There is, in the Nottingham Archives two original letters dating from the Napoleonic era, each written by a "Nelson". The shorter of the two letters is written by the man himself, Vice Admiral Lord Horatio Nelson. In early 1801, a Royal Navy fleet of which Nelson was second in command, was sent to the Baltic to counteract the second Armed Neutrality of the North. On April 2nd this fleet fought the Battle of Copenhagen, an event followed by an Armistice with the Danes, which effectively ended any immediate threat to Britain from them.

The fleet had then sailed on to deal with the Swedes and Russians, but the death of Czar Paul I made the mission unnecessary and by 17th May the Armed Neutrality was officially disbanded. This left Nelson, now C-in-C of the fleet, in charge of a peaceful Baltic and by the summer he wanted to go home. Any boat returning to Britain carried at least one letter from him asking to be recalled. This surviving letter appears to be written in that vein. Nelson finally returned home at the beginning of July 1801.

The other letter is written by a William Nelson, who appears to be an Ordinary able Seaman; and thus the letter is a rare survivor of a 'below decks' view of Naval life. The letter written phonetically and without punctuation, besides giving some idea of the level of literacy in a Royal Navy ship, also gives glimpses of conditions aboard a blockading ship and of small scale naval actions. These more mundane tasks, usually consisting of long empty periods at sea, were crucial to the success of the British war effort, but tend to be overshadowed by more spectacular events.

More Letters

Nelson Letters: Introduction
Nelson Letters: Vice Admiral
Nelson Letters: Able Seaman