Transcript of 517. Nelson: The Hunt for Napoleon (Part 4)

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Nelson glanced up at the sky. In the east, black clouds were gathering. In ancient times, he thought people would have considered that a disturbing omen. But was it bad news for him or for the French? Upon this mission depended the fate of the war, perhaps even the survival of Britain. But he felt no fear, just a quiet, calm resolve. He nodded to his lieutenants. It was time to leave, to face his destiny. As darkness fell across the Mediterranean, they sailed through the Straits of Gibraltar, east into the unknown. So it is the eighth of May, 1798, and Dominic As the storm clouds of war gather, a brilliant metaphor there that we've never had on the rest of his history before, Horacio Nelson is preparing to sail into the Mediterranean in search of Britain's greatest foe, Napoleon Bonaparte. People wondering where they can find this masterly prose and this excellent analysis of naval warfare in the age of Napoleon. Why? It's a new book from a leading naval scholar, one Dominic Sandbrooke, Nelson, Hero of the Sees, Dominic, I believe it's available from all good bookshops now, right?

It is, Tom. It's aimed at readers of all ages. So younger readers, especially, I think it's fair to say. But if you're an older reader, don't feel inhibited. Piling. Yeah. Buy multiple copies for friends and family, I would say.

Christmas is coming.

Tom, do you know what? We're recording this on Trafalgar Day. I know. On the 21st of October.

I've been a glow with patriotic fervor since I leapt out of bed.

Have you? Oh, that's great news.

It's the best day of the year.

It is the best day. It's Christmas for a historian, isn't it? Absolutely, it is.

Oh, not all historians.

No.

Certainly for us.

If you're an academic historian, I think it's a day like any other. But for those of us who apply our trade in the public eye, it's a great moment, isn't it? Trafalgar Day. It truly is.

But we're not talking about the Battle of Trafalgar. We are talking about the campaign that culminates in another of Nelson's remarkable victories, the Battle of the Nile. But, Dominic, we got a long way before we get there, haven't we?

We have, because this is the amazing story, the hunt for Bonaparte, today's episode. Actually, last time, Tom, we ended with Nelson really in the doldrum. So he had been incredibly brave at the Battle of Cape St. Vincent. Then he had led this very reckless and foolhardy attack on Tenerife to try and snatch the Spanish treasure with his mate, Thomas Trubridge. And listeners will recall that it was a harebrained scheme. They turned up on the beach, dawn-breaking, bells ringing, cannons firing at them. Nelson is shot in the elbow, rescued by his ofish stepson.

Josiah.

Josiah, who ties a tourniquet, uses his neckerchief. Nelson carried back to the ship, refuses to accept a chair to bring him up to the ship, so clambers up with his one arm.

And Theo, who's French, didn't believe that.

The thing is, if If you start doubting any element of Nelson's life, then the whole story falls apart. But also the thing with Nelson's life that makes it such an extraordinary irresistible subject is that these Hollywood touches that we can scoff at. I think by and large, they genuinely did happen, didn't they? Nelson consistently behaved in an almost preposterously- Heroic manner. Yeah, melodrama and heroic manner.

But he's quite depressed, isn't he? Obviously, he's lost his arm and he's suffered a defeat. Yes. And he tells him Vincent, who is his great patron now, that basically it's all up for him, that he will be a burden to my friends and useless to my country.

He was going to go off to a cottage, wasn't he? No one wanted a one-armed admiral.

Yeah, just lick his wounds and be miserable. But actually, when he arrives in Portsmouth, so he lands there on the afternoon of second of September, 1797. For the first time, he is greeted as a public hero.

Yeah, because Nelson himself had made sure that news of the Battle of Cape St. Vincent placed him at the center. So he had written letters to friends and things.

I mean, not unjustifiably.

No, not unjustifiably. But one of Nelson's perhaps more irritating traits for his superiors, more confusing ones for us, is that he's an inveterate self-promoter. He's very keen that everybody in England knows that he was in the thick of the action.

#nelson, #SaintVincent.

Exactly.

#victory.

When he arrives, as you say, at Portsmouth, he's a very wizened and miserable-looking figure because he's been very ill. He's lost his He's suffered a terrible defeat at Tenerife. But there's this little crowd there, and they shout three cheers for... Yeah, hasars. Hasars, all this. He is, I think, surprised by this because he's obviously been so low. Wasn't expecting it, and it gives him a little boost. Actually, this is the first time, as you say, that he becomes a national figure. When he arrives in Bath to be reunited with his father, Edmund, and his wife, Fanny, the newspapers in Bath, the local papers, all to report the stories. There are lots of extracts in, for example, John Sugton's biography saying, The Bath Bugal or whatever, will say, Oh, wonderful news. The hero of the Battle of Cape St. Vincent has arrived in the town, and he's going to be strolling around the spas and going to the theater and stuff, and we can all see him. Isn't that wonderful?

Because actually, it's all about St. Vincent, isn't it? They don't really mention Tenerife. No. Even the newspapers that do say, That was a bit cack-handed. They still say, Well, he was very brave. So he's not overly criticized for Tenerife. He is still the hero of the hour.

Absolutely. Do you want to read a little bit of poetry? Would you like to read the poem from the Bath, Herald?

I would love to, because I'm actually very interested in the topic of Nelson as a theme for poetry. We've already mentioned Byron, who called him Britannia's God of War. Coleridge and Southy, they were very keen. William Blake, who we'll probably come to, did an extraordinary painting of Nelson. But this is maybe not entirely up there with Byron and Coleridge and Blake, but it was dedicated to that intrepid admiral, Sir Horatio Nelson, on his arrival from scenes of danger and glory to the arms of his family in this city. And there are a lot of capital letters in that sentence. O Nelson, subject of our praise, while conscious worth shall gild thy future days, soothed with the blessings of domestic life, a and father and a faithful wife.

