Admiral Nelson

Horatio Nelson (born September 29, 1758, Burnham Thorpe, Norfolk, England-died October 21, 1805, at sea, off Cape Trafalgar, Spain) was a British naval commander in the wars with Revolutionary and Napoleonic France, who …              [win, was winning, won, had won]crucial victories in such battles as those of the Nile (1798) and of Trafalgar (1805), where he …           [had been, has been, was, would be] killed by enemy fire on the HMS Victory.

In private life he was known for his extended love affair with Emma, Lady Hamilton, while both were …           [divorced, single, married] .

Horatio Nelson was the sixth of 11 children of the village rector, Edmund Nelson, and his wite, Catherine. …              [Nelson, Nelsons, The Nelsons] were genteel, scholarly, and poor. The family's most important connection from which Nelson could expect preferment was that with a distant relation, Lord Walpole, the descendant of Sir Robert Walpole, who had been prime minister earlier in the century. Decisive for Nelson's life, however, was his mother's brother, Captain Maurice Suckling, who was to become comptroller of the British Navy.

When Horatio's mother died, Captain Suckling agreed to take the boy to sea.

Nelson's first years in the             [expedition, army, navy]… were a mixture of routine experience and high adventure. The former was gained particularly in the Thames estuary, the latter in a voyage to the West Indies by merchant ship and a dangerous and unsuccessful scientific expedition to the Arctic in 1773.

Nelson had his first taste of action in the Indian Ocean. Soon after, struck down by fever-probably malaria-he was invalided home, and, while recovering from the consequent depression, Nelson experienced a dramatic …        [wave, surge, point, sign] of optimism. From that moment, Nelson's ambition, fired by patriotism tempered by the Christian compassion instilled by his father, urged him to prove himself at least the equal of his eminent kinsmen.

In 1777 Nelson passed the examination for lieutenant and sailed for the West Indies, the most active theatre in the war against the American colonies. Promoted to captain in 1779, at the early age of 20, he was given command of a frigate and …                   [had taken, was taking, took, would have taken] part in operations against Spanish settlements in Nicaragua, which became targets once Spain joined France in alliance with the American Revolutionaries. The attack on San Juan was militarily successful but ultimately disastrous when the British force was almost wiped out by yellow fever; Nelson himself was lucky to survive.

In 1783, after the end of the American Revolution, Nelson returned to England by way of France. On his return to London he …                    [was saddened, was congratulated, was cheered, was worried] by the appointment, in 1784, to command a frigate bound for the West Indies.

But this was not to be a happy commission. By rigidly enforcing the Navigation Act against American ships, which were still trading with the British privileges they had officially lost, he made enemies not only among merchants and shipowners but also among the resident British authorities who, in their own interest, had failed to enforce the law.

Under the …         [stroke, strain, blow] of his difficulties and of the loneliness of command, Nelson was at his most vulnerable when he visited the island of Nevis in March 1785. There he met Frances Nisbet, a widow, and her five-year-old son, Josiah.

Returning with his bride to Burnham Thorpe, Nelson found himself without another appointment and on half pay. He remained …             [unemployed, employed] for five years, aware of "a prejudice at the Admiralty evidently against me, which I can neither guess at, nor in the least account for" —but which may well have been connected with his enforcement of the Navigation Act. Within a few days of the …              [execution, appointment] of King Louis XVI of France in January 1793, however, he …            [was given, gave] command of the 64-gun Agamemnon.

From this moment, Nelson the enthusiastic professional was gradually replaced by Nelson the commander of genius. The coming months were probably his most …            [stressful, tranquil, dreadful, tedious] emotionally.

At home waited a loving wife, whose son he had taken to sea with him. His ship, fast and maneuverable, and his crew, superbly trained, pleased him. His task was to fight the Revolutionary French and support British allies in the Mediterranean.

Assigned to the forlorn defense of the port of Toulon against the revolutionaries-among them a 24-year-old officer of artillery, Napoleon Bonaparte-Nelson was dispatched to Naples to collect …                 [artillery, reinforcements, soldiers, supplies] .

