518. Nelson: The Battle of the Nile (Part 5)

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Speaker 1 On the quarterdeck quarterdeck of the vanguard, a slim, slender man in his late 30s, pale and sandy-haired, bowed his head in silent prayer.

Speaker 1 At long last, God had given Horatio Nelson the battle he wanted.

Speaker 1 Now on every ship in the fleet, the drums were pounding, and every face was glowing with eagerness, excitement, and just a hint of nerves.

Speaker 1 On his flagship, Nelson turned to face the east. The light was fading, but for the first time in months, he felt happy.
All his life he had been preparing for this moment.

Speaker 1 Now was his chance to join the heroes of history.

Speaker 1 He did not intend to waste it.

Speaker 1 So, ladies and gentlemen, Forrester, O'Brien,

Speaker 1 Sandbrook, modern masters of prose who have brought the age of Nelson to life.

Speaker 1 And that, of course, was from Nelson, Hero of the Seas by our very own Dominic Sandbrook, describing the scene on the evening of the 1st of August, 1798, as the British fleet sails towards the battle of the Nile.

Speaker 1 Dominic, unbelievable drama.

Speaker 2 It is an incredibly melodramatic scene, Tom. The sun setting over the coast of Egypt.
The Nile and the Nile.

Speaker 2 Yeah, this place of legend, this place of classical history, which is the classical history that has fascinated so many people in the late 18th century.

Speaker 2 And now on the greatest stage of all, Horatio Nelson is meeting his moment of destiny.

Speaker 2 So listeners who've stuck with us from the beginning of this series will remember that Nelson had been sent into the Mediterranean with a squadron of 14 ships of the line to search for Napoleon Bonaparte and the armament.

Speaker 2 this enormous fleet and expeditionary force that has been sailing south. The British didn't know where it was going.
They missed the French by an hour and a day. The French landed in Alexandria.

Speaker 2 They seized control of Egypt. Napoleon marched into Cairo as the master of the sands.
Really?

Speaker 2 And then

Speaker 2 Nelson arrives in Alexandria on the morning of the 1st of August.

Speaker 2 He saw the Tricolor flags flying over the city. The city founded by Alexander.
The city of of the Ptolemies.

Speaker 2 Nelson sends a couple of ships east to see if by any chance the French fleet are still there.

Speaker 2 And the lookouts spot the fleet in Abu Kir Bay. The midshipman George Elliot, 16 years old, up there on the yards, sees the masts and the hunt is over.
They have found them.

Speaker 2 And the signal reaches the rest of the fleet at 2.45 in the afternoon. Signal from the zealous 16 sail of the line at anchor, bearing east by south.

Speaker 2 And for Nelson's captains, who have been despondent that they missed the French, it is a moment of almost transcendent excitement that they have at last found them.

Speaker 1 And it is what Nelson has been looking for, isn't it? A chance to launch not just a battle, but a battle potentially of annihilation. And to give the French commanders their due.

Speaker 1 They knew that if they were found by Nelson, this is what he would try and and do. And so they had strongly argued that the fleet withdraw up to Greece, and Napoleon had overruled them.

Speaker 1 So it is Napoleon himself who has given Nelson and the British fleet their great chance.

Speaker 2 Yeah, Napoleon's hubris, frankly, Tom. It's a theme that runs right through Napoleon's career.

Speaker 2 Obviously, most people regard Napoleon as one of the most brilliant commanders in history, but he is often reckless and heedless of danger. I think it's fair to say.

Speaker 2 And in this occasion, it's his sailors that will pay a very heavy price for that. Because right from the beginning, the British, there's no doubt in their minds at all.

Speaker 2 I think this is the extraordinary thing. We talked about this in our episode about the Battle of Cape St.
Vincent, where they'd fought the Spanish.

Speaker 2 There seems to be, of course, they're nervous as they know the battle is coming. But there's an extraordinary expectation of inevitable victory, isn't there?

Speaker 2 There's a scene on the Orion, the ship of one of Nelson's most talented captains, James Sommeray. They've been having dinner.
So dinner is, you know, early afternoon.

Speaker 2 And the story is that literally the steward is clearing the table in the captain's cabin.

Speaker 2 And they hear the news. They all jump to their feet.
They're kind of shaking hands and slapping each other on the back. They're so excited.

