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Lot 83

NELSON (HORATIO)
Letter signed ("Nelson & Bronte"), the text in the hand of Nelson's secretary, John Scott, to Lord Mark Kerr of the Fisgard, giving orders regarding the watch he is keeping on the enemy's fleet, Victory at sea, 16 October 1804

24 June 2015, 11:00 BST
London, Knightsbridge

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NELSON (HORATIO)

Letter signed ("Nelson & Bronte"), the text in the hand of Nelson's secretary, John Scott, to Lord Mark Kerr of the Fisgard, giving orders regarding the watch he is keeping on the enemy's fleet, and informing him that he is proceeding with the squadron to the Maddalenas, where he intends staying eight or ten days, immediately afterwards proceeding to Rendezvous 97: "Your Lordship will therefore remain in the execution of the Service You are at present employed on, as mentioned in my order of the 1st Instant, and in order that You may be more effectually enabled to perform this Service, I am to desire Your Lordship will take His Majesty's Ship Amazon under Your Command, and also the Phoebe the moment She join from Malta, which may every hour be expected on Rendezvous No 102"; instructing him furthermore: "In the event of the Enemy putting to Sea, or Your Lordship should gain any important Intelligence necessary for my immediate information, You will send the Niger to the Madalena Islands with an Account thereof, if Your Lordship shall judge that the Squadron is still at that Anchorage – The Moment I leave it a Vessel will be dispatched to You with an Account thereof, and will be directed if the Wind is from the Westward to proceed on the Eastside of Corsica, and if from the Eastward on the Westside of the Island"; the last paragraph of the letter, informing Kerr that "a dreadful Malady" has broken out at Gibraltar and that Yellow Fever has broken out at Cartagena and Alicante; and in a postscript stating that, as she is getting short of provisions, he is taking the Niger with him and will return her once supplied; recipient's docket, 3 pages, paper watermarked ʻGater/ 1801' and with the figure of Britannia, light dust-staining on blank outer page where filed, folio, Victory at sea, 16 October 1804

Footnotes

ʻIN THE EVENT OF THE ENEMY PUTTING TO SEA' – Nelson's frigates keep watch. The order of 1 October to which he here refers is not among those that have survived in the present collection. It is, however, printed by Nicolas, from the copy in Nelson's Order-Book (and is coincidentally the only letter or order to Lord Mark that Nicolas prints). In it, Nelson tells him that he is taking his squadron out of the blockade so that they can renew supplies and orders him to take a number of vessels under his command and to station himself between Rendezous 102 and Toulon ʻin such position as you may judge best for watching the Enemy's motions in that Port, and for ascertaining with correctness their putting to sea'. Kerr is, in other words, to provide replacement for Nelson's main fleet during their absence; Rendezvous 102 being the offshore station situated south and some forty miles west of Toulon, running along latitude forty-two degrees twenty minutes, from which Nelson usually maintained his open blockade of the port. Not in Nicolas.

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