Beschreibung:

NELSON, Horatio, Viscount (1758-1805)]. Autograph letter signed by Nelson's second-in-command at Trafalgar, Cuthbert, 1st Baron Collingwood, to Vice-Admiral Sir Thomas Duckworth K.B, Queen , Gibraltar Bay, 19 November 1805, 3¼ pages, 4to , docketed by recipient. COLLINGWOOD'S TRIBUTE TO NELSON AFTER TRAFALGAR: 'HE LIVED LONG ENOUGH TO SHOW THAT HIS DUTY WAS PREDOMINANT IN HIS MIND EVEN IN HIS LAST MOMENT'. Responding to congratulations on the victory at Trafalgar, Collingwood pays tribute to the fleet -- 'with so noble a fleet -- such excellent men in almost all the ships we could do no other than beat them'; he treats the gales which scattered the British prizes (the 'fruits of our Victory') as 'Providential', in preventing them from too much elation. Even the stoical Collingwood, however, can scarcely draw philosophical comfort for the death of Nelson: 'The Death of my friend Lord Nelson has been a severe affliction to me -- I had known him too long, not to have a sincere affection for him -- but if he had chosen the manner of his death I believe he would have died as he did; after he received his wound, (which he knew to be mortal in the instant he was struck) -- he lived long enough to shew that his duty was predominant in his mind even in his last moment, -- and indifferent about himself, only ask'd questions about the progress made in the Battle'. The letter concludes with news of the fleet ('I have sent 16 Crippled Ships home'), and of Collingwood's future movements and the evolution of the blockade. Sir John Thomas Duckworth, 1st Bart (1748-1817) had been appointed Nelson's third-in-command, replacing Lord Northesk, but missed Trafalgar because of delays in his departure from England. He had eventually joined Collingwood off Cadiz on 15 November, and relieved him of the blockade.