CAPTAIN JOHN STUART ABOARD "ROYAL SOVEREIGN" ON TOULON BLOCKADE
COMMENTS UPON THE CHARACTER OF LORD HORATIO NELSON

CAPTAIN JOHN STUART RECEIVES A LETTER FROM HIS BROTHER, SIR CHARLES STUART,
DIRECTLY FROM THE HAND OF LORD NELSON WHILE ABOARD THE "HMS ROYAL SOVEREIGN"

THIS DOCUMENT IS COVERED BY OUR WRITTEN, SIGNED AND SEALED
LIFETIME GUARANTEE OF AUTHENTICITY

One can imagine the excitement of a young 23 year old Flag Captain upon being received by Lord Nelson in order to personally deliver to him a letter from his brother, Sir Charles Stuart.

"Lord Nelson delivered me your Letter himself so that I suppose you are engaged in some correspondence with him. From what I know of his character I believe I may state him to be a plain matter of fact Man without who always speaks his mind & acts as he thinks with directness and decision."

Grandson of John Stuart, the 3rd Earl of Bute, second son of General Charles Stuart of Military renown, and brother to Sir Charles Stuart, Lord Rothesay, John Stuart chose a naval career which placed him as Flag Captain on board the "HMS Royal Sovereign" on June 28th 1804. The young Captain of the Sovereign is hand delivered a letter from his brother by Admiral of the Fleet, Lord Horatio Nelson, himself, while aboard the Sovereign, the ship that broke the line at Trafalgar. A wonderful concordance of events putting Nelson on the deck of the legendary Collingwood's Flagship the Royal Sovereign.

It is perhaps apocryphal, but it is said that during the Battle of Trafalgar, as Nelson stood on the quarter deck of the Victory and watched Collingwood and his flagship "HMS Royal Sovereign" go "straight at them", cutting the enemy line alone, and engaging the "Santa Ana", he pointed to her and said, "See how that noble fellow Collingwood carries his ship into action!" At approximately the same moment, Collingwood reportedly remarked to his captain, "What would Nelson give to be here?" Neither would have to wait long as this monumental naval battle soon encompassed all the ships of the line.

Nelson was assigned to "HMS Victory" in May 1803 and joined the blockade of Toulon, France. He would not set foot on dry land again for more than two years. Just prior to this letter, on 23 April 1804, Nelson was promoted to Vice Admiral of the White (the fifth highest rank) while still at sea. A wonderful relevant Nelson content letter that epitomizes Nelson's character and the esteem in which he was held by his men. A moment not lost on Nelson, Collingwood or Stuart as all three of them would be sailing the seas of heaven by the time of Waterloo.

Transcription:

Royal Sovereign
June 28th 1804

My Dear Charles,

     I have indeed made my hay (as you observe) while the Sun shone....& I pray heaven that your talents may in spite of any other consideration have the weight they deserve & place you in situations which they demand.
     I hope nothing particularly unpleasant has happened to you (as you seem to allude to in your Letter) more than being disagreeable situated on the Eve of all these changes.
     Lord Nelson delivered me your Letter himself to that I suppose you are engaged in some correspondence with him. From what I know of his character I believe I may state him to be a plain matter of fact Man without who always speaks his mind & acts as he thinks with directness and decision - the remainder of his character I have stated to you before.
     The Enemy's Fleet are in a state of readiness - and dayly keep a line of Battle Ship and a Frigate under way in the Entrance of the Harbour so that no single Frigate dare approach while Our Fleet is absent. We have a Squadron of Frigates at Anchor in Hyères Bay but the French do not think their certain destruction an object sufficient to induce their Fleet to move there.

                             Adieu in pace my dearest Brother
                              believe me with the sincerest   affection
                                   Your Friend & Brother
                                            John Stuart