Oh, dear Tom. The irony. Yeah, that we'll soon have a bitterly ironic way. Of course, Fanny is always a very faithful wife, isn't she?

Yeah, it's a question of whether Nelson will be a faithful husband.

Exactly. He's come home. Later that autumn, he goes off to London and he's given the freedom of the city in a ceremonial sword by the Lord Mayor. He goes to St. James's Palace with the Earl of St. Vincent, formerly Sir John Jervis. They're George III George III, who's in one of the intervals between being mad and talking to trees, gives him the Silver Star and crimson ribbon of a Night of the Order of the Bath.

Dominic, George III had been quite down on Nelson, hadn't he? Because Nelson had been given responsibility for looking after his son, William, who's become the Duke of Clarence, and felt that he'd done it poorly.

He had done it poorly.

But now George III is forgiven Nelson.

That's right. Yes, because people will remember that Nelson was looking after... He was called William Henry at the time, wasn't he? Your future, William IV. When he's the king, when he's William IV, everybody thinks of him as Jolly Bluff. Bluff is the word.

You're legally required to use that word when describing him.

But actually, as a young man, he was just an absolutely dreadful person. He was the person that It's the thing that our producers were telling us about people being banned from student unions when they wear chinos and blue shirts. Isn't that public school boys who are in hockey teams who get drunk and harass everybody? This is William Henry, isn't it? This is absolutely William Henry.

And very much not Nelson.

Anyway, Nelson's being made a night of the Bath, and he gets to choose his own coat of arms, and he absolutely goes for it, doesn't he? So his coat of arms has got a British sailor, stamping on a Spanish flag and a lion, ripping a Spanish flag apart with his teeth.

That's what it says on the tin. Yeah.

Would not be popular with the well-dressed king of Spain.

No, they could fly it over. Welcome to Gibraltar.

Yeah, exactly. That's what they should do. So we shouldn't underplay Nelson's disability, I suppose. No, not at all. Because it's a really, really serious business, isn't it? He can't see out of one eye. He's lost this arm above the elbow. He can't dress himself properly in the morning. Even to do up his breaches, to fasten his coat, to put his stockings on and all this thing. It's like a real effort.

It's lucky he's got a faithful wife, isn't it?

To help him. Fanny is amazing for him. She's so uncomplaining and patient and stuff. He does have some things that are specially done for him. He has specially made shirts, like you, Tom.

Yeah, like me.

Handmade shirts. He has a special fork. I don't know if you have a fork like this. It's a fork their friend makes. It's like an ancestor of the spork, half fork, half knife.

So you could take it camping.

It's a camping fork, basically.

I mean, he finds the effort of He's cutting up food in public. Very humiliating, doesn't he? Because he's chasing bits of meat around his plate and things. Yeah.

For somebody who fancies himself as a bit of a Julius Caesar, Alexander the Great. It's not the image, is it? No, not quite the look.

No, it's not the look. But I think, more than anything, it's just unbelievably painful, isn't it? I don't entirely understand the medicine of it, but there's a strand of silk that hasn't dropped off, and this is causing him immense pain, and it means that the wound can't heal. Is that right? I think I've got that right.

Yeah, that's exactly it. So the wound is still open at the end of his arm because this silk thread has not fallen away. And he goes to see a surgeon in London. The surgeon says, Look, it will eventually. There's nothing we can do, but you can't go to see really while this is the case because it could get infected.

Well, also, he's necking vast quantities of laudanum, isn't he? Yeah, he is. So he's off his face on opium. He is.

So his mood, though, is perfectly matched to that of the country. Britain has been fighting now for five years against revolutionary France, far longer than anybody imagined. France has proved a much more resilient, and indeed more than resilient, a formidable opponent, revolutionary France. The British fleet, people will remember, has been forced out of the Mediterranean. Britain's allies are dropping out of the war like flies. It's proved very expensive. The French have actually landed at one point a little raiding party at Fishgarden, Wales. There's a great story, isn't it? The local towns women lined up-In their Welsh hats.in their Welsh hats, and the French mistook them for-Grenadiers or whatever.

Yeah.

Yeah, and surrender on us. A great victory for the women of Wales. But news of that little invasion sparked a financial panic. There was a huge run on the bank of England. A lot of country banks collapsed. If you read Jenny Ugglow's brilliant book about Britain in the Napoleon Wars, she has all this stuff with letters from country Parsons and things. At this point, 1797.

We will be doing a bonus with her. If you remember, The Restless History Club, we will be talking to her about that book.

That's a brilliant book about Britain in the 1790s.

Living in Britain through Napoleon's Wars, 1793 to 1815. Absolutely wonderful book.

Anyway, then there are a wave of mutinies in the spring of 1797, a few months before Nelson's return. There's been a mutiny at the spithead, then there's been a mutiny at the Nord, and a blockade of the Thames, actually, by the mutineers. I mean, this for the Royal Navy is an absolute nadir, is a shocking moment that the sword and shield of Britain can be disrupted in this way.

But what's amazing about this is that Nelson is very sympathetic to the spithead mutineers who he feel have been badly done by. This is very much his noblesse oblige that those in the higher ranks owe a duty of care to those low down. And so he said of the spithead mutiny, I was amazed to read this, the most manly thing I ever heard of. And does the British sailor infinite honor? And that's what he says to the Duke of Clarence, who's, Hang them all. And he says, No, we have a duty to them. He does view the the ring leaders of the Noor Mutiny, though, as jacobans, who are misled. Leading the Honest British Tar, and he'd be all in favor of hanging them from the yard arm, which I think actually is what happens to them. I think they do all get hanged, don't they?