Speaker 1 Huzzahs, I believe, are heard.

Speaker 2 Huzzahs are heard. And they drink a toast.
They drink a bumper, as they call it, to victory because they're so certain. that this is their moment.

Speaker 2 And then they clamber up the ladder and Sommeray gets up onto the deck and the crew have heard the news too.

Speaker 2 And the crew are roaring out three cheers for their captain, for their country, and for their certain victory.

Speaker 1 And Sommeray is reckoned to be one of the more lugubrious of Nelson's captains. So, I mean, imagine what it's like on Trowbridge's ship.

Speaker 2 Yeah, exactly. Exactly.
Or Alexander Ball, the Robinson Crusoe fan. Yeah.
Another officer said, we felt the utmost joy. that the hunt was over.
Now they're going to fight.

Speaker 2 And they are absolutely buzzing with excitement.

Speaker 1 And that joy, that is the Nelson touch, isn't it? The conviction that he shares their sense of joy and that by going on the attack, they are doing what he wants to do.

Speaker 2 Absolutely.

Speaker 1 And that the entire fleet is essentially kind of thinking as one.

Speaker 2 Exactly. Because this is the interesting thing, right? It is now almost three o'clock in the afternoon.

Speaker 2 It's the first of August, but there's probably only about four hours of daylight left before the light really begins to fade.

Speaker 2 Even if Nelson rushes from Alexandria, it will still take him about two hours to reach the enemy.

Speaker 2 So in other words, they don't have much time and they will be doing a lot of the fighting in gathering darkness. And also they don't know the waters, do they? They don't know the waters.

Speaker 2 One or two of them have French charts of the waters, but this is unfamiliar territory.

Speaker 1 They know that there are shoals and the shoals will be playing an important part in the story to come.

Speaker 2 Yes. I know you're very excited about your opportunity to show off your knowledge of the sandbanks of Abu Kir Bay, Tom.
Certainly am.

Speaker 1 And nautical terminology that I have picked up over the years that we've been doing the rest is history.

Speaker 2 Wonderful. You know, people love cutting-edge research.

Speaker 2 And you've been doing it since 2020. All your life has been leading to this hour.

Speaker 1 When I began this podcast, I couldn't have told you what port meant. You know, maybe a drink, but nothing more.
But now,

Speaker 1 I absolutely got it at my fingertips. Wow.

Speaker 2 People like Roger Knight, John Sugden, Andrew Lambert, the great naval historians in it, they will be listening to this podcast in awe, rapt.

Speaker 2 So a different commander would have waited till the next day.

Speaker 1 So you mentioned John Sugden. Yeah.
He says of Nelson, I think correctly, it was not in the Admiral's nature to dither with an enemy in sight.

Speaker 2 Not at all.

Speaker 1 So I give that my stamp of approval.

Speaker 2 It's very Alexander the Great at the Battle of the River Granicus, Tom. You know, he arrives in, it's dark, and he says, attack anyway.
This is the same thing.

Speaker 2 Nelson said, I knew I could go for it because I had total trust in my captains and my men. I had the happiness to command a band of brothers.
Therefore, night was to my advantage.

Speaker 2 Each knew his duty, and I was sure each would feel for a French ship.

Speaker 1 But, Dominic, do you know who this is very bad news for?

Speaker 2 The French?

Speaker 1 Theo? Well, it's bad news for the French, but it's also bad news for the Bullocks who've been brought

Speaker 1 all the way from Sicily

Speaker 1 and who now get chucked into Abakir Bay.

Speaker 2 Right, because the order goes around, beat to quarters. It's like the scene in Master and Commander at the beginning.
What that means is everybody rushes into action.

Speaker 2 They stow the hammocks, they stow every bit of furniture, they pour water on the timbers because they want to stop any possibility of fire spreading.

Speaker 2 They throw down sand on the decks to stop people from slipping.

Speaker 2 Again, if you see Master Commander, you'll know the scene that the surgeons are laying out their saws, the carpenters get their tools, yeah, and of course, warming up their tools because this is something that Nelson's commanded because he remembers what it's like to have cold steel sliced through bone exactly.

Speaker 2 And on the gun decks, which are the most important bits, of course, of the ship, people are getting everything ready, preparing the cannons, getting their balls, getting their powder, everything ready.

