![NELSON, Horatio, Viscount (1758-1805). Autograph set of orders signed ('Nelson & Bronte') to Captain [Alexander Wilmot] Schomberg, Senior Captain at Malta, Victory, 25 November 1804, one page, 4to (228 x 183mm), (remains of mount on verso).](https://www.christies.com/img/LotImages/2015/CKS/2015_CKS_10455_0044_000(nelson_horatio_viscount_autograph_set_of_orders_signed_to_captain_alex060151).jpg?w=1)
Details
NELSON, Horatio, Viscount (1758-1805). Autograph set of orders signed ('Nelson & Bronte') to Captain [Alexander Wilmot] Schomberg, Senior Captain at Malta, Victory, 25 November 1804, one page, 4to (228 x 183mm), (remains of mount on verso).
A general order stating that: 'All seamen belonging to the fleet except the Prize master & one man [cancelled: if even that is necessary/more if the agent does not want] to be always sent by the first ship of war coming to the fleet and even if they are in quarantine unless the plague is suspected to be on board the Prize they are to be received the last thing before the ships leaving the Port', these stipulations to be left in Schomberg's hands.
The elevated tension between Spain, ally of France, and Britain in the Mediterranean after reports – mistaken, as it transpired – of the batteries of Barcelona firing on an English brig, had prompted the Admiral to think of consolidating his forces; in a letter to Emma Hamilton on the 23 November he wrote: 'I have set the whole Mediterranean to work ... if I had the spare Troops at Malta at my disposal, Minorca would at this point have had English colours flying'. The present orders demand the return of the troops with all speed, despite the quarantine that had been placed on much of the Fleet in an attempt to halt the spread of the fever that had been raging for the past month.
A general order stating that: 'All seamen belonging to the fleet except the Prize master & one man [cancelled: if even that is necessary/more if the agent does not want] to be always sent by the first ship of war coming to the fleet and even if they are in quarantine unless the plague is suspected to be on board the Prize they are to be received the last thing before the ships leaving the Port', these stipulations to be left in Schomberg's hands.
The elevated tension between Spain, ally of France, and Britain in the Mediterranean after reports – mistaken, as it transpired – of the batteries of Barcelona firing on an English brig, had prompted the Admiral to think of consolidating his forces; in a letter to Emma Hamilton on the 23 November he wrote: 'I have set the whole Mediterranean to work ... if I had the spare Troops at Malta at my disposal, Minorca would at this point have had English colours flying'. The present orders demand the return of the troops with all speed, despite the quarantine that had been placed on much of the Fleet in an attempt to halt the spread of the fever that had been raging for the past month.
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