Yes, they are hanged. The ring leaders are hanged. I think because there's a couple of different things happening at once. One is understandable anxiety and resentment at the low pay, the fact they've been in a sea for ages, the war is dragged on, bad food, all of that stuff. Then amongst some people, there's a radical sentiment, and those two things have become mixed up. That's at the Nord. Anyway, for people in Britain, the news of the mutinies on of everything else is really shocking. Then in October 1797, Britain's last major ally, Austria, signs a separate peace with France. Wouldn't you know it? Not for the last time, Britain stands alone. The It's an amazing scene, actually. William Pitt, the Prime Minister, gets up in the comments. Of course, Pitt is largely forgotten today, but it's a very Churchillian moment. He says, Better to face danger accompanied with honor.

That's not how he speaks. He says, Danger You're accompanied with honor because he's about 10.

You've got to do it in Churchill's voice, otherwise it doesn't work. Then to accept indelible shame and disgrace.

Indelible shame and disgrace. And listeners can decide who is more accurate there.

Well, he's a very impressive man, William Pitt, so I don't think he sounded like Tom's version. Tom's version is from Black Adder, let's be honest. Anyway, Pitt says, We need to fight on. We can't surrender everything that constitutes the pride, the safety, and happiness of England. And he says, All freeborn Britons must join hand and heart in a solemn pledge to fight for this laws, liberties, and religion of our country. This is very stirring stuff, but actually, this is the pretext for him to massively increase taxes.

Yeah, so it's Rachel Reeve's fiscal black hole, isn't it?

Exactly. He trebles taxes and announces the first income tax. If you're a high earner, you will pay a 10th of your income over £200.

Also, notoriously, he triples the window tax, doesn't he?

He does indeed. All the bricked-up windows that you sometimes see are from this moment. Tax evasion. Exactly. Morale is pretty low, I think it's fair to say. And Nelson, at this point, gets a letter. He gets an invitation to go to a parade to bolster morale. The king wants to celebrate the three great victories they've had at sea. So that's Capes and Vincent and Nelson was involved against the Spanish. They want a tremendous victory at Camperdown against the Dutch.

And that's amazing, isn't it? Because that's for only a few weeks after the mutinies. Yes. I think it's Admiral Duncan, as in the gay pub in Soho.

I think that's right, yes.

So I'll tell you what N-A-M, Roger said of that. I'd love to hear it. Of a camper down. It bestowed for the first time on the Royal Navy, something of the aura of invincible, which now hung about the French armies on land. I mean, he'd know about that. Yeah. And this, presumably, is why they're having this parade. That's right. Because essentially, it's the only good news story they have.

Well, they have won three Titanic naval battles. The third one was called a battle with a brilliant name of the Glories first of June, because it's fought in the middle of nowhere in the Atlantic. And that was against the French a year earlier. So They've had three victories against the Spanish, the Dutch, and the French. And previously, victories had not been greeted by parades because they were seen as populist. Vulgar. The thing people do, actually, in revolutionary France, Jacobin behavior. But the government feels they really need this parade. They have it on the 19th of December. It's freezing cold, but tens of thousands of people turn out. Nelson wears his order of the bath, and he's in charge of handing the Spanish flags to the dean of Saint Paul's Cathedral, which is a tribute his newfound celebrity, but also, as John Sugdon says in his biography, this is a moment shadowed with irony because it's on this very spot in just eight years time that his own body will rest in the most famous state funeral in British history.

This is why his story has such a quality of epic. I mean, it's full of these ironies and foreshadowings and echoes. It's amazing.

Exactly. The weeks after this great parade are quite bleak. Everybody is very anxious about the taxes and about the fact that Britain is now isolated in Europe. There's a real sense, I think, about Britain gearing up almost reluctantly for this total struggle. It is clearly now a different war from even the seven years war, I think. It is a much more financially demanding and emotionally demanding war, a genuinely national campaign. It's about this point that some of William Pitt's spies start to bring whispers that on the other side of the channel, the French are massing troops and preparing ships. They eventually discover that as the Supreme Commander of this new army, the directory, who are running France, have appointed the man who had carried all before him in Italy. This, of course, is the Corsican Napoleon Bonaparte. And what nobody knows is, are they planning an attack on the dock yards across the channel?Chattam, Tom.Chattam.

And Portsmouth. Because we discussed this before, didn't we? That that would be the only way, really, that France could Britain out of the war would be to destroy the dock yards.

Yeah. If you destroy the dock yards and win control of the channel, you could then land troops. You don't necessarily need to. If you can control the channel, starve Britain out, starve Britain of supplies.

They'd be reduced to terms.

Yeah, then Britain would have no choice but to come to terms. So no one really knows what their plan is. But by the early spring, there are more rumors reaching London and spy reports and things. Then the south of France, in Toulon, which, of course, had been retaken by Napoleon You remember that? Yes. That forensically research scene on a podium and looking out across the smoking harbor of Toulon. A cruel smile, I think, was playing on his lips, wasn't it, Tom?

But presumably because he had scabies, which he'd got from picking up the glove, wasn't it?

That's well remembered.

In the course of that siege.

Yeah, he's like a bond villain. He's not just cruel and despotic, but he's physically malformed with scabies. From Toulon, there are reports to this guy, François Paul Bruet, is, is assembling a fleet with more than a dozen warships and hundreds of transports. The question which people in London are debating for week after week is, where is the armament, as they call it? Where is it heading? There are rumors that they're going to Greece, that Bonaparte has his eye set on Naples or Sicily, Constantinople, maybe even Egypt, but nobody knows for certain. Eventually, the admiralty decides, Right, we will send a new squadron back to the Mediterranean to find out what on Earth is going on with this enormous force being assembled in too long, but also because we want to fly the flag to try and persuade the Austrian somehow to get back into the war.

But it's a gamble, isn't it? Of course. Because the ships that will go into the Mediterranean have to come from St. Vincent's fleet, which are busy blocking Cadiz and patrolling the Atlantic Seaboard of Iberia. That's right. So his fleet, in turn, has to be reinforced by ships from the channel. So essentially, for as long as the British fleet is in the Mediterranean, the channel fleet will have no strategic reserve. So it is a gamble.