Speaker 2 And meanwhile, you know, slowly but surely, they are moving east towards the anchored French fleet. So let's turn now to the French.
The French have 13 ships of the line.

Speaker 2 The flagship is this enormous ship called L'Oréon, the Orient, commanded by Vice-Admiral François-Paul de Prués.

Speaker 1 And Dominic, when you say it's enormous,

Speaker 1 I mean it is larger than any ship. in the entire Royal Navy.
It's got 120 guns and on either side of it there are two 80 gunners. Now, how many guns has Vanguard got, which is Nelson's flagship?

Speaker 2 Vanguard, I think, is a 74, isn't it? Something like that. Right.

Speaker 1 So all three of those ships have more than Nelson's flagship. And the two ships on either side, Le Tonnor, so the Thunderer, and Le Franklin.

Speaker 2 Oh, no. Named after the

Speaker 2 tax resistor. Yeah.

Speaker 1 So there's an incentive.

Speaker 2 Yeah, definitely. Kill two birds with one stone there.
The best British ships are their 74s because they're the perfect balance between, you know, firepower and speed and maneuverability.

Speaker 2 Some of these hulking monsters that the French and the Spanish go in for, as we will see in battle, are actually not as effective.

Speaker 1 But just to emphasize, I mean, they do have, I think, a marginal superiority in firepower.

Speaker 1 So there is, I think, again, this is from John Sugden, the 17 ships, so there are, as well as the 13 ships of the line, there are four frigates which are stationed behind them in the line.

Speaker 1 They carried a nominal total of 1,182 guns firing 26,740 pounds of metal, a firepower exceeding that of the Grand Armée that Napoleon took into Russia in 1812. Wow.
I mean, so quite intimidating.

Speaker 1 Yeah. Shall I describe the French line and all that and where it is?

Speaker 2 I think everybody would love that. I think everybody would love that.

Speaker 1 So you talked about Briers, who's in command, and he is of aristocratic background, but he's an enthusiast for the revolution.

Speaker 1 And even though obviously he's come under suspicion, he's, you know, too good for them to let go. And so he's in command.

Speaker 1 And there is another man of noble descent who, like Briez, was a sympathizer with the revolution and had renounced his kind of nobility.

Speaker 1 So he had been Pierre-Charles de Villeneuve and is now just Pierre-Charles Villeneuve. And he is a man who will be featuring throughout the story of Nelson.

Speaker 1 But at this point, he is in command of the rear guard on board a ship called the Guillaume Telescope, William Tell.

Speaker 1 Briers is in the middle, and then you have what is called the larboard which is apparently the left line.

Speaker 1 So just to set the scene, Abakir Bay, there is a castle on a kind of promontory, Abakir Castle.

Speaker 1 And then the bay kind of curls round and heads eastwards and towards Rosetta, which is the place where the famous Rosetta Stone in due course will be found.

Speaker 1 And the angle, if you drew a straight line from Abakir Bay to Rosetta, you would be going from north-northwest to south-southeast. And this is the line that the French fleet is occupying.

Speaker 1 The 13 ships of the line, the four frigates are stationed behind them. So you have nearest Abakir Castle, that's the larboard side.
It is protected all around its seams by shoals.

Speaker 1 So you have shoals to the south of the castle and you have shoals spreading eastwards. And there's an island called Bequier, which in turn is surrounded by further shoals.

Speaker 1 So the British fleet, fleet to reach the French line, they have to negotiate these shoals.

Speaker 1 And Brias is assuming that the larboard side, so the side that is furthest towards Abakir Castle, that it can't be outflanked because it seems to be protected by the shoals.

Speaker 1 And that is his assumption.

Speaker 2 Yeah, his thinking is that the British attack will come from the seaward side.

Speaker 2 because his line is kind of parallel to the coast and there's no way he thinks the British can get round between his ships and the land and attack from that side.

Speaker 2 So all the preparations are towards the sea.

Speaker 1 And so the ships that are closest to the shoals on the larboard side, Guerrier, so warrior, Conqueron, Conqueror, Spartiet, a Spartan, bristling names. In fact, some of them are a bit ropey.

Speaker 1 So Conqueron, it's 52 years old. It's very undermanned.
It's kind of lacking in armaments.