The connection between the young Captain John Stuart and Nelson went somewhat deeper. John's father, a younger son of the 3rd Earl of Bute, the Hon. Charles Stuart, embarked upon a military career in 1768 when he enlisted as an ensign in the 37th Regiment of Foot. In 1770, he became a lieutenant in the 7th Regiment of Foot (Royal Fusiliers), and was promoted captain in 1775. Later that year he became a major commanding a battalion of the regiment, and in 1777 was commissioned lieutenant-colonel of the 26th Regiment of Foot, which he commanded until 1779. He was promoted colonel in 1782.
     He had been elected MP for Bossiney in 1776, succeeding his elder brother Viscount Kingarth, who had been created Baron Cardiff. In 1792, on the death of his father, he inherited the estate of Highcliffe House in Hampshire (later rebuilt by his eldest son Lord Rothesay). On April 19, 1778 , he married Anne Louisa Bertie, daughter of Lord Vere Bertie . They had two sons: Charles Stuart, 1st Baron Stuart de Rothesay (1779 – 1845) and Captain John James Stuart (1782 – 1811).
     On May 23, 1794 General Stuart was given command of the army in Corsica and with Nelson's help drove the French from Calvi (the action in which Horatio Nelson lost an eye), their last remaining stronghold on the island. His energy and bravery during the siege won him the admiration of Sir John Moore (of later Peninsular War Fame), who served as his second in command. Stuart was promoted to Lieutenant-General for this action. Unfortunately he quarreled with Admiral Lord Hood, who commanded the Mediterranean Fleet, over the conduct of the siege, and later with Sir Gilbert Elliot, Viceroy of Corsica. His unwillingness to take orders from a civilian (albeit a Viceroy), his siding with the Corsican patriot General Pasquale Paoli in disputes with Elliot, and his conviction that Corsica could be ruled only by a military man, led to his resignation of his command in February 1795.
     In January 1797 Stuart was given command of a force sent to Portugal at the urgent request of the Portuguese government, threatened with invasion by France and Spain. There he succeeded in transforming his army, made up partly of foreign troops who lacked discipline and motivation, into a very effective force. The foreign regiments later fought in Egypt and there "displayed a steadiness and resolution which spoke volumes for what Charles Stuart's influence had done". In 1798 he received a commission to capture Minorca from the Spanish with a force of 3000 men drawn mostly from Gibraltar. His appointment received the approval of the British Admiral Lord St Vincent, who told the Secretary of State that Stuart was "the best general you have … no man can manage Frenchmen so well and the British will go to hell for him". Though unequipped with siege artillery, he successfully dissimulated and bluffed the Spaniards into surrendering the island and their numerically superior forces in November 1798 without the loss of a single man. In recognition he was created knight of the Bath and Governor of Minorca from November 15, 1798 until 1800. He radically reformed the island's administration, bringing about changes described by a French historian as "the most important ever effected in a country which had not been ceded by treaty" .
     While in Minorca, in March 1799, Stuart responded at once to a plea by Admiral Nelson to send troops to Messina. Stuart brought the 30th and 89th Regiments under Col. Blayney to Palermo where they were dispatched to secure Messina against the threatened French and Spanish invasion. Nelson had the highest opinion of Stuart, whom he described as an officer who "by his abilities would make a bad army into a good one" (Dispatches and Letters, 3.226). Stuart accompanied two regiments to Messina and then paid a fleeting visit to Malta, where the French still held out in Valletta. He reported to Pitt that, contrary to the views of other senior officers, Valletta could be reduced only by continuing with the naval blockade. Stuart died in 1801 and is buried in St. Peter's Church, Petersham. Nelson was clearly familiar with the quality of a Stuart.

A Note on Captain John James Stuart

     Born on 29 August 1780, Stuart entered the RN on 23 March 1794. He made Lieutenant on 12 August 1800, Commander on 18 March 1802, and Captain on 6 August 1803; a very fast career, no doubt helped along by his family's connections and relationship with Nelson. He is listed from Sept 1803 until Sept 1805 as flag-captain to Rear Admiral Sir Richard Bickerton, first on board the "Kent" (74) then on board the "Royal Sovereign" (100). Official postings don't have them moving to the "Sovereign" until August of 1804, but with the lag time of communications, the "official" date was obviously preceded by the reality. Interestingly, both these letters (see other Stuart letter) are datelined "Royal Sovereign" in June of 1804 and December 1804. Bickerton was Second in Command under Nelson. Collingwood took command of the "Royal Sovereign" only in October 1805, just prior to Trafalgar.
     Captain John Stuart  was in command of the "HMS Saldanha" Frigate when he died on board in March 1811. His memorial at St. Peters Church, Petersham, London sates: "Sacred to the Memory of Captain John Stuart, R.N. second son of the Honourable Lieutenant General Charles Stuart K.B. whose great example he steadily pursued supporting discipline by manly firmness and benevolence and encouraging virtue by the precepts and practice of religion. He died on board the "Saldanha" Frigate which he commanded on the 19th day of March 1811 aged 30 years and was interred here near the remains of his beloved father whom he strongly resembled". "Saldanha" (named after a bay in South Africa) was a 36 gun frigate of the Royal Navy, launched in 1809. The "Saldanha" herself, then under Captain Packenham, was shipwrecked in Lough Swilly, Donegal in a gale on the night of 4 December 1811. There was one survivor, who later died, out of the estimated 253 aboard. (The ship's complement was 274 men, and 21 are known to have been off the ship at the time.)