Yeah, but you can't just allow this enormous fleet to rampage around unchecked.

That's because you are Nelson and I am Hoffen. It's about the nervous twitchy.

You would have done nothing, Tom. You'd have hunkered down. I would. Oh, no. You'd have lost the Napoleon at Wars. What a terrible confession. I would.

I absolutely would. But you with your dash. Had you been there, Douglas, you'd have been given the command, but instead it goes to Nelson.

That's right. Yeah, sadly, it goes to Nelson. He is given the Vanguard, excellent name for a ship, the 74-gun Vanguard. And he is told, We want you to go into the Mediterranean and find this colossal enemy fleet and basically report on what's going on.

And he's given that command, isn't he? Partly, obviously, because he's the man of the hour, there's a sense that he's full of dash and initiative. But also, I think because there's a feeling that he's good at geopolitics as well. Because presumably, that British have no ports, no bases in the Mediterranean. And so he'll need to find some of those, and that will require negotiation and diplomacy.

He will indeed. And supplies and water and all of this stuff that they will need. You need somebody who's really on top of this, which he absolutely is, on top of the paperwork side of things, I suppose. So he says It's, Farewell to Fanny. Actually, at this point, everybody says Horacio and Fanny are very close. They have never seemed closer. They bought a new house together, Roundwood, near Iberswitch. And the indications are they're looking forward to making it their own. There's a lovely story that one evening, he has dinner with the first Lord of the Admiralty, Lord Spencer, and Lady Spencer, this guy's wife. Lady Spencer remembered afterwards that the talk turned to how Nelson was going away and he'd be leaving Fanny behind. He suddenly speaks very emotionally and he says, Fanny is so lovely and she's so kind and she's so accomplished that I regard myself as the luckiest man in England. Her angelic tenderness to me, he has been beyond imagination. She's dressed my wounds, she's cut up my meat, she's helped me get dressed, she's done all these things. I really think, he says, that she saved my life because I was so depressed and she's helped me out of it.

He says to Lady Spencer, If anything happens to me while I'm away, I hope you'll always look after Fanny.

Well, something does happen to him while he's away. Yes. But it doesn't involve a cannon ball.

Nothing good, I think it's fair to say, Tom. Nothing good. You know my views of this business.

Well, we will discuss this.

He set sail from Portsmouth on the Vanguard at the beginning of April. For weeks, he sails south. At the end of the month, he reaches, you mentioned caddies. That's where Sir John Jervis, now the Earl of St. Vincent, is blockading the Spanish fleet. There's an awful lot of blockading in the Napoleonic Wars, which is unbelievably boring to talk about.

Is it? I think it is. I think it's quite interesting because I think the supplying of it is so interesting.

Nothing happens.

No, but the fact these ships can stay out for a month month after month and be supplied. I find it amazing. But that's because I have an intense interest in the logistics of the Royal Navy. Of course. That may be a point of difference between us.

Of course. I like close action, Tom. I'm itching to get into close action. You like, like Admiral Hutham Actually, he would enjoy a blockade. Yeah, exactly.

Oh, let's not go anywhere near a cannon.

Exactly. Members of the Rest of the History Club, you can look forward to Tom doing those bonus episodes about a day-by-day account of a blockade of cadiz that ends with no fighting whatsoever. Anyway, he meets up with St. Vincent. St. Vincent says, Look, we've had no news of the French. We've had no sign of them. We don't really have any sense of what's going on. And he says to him, I will give you two ships, the Orion and the Alexander, and I'll give you three smaller frigates.

And Dominic, is there a recently published book that describes this scene?

Do you want to read it or shall I read it? Shall I read it? You read it. I'm going to read it. But read it with the dignity and the respect that I think this prose deserves.

I will. We're moving up here to the end of part one, and I can think of no better way than to read something from Dominic's new book on Nelson. St. Vincent met his friend's eye and his face was grave. Nelson must remember, he said, that once he sailed east of Gibraltar, he would pass beyond help. Most of the Mediterranean ports were loyal to France now. If he needed supplies or repairs, the only reliable harbor was at Naples. And thanks to Bonaparte, Naples' independence hung by a thread A thread. A thread. Nelson nodded. He knew the risks, but he also knew the stakes. Upon this mission depended the fate of the war, perhaps even the survival of Britain. But he felt no fear, just a quiet, calm resolve. And so, Dominic, on the eighth of May 1798, he sets off through the Straits of Gibraltar, east into the unknown.

What tension. What an incredible tension. Let's take a break because I can hardly breathe.

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Dominic, we left our listeners on a moment of excruciating tension Everything is literally hanging on a thread. Yeah, everything. Nelson sailed east into the Mediterranean, searching for this vast French fleet known as the Arbëmment. There is a massive burden on him, isn't there? Because as we've said, the ships that he's taking into the Mediterranean, essentially, is the naval reserve that would help Britain to block a French crossing of the channel. Yeah, that's right. He can't afford to lose it.

No, he can't. He does have something in his favor, which is the two ships that St. Vincent has given him are really excellent ships. I mean, Nelson is delighted. They are the Alexander and the Orion. These two captains are tremendous people. The captain of the Alexander is a guy called Alexander Ball. He's from Gloucestershire. He's a squire son from Gloucestershire. He's a great reader. I'm delighted to report that he was inspired to go to sea by reading Robinson Cruso.

Well, Dominic, could I just intervene at this point? I know that Daisy Cristodalou, wonderful educationalist who came on and did the history of exams for us. She, I'm afraid, argues that Robinson Cruso is wholly irrelevant and hasn't had any impact on history at all. I know she's a listener, and I hope that when she hears this, she will go away and reflect on her error.

Yeah, because the entire career of Alexander Ball, an important player at the Battle of the Nile, probably somebody who, had he not read Robinson Cruz, Tom, you and I might be speaking French. Imagine.