Speaker 1 But I think that the French naval command assume this won't be a problem because First of all, it will be very difficult for the British to negotiate the islands and the shoals to actually get at the French line.

Speaker 1 And above all, it will be impossible for them to outflank them and get behind the rear. This is the assumption.

Speaker 2 That's right. So Preuse's plan, basically, he knows that his crews aren't as good as the British crews.
They've been short of food and fresh water. They haven't been terribly well treated by Napoleon.

Speaker 2 Morale is not brilliant. But he thinks, yeah, the last thing, therefore, I want to do is to sail out and face the British in the open seas because it's a defensive position.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 2 We're nicely against the bay. We'll stay where we are, let the British come onto us, and then we just blast them out of the sea, and they will disperse, and that's how we will win the day.

Speaker 1 And also, just to say that there is also cannon in the castle, so that's an additional risk for any attacking force.

Speaker 2 Yeah. So he gives his order, sonneiles bran le bris, au bosse de gomba.

Speaker 2 And you know, the French are all rushing to their battle stations, but all on the side facing the sea.

Speaker 1 With the wind, and the wind is blowing the British fleet towards them.

Speaker 2 That's right. So now it's half past four.
The sun is sinking fast. On they come, Tom, the pride of the Royal Navy sailing in perfect order towards the lengthening shadows.
That's just a taste.

Speaker 2 Is that another teaser of the prose you can expect in this landmark book?

Speaker 2 Um, Nelson flies his favorite signal: prepare for battle.

Speaker 2 And then he's

Speaker 2 then he flies a second crucial signal.

Speaker 2 And I think everybody would enjoy it, Tom, if you explain precisely the technological and tactical nuances of this second signal, which is to anchor from the stern once within range.

Speaker 2 What does that mean?

Speaker 1 It's very simple.

Speaker 1 Anchoring from the stern means that if a ship is sailing before the wind, so the wind is blowing it onwards, you reach a point, you come to a sudden halt and you hold your course so that you remain broadside on to the ship that you're firing on without kind of veering round.

Speaker 1 Without swinging. Without swinging.
So in other words, the French fleet are anchored. The British fleet want to get to a position where their their cannon will be as devastating as possible.

Speaker 1 To do that, they want to anchor as well. So they come bombing along.
And essentially, it's like a kind of sudden break.

Speaker 2 Yes, like an emergency stop or something. Yeah.

Speaker 1 It's like an emergency stop, but you know, you're not kind of swinging around with the shock of it. Yeah.
And this is a technique that Nelson himself has developed.

Speaker 2 Yes, and he's developed the signal for it himself because it's never been done before. And the thing is, it sounds like, well, why is that so complicated?

Speaker 2 Just stop in front of the enemy and shoot at them.

Speaker 2 But actually, to anchor by the stern means basically you come on, you come on you come on and at a given moment the sailors have to furl the sails to slow the ship they drop this massive anchor 20 tons from the stern of the ship and then you run down below decks yeah and you get to your guns because obviously there's a risk the moment you stop then you're easier for the enemy to shoot at you and you have to do this all yeah within a question of seconds minutes maximum in the dark and with shoals all around and the point is If it works, you'll be perfectly placed to hammer the French.

Speaker 2 You'll have stopped right next to them, broadside on and bang you can go for it if it doesn't work you are totally vulnerable and the french will be able to blast you out of the sea or you might run into you know an island or a shoal or a sandbank or whatever exactly and nelson knows that nobody else in the world can do this that there is only one fleet that is so well trained so disciplined so well provided for so well prepared And that's the Royal Navy.

Speaker 2 Nobody else could dream of doing such a maneuver under such intense pressure. So on they go.
That is the instruction. At about 10 to 5, one more signal.

Speaker 2 He says, concentrate your fire on the enemy front and centre.

Speaker 2 When we've dealt with them, we move on to the enemy rear, which is under Villeneuve, as you said.

Speaker 1 Also, Dominic, just to say that the wind that is blowing the British towards the French also mean that it'll be quite difficult for Villeneuve to come up to the centre should they need support.

Speaker 2 That's right. So now they're approaching the shoals and sandbanks at the entrance to the bay.
And once they're past them, they can turn to engage the French. The sun is now beginning to set.

Speaker 2 You imagine the scene. captured in so many paintings actually afterwards, this blood-red glow across the shore of Egypt.