The "HMS Royal Sovereign" was a first-rate launched in 1786. A 100-gun first rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, she served as the flagship of Admiral Collingwood at the Battle of Trafalgar on 21 October 1805. She was the third of seven Royal Navy ships to bear the name. Designed by Sir Edward Hunt, she was launched at Plymouth Dockyard on September 11 1786, at a cost of £67,458, and was the only ship built to her draught. On June 16 1795, as the flagship of Vice-Admiral William Cornwallis, she was involved in the celebrated episode known as "Cornwallis' Retreat".

The first ship of the fleet in action at Trafalgar on October 21 1805, Collingwood's "Royal Sovereign" led one column of warships; Nelson's "Victory" led the other. Due to the re-coppering of her hull prior to her arrival off Cadiz, "Royal Sovereign" was a considerably better sailer in the light winds present that day than other vessels and pulled well ahead of the rest of the fleet. Although pounded nearly to a wreck by the Spanish fleet, she forced the "Santa Ana" to surrender and was herself rescued by the arrival of the rest of her column. After her useful active life she was converted to harbour service as a receiving ship at Plymouth before being renamed "HMS Captain" on August 17 1825. Becoming a hulk in June 1826, "Captain" was finally broken up at Plymouth, with work being completed on August 28 1841. Four of her guns were saved and are incorporated in the Collingwood Memorial in Tynemouth.

A Note on Admiral Cuthbert Collingwood

     Cuthbert Collingwood was born in 1749 near the river Tyne. Joining the Royal Navy in 1761, he first sailed aboard the frigate "Shannon". Serving under an uncle, he made midshipman and in 1772 was posted to Jamiaca where he met another young midshipman, named Nelson. They rose through the ranks over the years and began a life-long friendship that would see them both through Trafalgar, where Nelson was given the command over the arguably more experienced Collingwood. Over his career Collingwood spent even less time ashore than Nelson, logging only three years of land time.

     The quintessential Battle of Trafalgar has long been linked with the name of Lord Nelson, but Collingwood's participation was on an equal, if much less publicized, footing. On October 21, 1805 the combined forces of France and Spain were met by the British fleet off Trafalgar. Nelson was not the only hero that day as Collingwood on his flagship "Royal Sovereign" broke the line and following Nelson's death took command and successfully finished the battle for the British without losing a ship. This decisive battle left Britain in control of the seaways and effectively forestalled Napoleon's hopes of an invasion of England with his army assembled at Boulogne. Following Trafalgar, Collingwood received a pension of £2,000 per annum and was made Baron Collingwood. He died at sea near Minorca in 1810.
                                                                                                                                        Toulon Harbor

___________________________________________________________________________

Name: HMS Royal Sovereign                                 Ordered: 3 February 1786
Builder: Plymouth Dockyard                                  Laid down: 7 January 1774
Launched: 11 September 1786
Renamed: HMS Captain, 17 August 1825

Fate: Broken up, 1841                                           Notes: Harbour service from 1826
General characteristics
Class and type: 100-gun 1st rate ship of the line   Tons burthen: 2175 tons
Length: 183 ft 10 1/2 in (gun deck)                         Beam: 52 ft 1 in
Depth of hold: 22 ft 2 1/2 in                                    Propulsion: Sails
Armament: 100 guns:

Gun deck: 28 × 32 pounders                                  Middle gun deck: 28 × 24 pounders
Upper gun deck: 30 × 12 pounders                        Quarter deck: 10 × 12 pounders
Forecastle: 4 × 12 pounders
___________________________________________________________________________

Biographical Note

Lord Horatio Nelson
Vice-Admiral Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson, KB
(29 September 1758 – 21 October 1805)