Yes. And Daisy would be doing her educationalist stuff in French. So she should reflect on that. And also, just to say, I mean, Nelson does really come to admire Alexander Ball, doesn't he? But I'm afraid to say that at one point Alexander Ball had disgraced himself by wearing epelettes in the French style. Oh, no. And Nelson didn't approve of this and thought him a great coxcom. Oh, no.

That's terrible.

Yeah, but it all ends well. They end up great pals, don't they?

Yeah. Which actually is not the case with the other man. The other man is also a brilliant captain. He's called James Sommerer, and he's from Guernsey. I mean, these are funny characters, all of these captains, because this guy, Sommerer, is very sensitive and serious, and he's always sinking into black dogs depressions. He and Nelson have a slightly more tense relationship, I think it's fair to say. But Nelson knows that he's a brilliant captain. And that's what really matters. And that is what matters, exactly.

Can he serve Britain? Yes.

Then he's good. And their crews love them. The three ships that he's got are as good as you could find anywhere in the world. Anyway, it's almost over before it begins this mission, because just outside Toulon, they run into this massive storm. Nelson is a bit careless and heedless going into the storm because he's thinking only of the political situation. So the Vanguard loses four of its masks and four sailors are swept overboard. Nelson is very shaken by this. He writes to Fanny and he says, I had thought myself one of the most fortunate men to come on such a squadron in such a place. My pride was too great. But the accidents which have happened to the Vanguard were a just punishment for my vanity. I hope it has made me a better officer, as I believe it has made me a better man. Actually, I thought this would be a nice moment to just stop and reflect on Nelson's character a bit, because if you'd spoken to people in the Amorality, you could have heard very disobligeing reports of Nelson. People might have said, he's actually very vain, he's extremely annoying, he's difficult, he's prickly, he's a bit of a nightmare.

But I think what redeems him is precisely this quality that is expressed in the letter to Fanny. He is reflective about his own faults. He genuinely is incredibly hardworking, and he's self-improving, and he's dedicated, and resilient, and all of these kinds of things.

I think the thing about losing the mast, it's often said that Nelson, his seamanship was incomparable. I don't think that's quite true. It's not really his qualities of seamanship that make him the extraordinary naval commander that he is, and he is capable of errors like that. I think also the other thing, it's something that Patrick O'Brien famously alludes to when Jack Aubrey talks about meeting Nelson, and there's this passage about he doesn't need a great coat in the cold because he's a flame with zeal for king and country. And Aubrey says, Coming from anyone else, this would have sounded ludicrous, melod dramatic, overwrought. But coming from him, you felt, Yeah, that's great. And there's something about that, the letter to Fanny, isn't there? I hope it has made me a better officer, as I believe it has made me a better man. Had he not been intensely burningly serious when he wrote that, it would have just seemed ludicrous. Chacras.

I think that's the thing, isn't it? Nelson is an extremely earnest man. I wouldn't credit him with too much of a sense of humor. No. He's not funny, and he's certainly not self-deprecating. And I don't think he would be a man who would enjoy jokes about the Royal Navy. He's so committed. He has this moral earnestness. Actually, if you think about our podcast that we did about the French Revolution, moral earnestness.

It's the character of the age, isn't it?

It's absolutely a character of the age. I suppose it's the early age of romanticism, isn't it? And it's part of that vibe.

But I I think he takes cliché and cranks it up to such a pitch that the cliché becomes homeric.

Yes, storm clouds of war hanging by a thread.

People, thrilled to it. People who would laugh if it came from anyone else find it utterly inspiring.

But that's why I think the character that he most resembles in British history is Churchill. Churchill is exactly the same. I'm a great man, all that rubbish. And then when Churchill says in the Second World War, what does he say to the Tori MPs or something? If this island's story of ours to end story of ours to end here. Let it end when we're all choking in our own blood on the ground. I mean, if somebody says that in real life, if Theo said that about the rest of his history, we just laughed.

Keir Starmer.

Yes. Keir Starmer would never say that in a million years. But I think there's a-It's a history on it quality that is elevated to the operatic, you might say. Exactly. The operatic quality of Nelson, I think, is exactly right. I'm amazed. Have there not been operas about Nelson? There must have been.

There should be. I mean, there's quite a lot of music, as we may see in the second part of our series. Yes. But not an I think.

Anyway, they have not been wrecked. They continue and they approach Toulon. It is clear the French are long gone from Toulon.

Now, basically, they're looking for a needle in a haystack.

They are. I mean, the huge expanse of the Mediterranean to find this fleet is going to be really tough. They then spot us sail. It's a brig and it's come from St. Vincent. He has sent, of all people, Hardy, Thomas Musterman Hardy, who's now a Commodore. Hardy says, We've heard intelligence. We have news. This enormous fleet has been spotted heading towards Italy. At least a dozen ships of the line, hundreds of transports. The orders have changed. We want you to intercept this fleet, and we will be sending reinforcements for you to do this. You're all Thomas Trubridge of Tenerife Fame, is on his way.

Hates the French.

He does hate the French with a passion with 11 more ships. And go for it now. This is a campaign of anihilation.

And so he's told that he's being sent the elite of the Navy of England. But there is one big drawback, which is that there's a lack of cruises, an order of ship that had begun to be constructed the previous year and are designed for speed. Obviously, they would be ideal if you're looking for a fleet. St. Vincent actually sends Nelson nine of these cruises, but for concatenation of reasons, only one reaches him. This will be a real problem for Nelson over the next few weeks because he just lacks the resources necessary to find an expedition.

Yeah. So he now has 14 fighting ships, and they are, as you said, Tom, they're the elite of the Royal Navy. He's also got supplies for three months, so bread and oranges and beef and all that stuff.Literal bullocks.Literal bullocks. We have Trubridge and the Culloden. We have Henry Dester Darby in the Bellerophon, Thomas Foley in Goliath. These are the cream of the crop of the Royal Navy. These are people at Nelson's level, really. Brilliant commanders in extremely well-disciplined, well ingrained ships.