Speaker 2 And it does have a really, I mean, when I was writing about this in the book, you're blown away by the epic feel of it, because this is the kind of territory for which Rome and Carthage fought. Yeah.

Speaker 1 Well, you know, literally in the waters underneath the battle, there are statues and columns from Ptolemaic temples and buildings. I mean, just kind of littering the bay.

Speaker 2 And of course, both Nelson and Napoleon see themselves as actors in a drama to rival the greatest stories of the classical world, don't they? So it's the most appropriate setting.

Speaker 1 It's unbelievable. And, you know, this is going to be the greatest naval battle of the 18th century in terms of scale and in terms of the drama of the tactics.

Speaker 2 Absolutely, it is. So 5.30, Nelson sends another signal.
Form the line as most convenient into the line of battle. The first ship to go around the sandbanks is Thomas Foley's ship Goliath.

Speaker 1 And so when you say the sandbanks, these are the sandbanks and the shoals that are extended out from the island of Becquier.

Speaker 1 That has to be negotiated so that they round that and then they can sail directly towards the French line. Exactly.

Speaker 2 So, Foley's leading the way with Samuel Hood, no relation. Well, he is a relation, but he's not the same as the Samuel Hood from a couple of episodes ago in the Zealous close behind.

Speaker 2 Now, Foley has a map of the shoals published in 1764, a map published in Paris by a Frenchman, the irony.

Speaker 2 And as he goes round the sandbanks into the water, he realises this thing about Prey's line, that the French have left a gap between themselves and the shore.

Speaker 1 So the larboard side.

Speaker 2 The larboard side, exactly.

Speaker 1 So this line that Preyers had thought was impregnable couldn't be outflanked, can be outflanked, but only if you have an absolute mastery of seamanship.

Speaker 2 So what you'll need to do is glide between the French and the shore.

Speaker 2 That would allow you to open fire from the shore side onto the French, where the French crews have not bothered to prepare their guns.

Speaker 1 Because it hasn't crossed their minds that the British could outflank them and therefore kind of crush them between two walls of fire. Exactly.

Speaker 2 So, what Foley does in the Goliath, he goes around the leading French ship, he's raking it as he goes, and then he does exactly as Nelson planned.

Speaker 2 At the given moment, they furl the sails, the sailors drop this massive 20-ton anchor, and then they sprint downstairs to their gun decks, to their cannons, and open fire, pouring fire, all this metal, the cannonballs, the metal, the shrapnel, whatever, into the sides of the first French ship.

Speaker 1 And just to say also about the French ships, the French aim at the masts, the British don't, they aim at the decks. But having said that, it takes six minutes for the Guerrier's foremast to come down.

Speaker 1 And this is the first concrete sign for all the British ships that are following that this tactic is working. There's a great cheer along the line of the fleet.

Speaker 1 And it's evident that Nelson's plan essentially full steam ahead yes because as Foley anchors other British ships are continuing past him so each ship will you know will take the next position further on in line next to the French ship and actually the only British ship that doesn't make it round the shoals that stretch westward of this island of Bequier so getting into the open sea that would enable him to attack the French is Trowbridge's Culludon yeah so the kind of the great firebrand of Nelson's captains he's the only one who can't get to grips with them.

Speaker 2 But I think you could argue in his defense, somebody was always going to do that. And he is able to then signal to the two ships behind, watch out.
Yeah.

Speaker 2 I mean, somebody had to do that at some point, I guess.

Speaker 1 So Nelson does not blame him, as we will see in due course for this at all. Yeah.

Speaker 2 So five ships have done that flanking movement that we were talking about, Tom. going on the side nearest the shore.

Speaker 2 And meanwhile, Nelson's vanguard leads the attack from the other side, the seaward side. So what that means is the French are now trapped.

Speaker 2 They're sandwiched between two lines of British ships taking damage from both sides. And if we just take a minute to imagine the scene, what an unbelievable kind of canvas this is.

Speaker 2 This huge red setting sun, Nelson's ships blasting away, the gun crews, presumably at this point, absolutely sodden with sweat.

Speaker 2 I mean, to be down there below decks, the cannons, the thunder, the soot, the gun smoke that's choking your lungs.