     Horatio Nelson was born on 29 September 1758 in a rectory in Burnham Thorpe, Norfolk, England. He was educated at Paston Grammar School, North Walsham, and Norwich School, and by the time he was twelve he had enrolled in the Royal Navy. His naval career began on 1 January 1771 when he reported to the third-rate "Raisonnable" as an Ordinary Seaman and coxswain. Nelson’s maternal uncle, Captain Maurice Suckling, commanded the vessel. Shortly after reporting aboard, Nelson was appointed a midshipman and began officer training. Nelson found that he suffered from seasickness, a chronic complaint that dogged him for the rest of his life.
     Suckling became Comptroller of the Navy in 1775 and used his position to help Nelson's rapid advance. By 1777 Nelson had risen to the rank of lieutenant and was assigned to the West Indies. During his service as lieutenant he saw action on the British side in the American Revolutionary War. By the time he was 20, in June 1779, he was made post-captain. The 28-gun frigate "Hinchinbroke", newly captured from the French, was his first command as post-captain. From 1780 to 1783 Nelson served in the Caribbean with a hiatus back in England to recover from illness. Following the America War, Nelson led a 100 man force in an unsuccessful attempt to dislodge a French force from the Turks Islands. In 1784 he was given command of the frigate "Boreas", and assigned to enforce the Navigation Act in the vicinity of Antigua where Nelson met and married Frances (Fanny) Nisbet, a widow native to Nevis in 1787 at the end of his tour of duty in the Caribbean.
     Nelson returned "ashore" to England on half pay until he was recalled to service ad given command of the 64-gun "Agamemnon" in 1793, this started a long series of battles and engagements that would seal his place in history. First assigned to the Mediterranean in 1794, he was wounded in the face by stones and debris thrown up by a close cannon shot during a joint operation at Calvi, Corsica. As a result, Nelson lost the sight in his right eye and half of his right eyebrow. Despite popular legend, there is no evidence that Nelson ever wore an eye patch, though he was known to wear an eyeshade to protect his remaining eye.
     By 1796, the position of Commander-in-Chief of the fleet in the Mediterranean passed to Sir John Jervis (of St. Vincent fame), who appointed Nelson to be Commodore and to exercise independent command over the ships blockading the French coast. Nelson was now appointed to the 74-gun HMS "Captain". In 1796, on leaving Elba for Gibraltar, Nelson transferred his flag to the frigate "Minerve" (commanded by Captain Cockburn). 1797 found Nelson was largely responsible for the British victory at the Battle of Cape St. Vincent. Here he showed his flair for dramatic and bold action. Under the command of Sir John Jervis, the British fleet was ordered to "tack in line," but Nelson disobeyed these orders and "wore ship" to alter course and prevent the Spanish fleet from escaping. He then boarded two enemy ships in succession, an unusual and bold move which was cheered by the whole fleet. Nelson himself led the boarding parties, which was not usually done by high ranking officers.
     In the aftermath of this victory, Nelson was knighted as a member of the Order of the Bath and promoted to Rear Admiral of the Blue. Promotion to admiral at this time was not based on merit but solely on seniority and the availability of positions to fill. Nelson's popularity with his men was largely based upon his rise from Ordinary Seaman to Admiral by-passing the normally rigid hierarchy of the British Navy. Later in the year, while commanding "Theseus" he was shot in the right arm with a musket ball, fracturing his humerus bone in multiple places. Since medical science of the day counseled amputation for almost all serious limb wounds (to prevent death by gangrene), Nelson lost almost his entire right arm and was unfit for duty until mid-December.
    In 1798 Nelson won a great victory over the French. The Battle of the Nile took place on 1 August 1798. Given its huge strategic importance, some historians  regard Nelson's achievement at the Nile as the most significant of his career, Trafalgar notwithstanding. In 1801 Nelson was promoted to Vice Admiral of the Blue (the sixth highest rank). Within a few months he took part in the Battle of Copenhagen which was fought in order to break up the armed neutrality of Denmark, Sweden, and Russia. During the action, Nelson's commander, Sir Hyde Parker, signaled him to break off the action but Nelson held the telescope to his blind eye and commented.  "I really do not see the signal!" His action was later approved and in May he became commander-in-chief in the Baltic Sea. As a reward, he was created Viscount Nelson, of the Nile and of Burnham Thorpe in the County of Norfolk.
     Assigned to HMS "Victory" in May 1803, Nelson joined the blockade of Toulon, France. He would not set foot on dry land again for more than two years. He was promoted to Vice Admiral of the White (the fifth highest rank) while still at sea. In 1805 he was called upon to oppose the French and Spanish fleets which had managed to join up and take refuge in the harbour of Cádiz, Spain and on 21 October 1805 Nelson engaged in his final battle, the Battle of Trafalgar.

Document Specifications:  A very fine handwritten letter signed by Flag Captain John James Stuart, RN aboard the HMS "Royal Sovereign", later Admiral Collingwood's Flagship, and dated June 28th 1804. Folded letter measures 9" tall x 7¼" wide (227mm x 185mm). On single sheet of batonne laid paper watermarked "W.Phipps". Small stains related to bleed through of wax seal (not present). A scarce and meaningful letter concerning Britain's Greatest Admiral and confirming that he was "a plain matter of fact Man without who always speaks his mind & acts as he thinks with directness and decision."

From the Sir Charles Stuart, Lord Rothesay, Correspondence. Stuart was His Britannic Majesty's Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to Portugal during the greater part of the Peninsular War (10 January 1810 to 26 May 1814). He was a personal friend and confidante of Wellington and Nelson, member of the Portuguese Regency (the only British Subject in the war ever permitted to hold an official position in a foreign government while also representing Britain), and later ambassador to Netherlands & France. The most important foreign diplomat of the Peninsular War, his archive of diplomatic, military and intelligence dispatches are second only to Wellington's Dispatches.

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