So like the cream of the English peerage at the Battle of Ashencourt, Dominic.

Well, that's the comparison, isn't it? That is the comparison, because we talked in the very first episode about how Nelson clearly must have loved Shakespeare at school because he's got this absolute fixation on Henry the Fifth and on the idea of the Band of Brothers. And this now, the reason we've mentioned all these people, is that this is the Band of Brothers. He has this romantic yearning, I guess, that these are like Alexander the Great's companions or Henry the Fifth's Paladins before Ashencourt. These are the people who will stand together in the darkest hour, shoulder to shoulder, all of this thing, which Nelson absolutely believes in.

And it is said of Nelson that there was never an admiral who was more open to being approached by his fellow captains.

Yeah, because his way of working is he will have them over, won't he, for dinner and stuff.

A touch of Nelson.

Exactly. The Nelson touch. Over there, spotted dog and steak pudding or whatever. They will talk on and on about the tactics and the plan. He's very open and very generous, which is unusual. I mean, obviously, there is a hierarchy, and they do defer to him, but by the standards of the time, he's much less strict.

He wants to hear what they've got to say. Obviously, they have a lot to discuss because they don't know where this armament is heading, and they've got to try and work it out, haven't they?

Exactly. Here are the options. It could well be heading for Southern Italy to basically snuff out the Kingdom of Naples. It could And head to Greece. Greece is part of the Ottoman Empire, but a lot of the Ottoman Empire feels like it's ripe for the plucking. So it could be going to Greece. It does talk of Constantinople. There is also talk of going further east, going south east towards Egypt. You mentioned Egypt earlier. There are some rumors that the French have been lining up scholars and scientists, and they've got some crazy operation in mind.

Very far fetched, though, isn't it? Very far fetched. To go all the way to Egypt? I mean, very unlikely.

I mean, there are even rumors that the French have dispatched agents to India, and that there is something brewing, perhaps an attack on the East India Company.

I mean, it's a dream mad in the way that Alexander the Great's dreams were mad. I mean, just wholly implausible.

Exactly, Tom. Exactly. So everybody back home in Britain is following this. I mean, they're following us weeks behind at one remove. So they're reading the newspapers, and there is an immense nervousness, Fanny pouring over the papers for reports of her husband, the people at the admirality waiting all the time, where Where is this armament heading? One of them writes, an admiracy official writes, On the success or destruction of Bonaparte's fleet, an event of great moment, not to us alone, but to all Europe may depend.

Amazing. But they can't find it. It seems to have vanished into the air. John Sugdon in his incomparable biography of Nelson, sums it up gloriously. So he writes, mysteriously, no one had heard a reliable word about the French. They seemed to be fantasms capable of materializing and dematerializing at their pleasure. It's like something out of science fiction. It is. A alien fleet with invisibility shields or something.

That's exactly what it is, because the Mediterranean is a million square miles of sea. And wherever they go, they hear rumors, but nothing certain. They go to Naples, and Trubridge goes ashore to consult with the British envoy in Naples, Sir William Hamilton. He's there for two hours, then he comes back to the ship he says, Hamilton is shore of it. They're heading for Sicily. They sail south through the Straits of Messina past Etna, smoking on the horizon. They spot another brig. And the captain of this brig says, I've heard reports of French flags flying over Malta. But so they've taken Malta.

That's crucial, isn't it? Because Malta is the pivot between the east and the west and half of the Mediterranean. So whoever controls Malta essentially controls the hinge on which sea routes through the Mediterranean operate. Slightly mixing my metaphors there, I think. But you know what I mean?

No, I think it's a powerful description. Thank you, Dominic.

So Bonaparte has moved on.

He's gone past Malta, Greece, Constantinople, Egypt. Why would he make for Egypt? I mean, this is the question that must be in Nelson's mind. Egypt is technically a province of the Ottoman Empire, but in practice, it has been run for centuries by the Mamelukes. So they're the descendants of the Turkic slave soldiers of the Ottomans. On paper, the Mamelukes are neutral. But if Bonaparte could get Egypt, that basically gives him the whole of the Southeastern Mediterranean. It also means it gives him ports on the Red Sea from which the French could strike East to Hoover up the British trade with India. Maybe that stuff, those reports about French agents out there in the east moving through the bazaars.

Their mastery of tongue Exactly.

Maybe there's something in it. It's very green mantle. It's very John Buck and all this, isn't it? Nelson has this crucial conference. He invites the four captains to whom he's closest, that is, Trubridge, Ball, Summeray, and Darby, aboard the Vanguard. He says, Right, we have three possible courses of action here. We could attack Malta, turf out the French garrison and try to retake Malta. But that means the armament is sailing around and we don't know what it's doing. We could head back towards Sicily and Naples, in case this is all the ruse, and that's what the French have in mind, or we could turn south towards Egypt. He says to the other captains, and I quote, Should the armament be gone to Alexandria and get safe there? Our possessions in India are probably lost. Do you think we'd better push for that place? Then he hands out, it's a very dramatic moment, Brilliant. Four pieces of paper. He says, Each of you write your answer on this piece of paper. One by one, they write the same word, Alexandria. It's a brilliant moment.

So off to Alexandria, they head, and the wind is behind them, and they make tremendous speed. They don't know it, but as they're heading, they pass perilously close to the French island. I mean, unbelievably close. Maybe a couple further miles south, and they would have seen But anyway, on they go. And a week later, on the 29th of June, they sail into Alexandria, one of the most romantic, historic cities on the whole of the Mediterranean.

I mean, imagine that. They are in the great drama of the age themselves, but they're against a backdrop that couldn't be bettered.