Speaker 2 People are shouting and screaming the whole time. As the French, of course, are firing back.
Splinters flying through the air, blood everywhere, bodies piling up on the decks around you. And yet,

Speaker 2 this is what the Navy does. They are so disciplined, they are just loading and loading and loading and firing and firing and firing.

Speaker 1 And of course, if it's bad to be in the Royal Navy, it's even worse for... the French ships who are caught between these two lines of metal smashing into them.

Speaker 1 So I think already, even by the time that Vanguard is taking up its position, the two French ships on the larboard side are pretty much already completely wrecked. So that's Guerrier and Conqueron.

Speaker 1 I mean, they're kind of crippled pretty much beyond repair, but goodness, they fight bravely too.

Speaker 2 Oh, they do. Yeah, absolutely.
They do.

Speaker 1 Le Guerrier will keep fighting for three hours. You know, all the masts have gone.
The British captains are kind of calling out surrender, surrender. They just keep on.

Speaker 2 And, you know, this battle is a terrible battle because the French, although essentially they're in a horrible position they do not give up they don't at all and they're inflicting great punishment by the way on the british ships so there's a story about on the goliath for example there's a boy sailor who is just about to put his match to his gun when the french open fire the enemy broadside literally tears his hand from his body and the story goes and it's one of those stories that you know hollywood wouldn't invent it is that he just reaches down with his surviving hand he picks up the match which is still burning and fires the gun he makes sure to fire the gun with his other hand before going downstairs to find the surgeon with kind of blood streaming from where his right hand had once been the pluck of british youth dominic absolutely it is tom and hope and i would hope that reading this book british youngsters will feel inspired to behave similarly under pressure sure it will so meanwhile nelson's vanguard is also taking horrific punishment french fire rips through the rigging there is shrapnel and splinters everywhere.

Speaker 2 The timbers are soaked with blood. And then Nelson is hit.

Speaker 2 At 8.30, a jagged piece of iron among the hail of splinters and shrapnel comes spinning through the air so fast that there is no time to duck and it smacks into Nelson's head.

Speaker 2 And he is down, blood pouring from a gash in his head. And like a character in an opera, he shouts, I am killed.
Remember me to my wife.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 2 And the men rush to his side. They carry him down to the cockpit.
The surgeon wipes away the blood. It's actually just a surface wound.

Speaker 2 It's an extremely gory surface wound because the shrapnel has sliced open his head for three inches. But it's effectively a flesh wound as long as it's not infected.
He shouldn't have any trouble.

Speaker 1 It's not like he's lost his arm, is it?

Speaker 2 He hasn't lost his arm or indeed another eye. And it's nothing compared with the shattered bones and severed limbs of his comrades.
And he will soon be back on deck for the endgame.

Speaker 2 And we will be back after a commercial break to look at that end game.

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Speaker 1 The boy stood on the burning deck, whence to all but him had fled. The flame that lit the battle's wreck shone round him o'er the dead.

Speaker 1 Yet beautiful and bright he stood as born to rule the storm, a creature of heroic blood, a proud, though childlike form.

Speaker 1 The flames rolled on, he would not go without his father's word. That father faint in death below, his voice no longer heard.

Speaker 1 So that was Casabianca by Felicia Dorothea Hemmons, published in 1826. She was by far the most distinguished female poet of the day.

Speaker 1 In fact, I should have done it in a scouse accent, in a Liverpool accent, because that's where she came from.

Speaker 1 And then she went and lived in Wales. And I mean, that is one of the kind of classic Victorian poetic illustrations of pluck and heroism of the kind that the Victorians so adored.

Speaker 2 But French pluck.

Speaker 1 But French pluck, yes. So this is the story of the 12-year-old son of the captain on the French flagship, Orien, Luc Julien-Joseph Casabianca.

Speaker 1 So he's capturing the ship on which Briès, the commander of the French fleet, is also using as his flagship. And the context for this is that the ship is burning.

Speaker 1 It has an enormous amount of gunpowder on it. So it is about to go up sky high.

Speaker 1 but the boy refuses to abandon his post because his father has told him not to move, but his father has been knocked unconscious, and so the boy just stands there to the bitter end.

Speaker 1 And shall I continue the poem?

Speaker 2 I'd love that, Tom.

Speaker 1 Do you think listeners would would enjoy that?