At Naples, the most convenient port for repairs, he was given a hero's welcome, stage-managed by Lady Hamilton. A prolonged British naval presence in Naples was useful in supporting the shaky military strength of King Ferdinand, the one major ruler in Italy to be resisting the southward march of the French, who had already …            [conquered, defeated, protected, founded] Rome and deposed the pope.

The love …          [outcome, matter, affair] that developed between Nelson and Emma Hamilton came at a time of crisis.

With Nelson's encouragement, King Ferdinand had indulged his own fantasies of glory and, openly joining the alliance of Great Britain, Russia, and Austria against the French, …         [led, sent, formed] his own insignificant army to recapture Rome.

Not only was this a disastrous failure but the French                  [movement, conquer, counteroffensive, occupancy] drove him back to Naples, which itself then fell. Nelson had to evacuate the Neapolitan royal family to Sicily, and at Palermo it became obvious to all that his infatuation with Emma Hamilton was complete. She had proved herself indispensable company to him.

In the summer of 1799, Nelson's squadron supported Ferdinand's successful attempt to recapture Naples, but word of his dalliance with Emma had reached the Admiralty, and his superiors began to lose patience.

Bonaparte had escaped from Egypt to France, and the French still …           [stayed, remained, held] Malta when Lord Keith, who had replaced St. Vincent as commander in chief, decided that the enemy's next objective would be Minorca.

Nelson               [was ordering, ordered, was ordered] to that island with all available ships but refused on the grounds that he expected the threat to be toward Naples. Events justified him, but to disobey orders so blatantly was              [memorable, favorable, unforgivable].

In 1800 he returned, but across the continent in company with the Hamiltons. When the curious little party landed in England, it was at once clear that he was the nation's hero, and his progress to London was triumphal.

Nelson was promoted to vice admiral in January 1801. Emma was pregnant by him when he was appointed second in command to the elderly admiral Sir Hyde Parker, who was to command an expedition to the Baltic.

Shortly before sailing, Nelson heard that Emma            [was born, born, had borne]him a daughter named Horatia.

Parker's fleet sailed for the first objective, Copenhagen, early in 1801. At first Nelson's advice was not sought; then, as Danish resistance became increasingly likely, he could record, "Now we are sure of fighting, I am sent for." By the stratagem of taking the fleet's ships of shallower draught through a difficult channel, Nelson bypassed the shore batteries               [was covering, covering, covered] the city's northern approaches. The next morning, April 2, he led his squadron into action. There was to be no room for tactical brilliance; only superior gunnery would tell. The Danes resisted bravely, and Parker, fearing that Nelson was suffering unacceptable losses, hoisted the signal to disengage.

Before this success could be followed by similar attacks on the other potential enemies, Tsar Paul of Russia died and the threat faded.

Parker was succeeded by Nelson, who at last became a commander in chief. He was also made a viscount. The Admiralty, well aware of his popular appeal, now made maximum use of it by giving him a home command. At once he planned an ambitious attack on the naval base of Boulogne in order to foil a possible French invasion. He did not take part himself, and the operation was a gory failure. A second attempt was abandoned because of peace negotiations with France, and in March 1802 the Treaty of Amiens                   [signed, was being signed, was signed, had been signed]

At last there was time to enjoy the fruits of his victories. Emma had, on Nelson's instructions, bought an elegant country house, Merton Place, near London, and transformed it into an expensive mirror for their vanities. At last her husband …           [agreed, refused, rebelled], but it was too late for change, and he appeared reconciled to his lot when, early in 1803, he died with his wife and her lover at his side.

Bonaparte was known to be preparing for renewed war, and, two days before it broke out, Nelson, in May 1803, was given command in the Mediterranean, hoisting his flag in the Victory. Once again he was to blockade Toulon, now with the object of preventing a rendezvous between the French ships there with those at Brest in the Atlantic and, after Spain declared war       [with, to, on]Britain, with Spanish ships from Cartagena and Cádiz. A combined force of that size could well enable Bonaparte to invade England; and in early 1805, Napoleon, who the previous year had crowned himself emperor, ordered the fleets to converge for this purpose.