Well, we've already mentioned Alexander, haven't we? I mean, this is founded by Alexander the Great. It's where Anthony Cleopatra hung out. It's one of the great cities of Christianity and Islam. I mean, incredible.

For somebody who conceives of himself as an operatic figure, as the hero of a great melodrama, what a moment.

But to be a hero of a great melodrama, you don't want to look like an idiot. And Nelson looks like an idiot because there's no sign of the French.

They've called it wrong. They arrive and there's nothing. He sends Hardy ashore to talk to the locals, and Hardy comes back and he says nothing. No sign of the French. There's been no reports of the French.

I mean, what a devastating moment for Nelson. Crushing.

Because time is of the essence. He doesn't have that many supplies. And getting supplies in what is a French Lake is so difficult. And he knows that every day lost is a day that the French could be laying siege to Constantinople, laying He's going to take a siege to Naples. Who knows? He has made a terrible mistake, and they are probably heading to either Constantinople or Naples, and he must hurry. So the very next day, the 30th, he says, We're not waiting any more time in Alexandria. We have to get out and get on with the hunt. And they make sail. And, unbelievably, one day and one hour later, Bonaparte sails into Alexandria.

And this, of course, is one of the pivotal moments in world history. It's a moment where you could say the age of European imperialism really begins. This is where the 19th century, perhaps in global terms, starts. We have already done an episode on it, haven't we? We did an episode on Napoleon in Egypt. Yeah, It's an incredible story. For Napoleon, attacking Egypt is an attack on Britain. He describes that expedition as being the left wing of the army of England. To destroy England thoroughly, we must seize Egypt because then they can throttle Britain's trade with India and maybe win India. That's the way Napoleon thinks to get at Britain. But it's also much more than that. The fantasy of being a new Alexander is playing in Napoleon's mind. In his cabin, he has a huge library full of books, the books of Greek and Roman history that he had so loved as a boy. He's reading them through to inspire him. He literally sees himself as the new Alexander the Great. So I saw myself marching to Asia mounted on an elephant, a turban on my head, and in my hand, a new Quran that I would have composed to suit my needs.

So we talked about Nelson being histreonic and operatic. I mean, Napoleon is in a different order. But there is also the fact that this is an expedition that will open the eyes of Europe to the reality of Egypt. Egypt as an Islamic country that can be studied in the way that Savance might study plants or wildlife or whatever, but also, of course, the great center of Véronic history. This is why Napoleon is taking Savance with him. It's an expedition, not just of imperial conquest, but of the enlightenment laying claim to the study of the world. And so you might well say that that's also an imperial project. So he takes teams of Savance with him, philosophers. He takes a printing press that he'd nicked from the Vatican, which can print in Latin, in Arabic, and Syriac, and he even takes a hot air balloon. I mean, it is an extraordinary story. And if you have any interest in it and haven't heard the episode that we did when, about three years ago, I think, something like that, do listen to that. Absolutely. I slightly perhaps underplayed the military dimensions of this. I mean, so he's brought 40,000 soldiers.

He's got 20,000 sailors. This is an enormous amphibius expedition.

And very successful because it takes him three weeks. And three weeks after landing, he smashes the Mameluk army at the Battle of the Pyramids. Yes. Soldiers.

What is it? Something like, 4,000 years of history gaze down upon you.

Exactly. He, too, of course, Napoleon, too, regards himself as an operatic figure. And that's the joy of this story, actually. I can't think of many moments in history that really match it, where everybody is conscious They're playing a part on the greatest stage of all. On the 24th of July, he marches into Cairo. He is now the master of Egypt. So Napoleon, it seems, has won. Meanwhile, Nelson has been sailing east, still searching for this fleet. He cruised along the Coast of Turkey, and then he turned back east towards Sicily. At this point, he's running out of supply, his fruit and water. They head back towards Sicily. They stop at Syracuse. Here, they get new intelligence from Naples. The French have not passed Naples. They have not gone through into the Western Mediterranean. They have not landed in Italy. They've definitely gone east. Again, it's probably about this point that Nelson has his captains for dinner, and he says, Time is running out, but I think we've clearly narrowed down, they must be somewhere out there in the east. When we find them, this is what we will do. It's not admiral Hotham. It's not a blockade.

Where we attack them.

We go straight at them. Amazing. And wipe them off the face of the sea. This is unusual at the time, right? We talked in previous episodes.

Becoming less unusual, I think, isn't it? Yes.

Nelson is drawing on Captain Locker and admiral hood and all of these people who have been his great patrons.

St. Vincent had done it. St.

Vincent had done it. But he says, Look, this is what we're doing. It is all or nothing. We risk everything. We just go for it. An aggressive strategy.

The aim is a battle of anihilation, isn't it? If they can wipe out the French fleet, then Napoleon's military victory on land will count for nothing. Exactly. They'll be stranded there.

So a strategy in which we have an overall plan, but within that, you have a degree of discretion and to use your initiative. I mean, he trusts his captains. His captains are delighted. And after four days, they set off again. They are drilling now with their guns all the time.

But of course, they still don't know where he is, where Napoleon is. No, itching for battle.

There is a real sense of mounting tension now because time is so short. They get letters from London and Elton opens one of them and a diplomat says to him, The eyes of all Europe are upon you. You've got to do this now. They return to Greece. They reach a place called Korony at the very bottom tip of the Pelipanese. And Trubridge goes ashore to find information. And he comes back within hours and he's bursting with news. He says, The Ottoman governor says he has had definite confirmation. They are in Alexandria after all. So again, Nelson turns south and he spreads his sails to catch the wind. He can't sleep. He's pacing the quarter deck. And they rush and they rush. At 10:00 AM on the first of August, the look out on the Alexander spies in the horizon, the telltale gray blur of land. Within an hour or so, news comes to Nelson. There are French tricolor flags flying over Alexandria. There are French transports in the harbor empty. The French army has landed and has moved on. Egypt has fallen. And one of Nelson's captains said later that at that moment, they felt, quote, utterly hopeless and out of spirits.