Speaker 2 Yeah, I think they'd love it too. Okay.

Speaker 1 I'd love a bit of Victorian melodrama. There came a burst of thunder sound.
The boy Oh, where was he?

Speaker 1 Ask of the winds that far around

Speaker 1 With fragments strewed the sea. with mast and helm and pen and fare that well had borne their part.

Speaker 1 But the noblest thing which perished there was that young, faithful heart.

Speaker 2 Oh, Tom, it's so moving. Thing is, a lot of people genuinely kind of scoff at that and say madly overwrought Victorian verse.

Speaker 2 I can quite see why Victorians listen to that with tears running down their cheeks.

Speaker 1 I think it should be on the GCSE syllabus.

Speaker 2 Absolutely, it should. So that's the fate of L'Oréal.
And at the time, one of the most famous stories in the world. You know, the story of this boy.

Speaker 2 In the English-speaking world, everybody did this poem in school. However, we'll come back to Orion.
I mean, it is one of the most spectacular and tragic moments in naval history.

Speaker 2 The night is falling across the sands of Egypt. Tom, night is also falling on the ambitions of Napoleon Bonaparte.

Speaker 1 It is very difficult to talk about this battle without lurching into

Speaker 1 the ripest melodrama. So let's just go for it and be unapologetic.
Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 So now, 8.30 or so.

Speaker 1 The ships on the larboard side basically have been knocked out.

Speaker 2 Yeah, the first five French ships. So Spartiet, Tonnon, Guerrier.

Speaker 1 And now they've got the ships in the middle of the line. So that is L'Orignon, of course, which we've just been talking about.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 You know, this huge three-deck ship, 120 guns, larger than any ship in the Royal Navy. And it's flanked on either side by Le Franklin.

Speaker 1 and Le Tonnon, both of which also have more guns than Nelson's own flagship. So might seem tough tough nut to crack.
It is.

Speaker 2 But Nelson's band of brothers are up for it. So the first to emerge through the smoke and the chaos is Bellerophon, captained by Henry Destair Derby.

Speaker 2 And this anchors at the stern just as planned, all guns blazing beside the French flagship. It is dwarfed by L'Orient, but for half an hour or so, Darby is just firing and firing and firing.

Speaker 2 And he's taking horrendous punishment himself.

Speaker 1 Bellerophon suffers more casualties than any other British ship in the Battle of the Nile.

Speaker 2 Almost 200 men dead or injured. The sail slashed to ribbons, the mast cut down.
Derby himself is knocked senseless with a head wound. But then, after half an hour, two more British ships.

Speaker 2 See, as each British ship kind of cleans up a French ship, they can then move on to the next. So the Alexandra and the Swiftshore also close in on Lorien.

Speaker 2 By about nine o'clock, Lorien was in terrible trouble. So the deck is covered with splinters of wood and basically bits of French sailors.
Now, among them is the Admiral Bruis himself.

Speaker 2 He has stood there the whole time under the most punishing withering fire. He was hit by British fire in the head and in the arm.

Speaker 2 Unbelievably, he takes a shot to the stomach that almost rips his body in two. And his men try to carry the sort of two semi-detached bits of him

Speaker 2 down. And he says, somehow, through kind of blood pouring from his head, he says, no, I will die as I've lived on the deck of my ship.
And he actually lives for another 15 minutes.

Speaker 1 I mean, amazing. And the commander of Le Tonnor as well,

Speaker 1 just unbelievable. He loses both his arms and a leg, and he carries on fighting as he slowly bleeds to death.

Speaker 2 I mean, I have to say, throughout this story, indeed, throughout Nelson's entire life and career, without exception, the French adversaries that he faces perform with outstanding courage under fire because they are always outperformed by the British.

Speaker 2 They always know they will be, but they never give up. They don't run away.
They don't hold down their colours straight away.

Speaker 2 They are fired by patriotism and a dedication to the service just as much as their British opponents are. So it's nice to say something nice about our Gallic friends, isn't it, Tom?

Speaker 1 I think it reflects very well on you.

Speaker 2 Oh, Tom, that's crazy.

Speaker 1 And on the sense of fair play of an Englishman.

Speaker 2 Yeah, it's a Corinthian spirit, isn't it, really?

Speaker 1 So it reflects well on the French, but even more on us.

