Footnotes

Nelson loses the sight of his right eye at Calvi, although he has not thought fit to include himself among those wounded in this return which, seamen apart, lists only the three officers killed, none wounded. He had sustained his wound at seven in the morning on 12 July, while watching the bombardment of Calvi, from the sand and stones thrown up by an exploding shell. He wrote later that day to his Commander-in-Chief, Lord Hood, that he had "got a little hurt this morning". On 4 August he reported to his wife that "Except for a very slight scratch towards my right eye, I have received no hurt whatever". It was not until 9 August, three days after he made this return, that the Surgeon-in-Chief to the Forces in the Mediterranean and the Physician to the Fleet gave their opinion that his eye had been so materially injured that he would never recover perfect use of it; and it was not until 2 October that he submitted their certificates to Lord Hood, claiming the loss of an eye in His Majesty's service. Soon, of course, Nelson was to oust the Cyclops from their place as representing the one-eyed (which makes his choice of the name Bronte, one of the Cyclops, for the title of his Sicilian dukedom suggestive). General Stuart, to whom this return is addressed, was a son of the former Prime Minister Lord Bute, and was in overall charge of operations, which he pursued with great energy. In his official despatch, however, he was to fail to give Nelson proper credit; and neither he nor Hood were to mention Nelson's wound. Nelson was to transmit another "list of killed and wounded Seamen" to Hood on 8 August. We have found no record of publication of the present return. At the foot of this document is a remarkable annotation which pin-points the exact moment when it was written: "Note - I was at the Siege of Calvi in Corsica at the time above stated, and stood a little distant from Captain Nelson when He drew the Lines with a Soldiers Bayonet and Wrote this Return on an 18 Pounder Gun on the right of the Star Fort Battery - It would take up too much time, to state how this precious Document came into my Possession and be pasted in this Book - Jno Page".