They've been pursuing the French for hundreds of miles. They've pushed their ships and their men to the limit, and they have failed. The French have got the foothold in Egypt they wanted.

And of course, there's the risk, isn't there, that the fleet will have gone somewhere safer.

Exactly. That's the one crum of consolation, the one possibility of redemption The one flickering of hope. The last flicker of hope, exactly, is if they can find that French fleet, just maybe their French admiral may have taken the fleet down the Coast and parked it in a harbor closer to Cairo. If they can get it and destroy it, then everything Bonaparte will have done will be for nothing because the French army will be stranded and cut off from supplies, and his conquests will just be ephemeral.

Dominic, just to say that the French High Command in the Navy had wanted to withdraw. They'd wanted to withdraw to the Ionian Islands, but Napoleon has said no. We'll find out in the next episode whether it's a fateful mistake or not.

Nelson says to the captains of the Zealous and the Goliath, just quickly head east along the Coast. It won't take long. We know from our charts There's a deep harbor, Abu Khir Bay, which is quite close to the mouth of the Nile. Just have a look. Down along the Coast, they go east. At 2:00 that afternoon, they approach the delta of the Nile. At 2:30, a A midshipman, 16 years old, George Elliott.Not the novelist, obviously.Not the novelist. Is on the highest yards of the Goliath with a telescope to his eye, and then he sees something in the distance. It's like the scene from Master and Commander, 13 ships of the line, four frigates, five brigs and bomb vessels, their French flags fluttering in the breeze. Tom, they have found What a cliffhanger.

And in the final episode of this season, we will tell the story of what happens next, the Battle of the Nile. And if you just can't wait, then you can head to therestishistory. Com to join the club. Obviously, if you're already a subscriber, like Nelson, go straight in. Don't delay. England expects. Goodbye.

Hi, it's David McClosky from The Rest is Classified. Here's that clip that we mentioned earlier on. We're back with Kermit Roosevelt. We're in Tehran in July of 1953. Kermit is there. He is planning a coup. He's got bags of cash, and he's ensconced in a villa, calling himself James Lockeridge.

That's right. He's supposed to be undercover as James Rockbridge. But when he plays tennis with other expats and diplomats. Every time he misses a shot, he curses himself and says, Oh, Roosevelt, which is his real name. Then when people ask why, he goes, Well, I'm such a passionate Republican that I hate Franklin Roosevelt, a Democrat. So I use the name as a curse word. I mean, that's not good cover, is it, David?

It's pretty rough. It's pretty rough. Although I will say that being wasted on Lime Rickies and playing tennis, that's just a normal CIA operation. Is that what you did in the Middle East? Yeah, exactly.

Can you confirm that?

It seems very normal. Kermit's there. Now, he's brought money. Is that right? To throw around. But it's maybe less than we would think to accomplish the overthrow of a government. Is that right? Yeah.

Some of the estimates said that he can do it for $100,000, something like that. It seems crazy, doesn't it? To think that's all it costs for the coup. The estimates vary, but that's basically bribe money. That's right. That he's got.

I thought this was also very interesting. I was not aware of this before we started to dig in. He actually takes over MI6's networks in Iran, doesn't he? Which is, I actually can't think of a modern parallel where you don't have a joint. I mean, it's a joint effort, but he doesn't have Brits on the ground with him. He's there. He's taken over the British network.

And if you want to hear the full episode, listen to The Rest is Classified wherever you get your podcasts. Tom, we have something unbelievably exciting to share with our listeners, don't we?

Absolutely, we do, Dominic. It's that time of year again when you've got to find that perfect gift for the loved one in your life. And we are thrilled to help you with that challenge. We are announcing the launch of the Rest is History merchandise. Yes, you can now own a piece of history, literally. We've literally got shirts, mugs, phone cases, notebooks, so much, just in time for Christmas. Unbelievable scenes, Tom, because these aren't just any shirts and mugs.

Tom, these are exclusive Rest is History designs, and they have been designed specifically to outdo the Rory and Alister T-shirts that our friends on the Rest is Politics team have been flogging on their tour of England that they've done.

That's right, Dominic. History will always Trump politics. Our new merch truly is the perfect gift for any history fan, whether they're a friend of the show or dare we say, someone who's not yet a friend of the show.

Yeah, this is an unbelievably cunning wheeze, isn't it? It really is. Because if you're a loyal friend of the show, you can buy a T-shirt that proudly declares your allegiance. If you still need convincing, you know who you are, then you can buy a not a friend of the show version as well.

You can make your point with a T-shirt or a It is the perfect icebreaker at parties.

What's this, you say? You don't know the rest is history? Well, let me tell you, and you will have the perfect shirt while you talk to people about General Gordon or Pigeons or the Kaiser or whatever it might be. So the possibilities are endless.

And Dominic, there's lots more. There are sacral mugs, so that's brilliant. And maybe you're an Athlstan. You are catered for as well. Lots of Athlstan stuff. So truly, it's beyond a dream gift, isn't it?

People, Tom, have never had it so good. And in fact, if you're a club member, there is a special discount code that will come in the newsletter for members. And if you order before the first of December, then you'll get this amazing discount and everything will be brilliant.

So basically, this is going to be the best Christmas ever. So what you need to do is head over to www. Goalhanger. Shop, grab your Rest is History gear, and make sure you order before the first of December if you're a club member, to get that discount.

If you're not out to your friends, especially people who listen to other goalhanger podcasts like the Rest is Politics, this is absolutely the way to do it. So remember to head to www. Goalhanger. Shop to get your merch.

And remember, club members order before the first of December to take advantage of that exclusive discount. And we'll be sharing on social media our favorite pictures of you in your Rest is History merch. So send these in over Christmas morning.

And remember, that is www. Goalhanger. Com.. Shop.