ending British dominance in the Mediterranean and relieving the army trapped in Egypt.

Lord Keith was second in command to the Earl of St. Vincent. It was for a long time a thankless post, for St. Vincent was at once half incapacitated by ill-health and very arbitrary, while the hero Horatio Nelson, who considered that Keith’s appointment was a personal slight to himself and his own expectations, was peevish and insubordinate. On May 9 Keith received orders from St. Vincent to abandon his present position blockading Cádiz and pursue Bruix into the Mediterranean, and so he sailed for Gibraltar. On June 19, the advance squadron of Keith’s fleet encountered a squadron of French frigates. This force, consisting of the frigates Junon and L’Alceste, plus a number of other ships besides. These were under the command of Admiral Perree. The squadron had been protecting French coastal supply convoys during Bonaparte’s Syrian campaign. Ordered to return to France, the squadron had departed Jaffa on May 17 and had almost reached Toulon when it was discovered by Keith’s force.

Perrée’s force was unable to outrun Keith’s advance squadron. Faced with overwhelming opposition, the French squadron surrendered, all five ships subsequently being commissioned into the Royal Navy, although Junon, renamed HMS Princess Charlotte, was considered to be a more valuable prize than all of the others together. On June 20 Keith arrived off Toulon to find that the French fleet was not in the harbor. He went to Genoa, where he learned that the French fleet had departed over a month ago, Keith turned back towards Menorca.

On July 9, 1799, Keith wrote Nelson asking for assistance in his pursuit of the French fleet. “I came in here yesterday to get some water and had not anchored an hour I heard the Combined [French and Spanish] Fleets had left Carthagena and steered to the West…If this Island is left without Ships it will fall. Spaniards will send their Armament with two Ships of the Line, Frigates and Boats, a great many of which are at the different Ports opposite to convoy cover the landing .You must therefore either come or send [Admiral Thomas] Duckworth to govern himself as circumstances offer until I can determine to a certainty the intentions of the Enemy.” Nelson was displeased if not angry with this order, and had no intention of leaving Naples Bay at a time when politics there – the departure of the pro-French rebels who had just surrendered – had him fully occupied. He had committed to the Queen and King of Naples that he would not leave Naples vulnerable to attack, and the French Atlantic fleet had just entered the Mediterranean; plus Lady Hamilton was with him onboard. Duckworth had been detached with four sail of the line to Lord Nelson at Palermo. He was sent by Nelson to Keith in July pursuant to this letter, when Nelson refused to adhere to Keith’s order to join him with his entire force.

Autograph letter signed, Naples Bay, July 12, 1799, to Admiral Duckworth, informing him of Keith’s taking of the French squadron, and seeking to mollify Duckworth’s fragile ego. “I was so vexed last night that I could only cry. Lord Keith has [sighted] the French fleet. He was off Leghorn and they off Barcelona. St. Vincent [has] gone home in the Argo.” In fact, in July 1799, the HMS Argo carried Admiral the Earl St. Vincent home from Gibraltar at the end of his time in command of the Mediterranean fleet. Nelson continued, “I have quantities of new orders and expectations. I may have, my dear admiral, been wanting in little attentions in not having made you personal visits, but I will do it after breakfast, or may dine here today. The Junon, L’Alceste…and two corvettes are taken by Lord Keith…” Apparently Nelson had failed to visit Duckworth, who was seemingly offended, particularly as Nelson had likely informed him he was being sent away in a note and not in person.