Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 11.djvu/365

 quence of bad weather, and I think he is very unfairly censured.' Of Collingwood's own conduct in the battle there was but one opinion, which was warmly expressed at the time by Vice-admiral Waldegrave, and by Dacres, Waldegrave's flag-captain.

Gold medals were awarded to all the captains of the ships of the line. When Collingwood was informed of this by the admiral, he replied that he could not receive such a medal while that for 1 June was withheld from him. ' I feel,' he said, ' that I was then improperly passed over, and to receive such a distinction now would be to acknowledge the propriety of that injustice.' Both medals were afterwards, and, as Collingwood believed, by desire of the king, sent to him by Lord Spencer, the first lord of the admiralty, who wrote : 'The former medal would have been transmitted to you some months ago if a proper conveyance had been found for it.'

For the next two years, till the very end of 1798, Collingwood, in the Excellent, continued attached to the fleet before Cadiz. The service, though of the highest importance, was extremely irksome. It is impossible to read the published correspondence of Collingwood at this time without seeing how much it had preyed on his temper, leading him to expressions which, if made public, would have been in the highest degree reprehensible and even mutinous. Indeed, in one of his letters (22 July 1798), after saying that all the captains 'complain that they are appointed to many unworthy services,' he adds : 'I do them with all the exactness in my power, as if they were things of the utmost importance, though I do not conceal what I think of them.' If this is to be understood literally, there can be no doubt whatever that Collingwood was guilty of a very grave breach of discipline ; and that had Lord St. Vincent known of it, he would have sent him home by the first ship, if indeed he did not try him by court-martial. Other incidents related by his biographer cannot be accepted as facts without corroborative evidence. One of these is the often-quoted story of Collingwood's gross incivility to his commander-in-chief, and his violation of service etiquette on the occasion of the Excellent being ordered to close the flagship to receive two bags of onions. The details of the story are manifestly inaccurate, and quite unworthy of belief : Lord St. Vincent s character has been strangely misrepresented if he would have tolerated for one moment conduct such as that imputed to Collingwood. Another of the absurdities which have passed muster as history is the story of Collingwood's having seriously explained to a man of bad character his intention to head him up in a cask and heave him overboard. Collingwood had a distinct reputation for keeping his ship's company in first-rate order, with a minimum of corporal punishment ; but the statement that he indulged in unmeaning threats is contradicted by the results which he is known to have obtained.

The Excellent was paid off at Portsmouth early in January 1799. Within a few weeks (14 Feb.) Collingwood was advanced to the rank of rear-admiral, and was almost immediately appointed to a command in the Channel fleet, with his flag in the Triumph. From off Brest, he was detached in May, under Sir Charles Cotton [q. v.], with a squadron of twelve ships to reinforce Lord Keith in the Mediterranean, and accompanied him back off Brest, when the French fleet had returned after an uneventful cruise. In the beginning of 1800 he shifted his flag into the Barfleur. and continued in her, attached to the Channel fleet and employed for the most part in the blockade of Brest, till released by the peace of Amiens. After a short year at home, he was again appointed to a command in the fleet off Brest under Admiral Cornwallis. On 23 April 1804 he was advanced to the rank of vice-admiral, but continued as before, with Cornwallis, till May 1805, when he was detached in command of a squadron to reinforce Nelson, then in pursuit of the French fleet, or to act as circumstances required. In accordance with this discretionary power, he took up his station off Cadiz, where, on 18 July, he was joined by Nelson on his return from the West Indies, and where he still remained when Nelson, having intelligence that the combined fleet had been seen to the northward, sailed (25 July) to reinforce Cornwallis off Brest. He was still off Cadiz, keeping watch on the combined fleet which had put into that port, when he was again joined by Nelson on 28 Sept. ; and commanding in the second post, he led the lee line in the memorable battle of Trafalgar, 21 Oct. 1805. By Nelson's death in the hour of victory, Collingwood succeeded to the chief command, and thus, in popular estimation, reaped a certain portion of the glory which, had Nelson lived, would have fallen to him alone. That Collingwood ably carried out the plan of the battle, so far as the duty was entrusted to him, is beyond dispute ; but the popular idea, which seems to regard him as holding the command jointly with Nelson, is absolutely without foundation. Perhaps, too, a common misunderstanding of Nelson's orders has given Collingwood's share in the action an appearance of initiative which it very certainly had not. The Royal Sovereign, which