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Lot 106

"...Lord Nelsons usually good fortune attended him..."
Nelson's Capture of the Genereux

5 July 2005, 11:00 BST
London, New Bond Street

Sold for £1,440 inc. premium

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"...Lord Nelsons usually good fortune attended him..."
Nelson's Capture of the Genereux

Autograph letter signed by Nelson's close friend Captain Alexander Ball, to Samuel Lucas, British Consul at Tripoli, describing Nelson's capture of the Genereux ("...I have great satisfaction in acquainting you that on the 15 inst.t I received Intelligence that a French Squadron was seen...off the West End of Sicily steering for Malta...Lord Nelsons usually good fortune attended him - he fell in with them the 18th and Captured The French Admiral's Ship the Genereux of Seventy four Guns and a large Store Ship...the two Ships had fifteen hundred Troops on board - the only Ship which fired on the Genereux was the Success Frigate - She killed and Wounded fifteen of the Genereux' Men among the latter was the French Admiral Perrey who died of his Wounds the same day/we had the good fortune to rescue a Commander and a Crew belonging to the Bashaw of Tripoly whom the Admiral offered to send over with a Frigate the Moment we had cleared these Seas of the Enemy which we expected in a few days..."), one page, 4to, top edge trimmed, with address heading and top line of text remounted, taped at left-hand edge, slight spotting, Malta, 24 February 1800

Footnotes

The Genereux, under the command of Admiral Perrée, was one of the few ships that had escaped from the Nile (at which Ball had played a prominent part). After her capture, she was put in command of the twenty-four-year-old Lieutenant Lord Cochrane, whose brilliant career as a frigate captain was to prove him, in this respect at least, Nelson's equal. Alexander Ball, the writer of this letter, was in charge of the Anglo-Maltese siege of the French garrison at Valetta, which was to fall that September. He afterwards served as Governor of the island, for a while employing Coleridge as his secretary.

Additional information

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