The French and Spanish squadrons were to burst through the British blockade; run for the West Indies; and after ravaging British possessions and trade, return across the Atlantic in a single             [invincible, vulnerable, feeble] fleet to destroy the British near Ushant, an island off Brittany, and take control of the English Channel while it was crossed by an invading army of 350,000.

In March, Admiral Pierre Villeneuve, who was to be in overall command, broke out of Toulon under cover of bad weather and disappeared.

Nelson …            [break up, set off, turn down]in pursuit. Villeneuve cut short his marauding, but his fleet was intercepted and damaged by a British squadron. Failing to win control of the English Channel, he ran south to Cádiz.

Nelson put into Gibraltar, made dispositions for the blockade of Cádiz, and returned to England. During his 25 days at home, he planned the strategy for the confrontation with the Franco-Spanish fleets that seemed inevitable; 34 enemy ships were blockaded in Cádiz by smaller numbers under Admiral Cuthbert Collingwood. Although Napoleon, abandoning the plan of a cross-Channel invasion, began to           [support, redeploy, supply, maintain] the Grand Army, in Britain the danger of invasion seemed as pressing as ever, and Nelson appeared the country’s hope.

When his orders came, Nelson on September 15 sailed in the Victory. He was now at the height of his professional powers.              [Worshipping, Worshiped] by his officers and sailors alike, he was confident that his captains understood his tactical thinking so well that the minimum of consultation would be required. On his 47th birthday he dined 15 captains in his flagship and outlined his plans to bring on a "pell-mell battle" in which British gunnery and offensive spirit would be decisive. He planned to advance on the Franco-Spanish fleets in two divisions to break their line and destroy them           [totally, piecemeal]. This was the final abandonment of the traditionally rigid tactics of fighting in line of battle.

After receiving Napoleon's orders that he must break the blockade, Villeneuve, on October 20, sailed out of Cádiz. At dawn next day, the Franco-Spanish fleets were silhouetted against the sunrise off Cape Trafalgar, and the British began to form the two divisions in which they         [should, must, were] to fight, one led by Nelson, the other by Collingwood. As the opposing fleets closed, Nelson made his famous signal, "England expects that every man will do his duty." The Battle of Trafalgar raged at its fiercest around the Victory, and a French sniper, firing from the mast of the Redoutable, shot Nelson through the shoulder and chest. He was carried below to the surgeon, and it was soon clear that he was dying.

When told that 15 enemy ships had been taken, he replied, "That is well, but I had bargained for 20." Thomas Hardy, his flag captain, kissed his forehead in            [gratitude, farewell] and Nelson spoke his last words, "Now I am satisfied. Thank God, I have done my duty."

Although the victory of Trafalgar finally made Britain safe from invasion, it was, at the time, overshadowed by the news of Nelson's death.

A country          [racking, racked] with grief gave him a majestic funeral in St. Paul's Cathedral, and his popularity was recorded in countless monuments, streets, and inns named after him and, eventually, in the preservation at Portsmouth of the Victory. Emma Hamilton and his daughter, however, were ignored.

Emma died, almost ,            [well-off, destitute] in Calais nine years later. Horatia, showing her father's resilience, married a clergyman in Norfolk and became the mother of a large and sturdy family.

Nelson had finally broken the unimaginative strategic and tactical doctrines of the previous century and taught individual officers to think for themselves. His flair and forcefulness as a commander in battle were decisive factors in his two major victories-the battles of the Nile and Trafalgar. In the former, he had destroyed the French fleet upon which Napoleon Bonaparte had based his hopes of Eastern conquest, and in the latter he had destroyed the combined French and Spanish fleets, thus              [ensured, ensuring, had ensured] the safety of the British Isles from invasion and the supremacy of British sea power for more than a century.

Spectacular success in battle, combined with his humanity as a commander and his scandalous private life, raised Nelson to godlike status in his lifetime, and after his death at Trafalgar in 1805, he was enshrined in popular myth and iconography. He is still generally accepted as the most            [abhorrent, appealing, repulsive] of Britain's national heroes.