Horatio Lord Nelson, Just Arrived to Take Command of the British Fleet off Toulon, Orders a Court Martial for a Captain Whose Ship Was Wrecked

This is the only court martial related document signed by Nelson that we have ever seen reach the market

On May 31, 1803, in the morning, the HMS Resistance, a 36-gun warship in the Royal Navy captained by Hon. Philip Wodehouse, was wrecked on Cape Saint Vincent on the southernmost point of Portugal. All the crew were saved. Wodehouse was the second son of Lord Wodehouse. He attained the rank of Lieutenant in 1794, and was made Commander of the Albacore sloop in 1796. He then served as captain in the Mignonne frigate, and the ships Volage, Brilliant, Iris, and Resistance.

Losing his ship in this fashion called for an investigation, generally in the form of a court martial, and it was not uncommon for captains who had acted responsibly but lost ships to insist on courts martial to clear their names. This is the final, signed page of the calling of Wodehouse’s court martial, ordered by Horatio Lord Nelson. The docket proclaims it: “Order for assembling a court martial to try Honorable Captain Philip Wodehouse the officers & Company of His Majesty’s Ship Resistance. 31 July 1803.”

On the verso, the surviving portion of the court martial order gives the reason; to determine the propriety of the “ship’s company for the conduct after the loss of His Majesty’s late Ship Resistance accordingly. Given under my hand on board His Majesty’s Ship Victory off Toulon, the 31st of July, 1803.” It is signed Nelson & Bronte. Nelson was made commander-in-chief of the fleet in 1803, and was given the first-rate HMS Victory as his flagship. The names Nelson and the Victory would thereafter be inextricably linked. Nelson boarded her at Portsmouth, then joined the British blockade of off Toulon, France. Nelson arrived off Toulon in July 1803 and spent the next year and a half enforcing the blockade. Thus, this document was signed by Nelson the very month that he arrived to take command off Toulon.

It is addressed to “George Murray, Esq., First Captain of any ship or vessel when my flag may be flying, and second officer in the command of His Majesty’s ships and vessels off Toulon. By command of the Vice Admiral.” This is written and signed by Nelson’s secretary, John Scott. Murray was with Nelson at Copenhagen, and had a particularly enduring friendship with Nelson, who personally requested his services as his Captain of the Fleet, thus his title here. It was only chance that prevented Murray from serving as such at Trafalgar. With Murray absent, Nelson declined to appoint a replacement, one biographer reasoning that “none but Murray would do”.

The court martial either was cancelled or Wodehouse was fully exonerated, as his career didn’t miss a beat. In 1804 he was appointed to the Harwich district of Sea Fencibles; and in 1805 and 1807 he obtained command of the large warships Intrepid, and Cumberland. He united, in the Cumberland, in the pursuit which led to the self-destruction, in October 1809, of the French ships of the line Robuste and Lion near Cape Cette. From 1811 until promoted to the rank of Rear-Admiral in1819, he filled the appointment of Resident Commissioner at Halifax. He became a Vice-Admiral in 1830.

This is the only court martial related document signed by Nelson that we have ever seen reach the market.