Speaker 2 So that's good. So let's go back to Lorien.
What did happen to the captain of Lauren, Casabianca?

Speaker 2 He was probably, some sources suggest, hit in the face by debris, and he probably was knocked unconscious. And his son was on the ship with him.
There are various accounts.

Speaker 2 Some say he's 10, some say he's 12, some say he's 13. He probably actually had, this is a horrible detail, had his leg torn off by a cannonball as he was standing next to his father.

Speaker 1 So he probably didn't stand on the burning deck.

Speaker 2 Now, at some point, a midshipman on the Alexander spots a glow on the poop deck of Lorien, an allurid orange glow.

Speaker 2 Lorien is on fire. And there are different theories about what happened.

Speaker 2 Some historians think that Lorien was not properly cleared for action and it had some jars of paint or oil on the poop deck that ignited in the chaos and the flames.

Speaker 2 But Alexander Ball, the captain of the Alexander, said that he had prepared a kind of sort of Greek fire style.

Speaker 1 Byzantine liquid napalm.

Speaker 2 Yeah, combustible preparation he had prepared in case of the direst emergency and that he said one of his lieutenants without his knowledge threw it at Lorien.

Speaker 2 The interesting thing there is there's a sort of sense that if that happened it was illegitimate and it was unsporting. It was cheating.

Speaker 2 Isn't that extraordinary that they've got this thing, which clearly was a super weapon? And they're like, oh, it would be very bad form to say that we used it.

Speaker 2 So the lieutenant did it, but I didn't order it.

Speaker 1 That kind of body line.

Speaker 2 Anyway, it's possible that it happened, right? Some bloke threw this through the windows of the Alexander onto Lorillon.

Speaker 1 But the key thing is, is that Lorillon, because it's so huge, therefore has a correspondingly vast quantity of gunpowder. Exactly.

Speaker 1 And that's why, you know, it's not just people on the ship, but people all around are starting to think,

Speaker 1 this is looking a bit dodgy.

Speaker 2 Because this fire starts to spread very quickly. It goes up the rigging.
Now, the French, of course, have fire pumps aboard. All ships have fire pumps to try and deal with this.

Speaker 2 But the fire pumps have been smashed to pieces by British shot.

Speaker 2 A second fire begins at the bow, and that means that hundreds of sailors are trapped now in the waste of the ship, and they can't get out. The British, of course, keep firing and firing all the time.

Speaker 2 The flames are leaping up the rigging of Lorien. Black smoke starts to pour from Lorien, and at this point, some of the sailors start to try to jump.

Speaker 2 They're kind of on fire, or they're screaming or whatever. Now, Nelson has been brought specifically back up, even though he's got blood pouring from his head.

Speaker 2 He's got a kind of bandage on, to see this.

Speaker 2 And he can see at once, as everybody can, that the French flagship, this enormous kind of leviathan of the waters, is doomed, that the fire is now raging unchecked, and it will eventually, as you've said, Tom, it will reach the magazine and ignite this enormous amount of gunpowder that the Orion is carrying.

Speaker 2 And so at about this point, when it's clear that the fire can't be stopped, the British and French captains on all sides are kind of rushing to cut their own anchor cables.

Speaker 1 Yeah, because they don't want to be caught in the blast.

Speaker 2 They need to be carried away because when the fire reaches the magazine, there will be an explosion the like of which they have never seen before.

Speaker 2 And Nelson, to his great credit, I think, Tom, says to his lieutenants, prepare to pick up survivors. You know, this is what we do.

Speaker 2 I mean, this is, again, it's this odd thing about fighting at sea that there is this code, isn't there, of kind of nobility, I guess.

Speaker 1 Well, so much against you, isn't there? You've got the enemy and you've got the sea.

Speaker 2 Yeah, exactly. So about half nine, hundreds of men are trying to jump from Loriant.
But actually, of course, a lot of these sailors cannot swim.

Speaker 2 I mean, this is a theme of the Master and Commander series, isn't it? The Patrick O'Brien books.

Speaker 1 Plus, it's very dark.

Speaker 2 And, you know, there's kind of bodies everywhere and bits of... Of course.

Speaker 1 Yeah, just terrifying.

Speaker 2 And then, according to one account at least, it's at 9.37 that the fire reaches the magazine of Lorien. And that is the most unbelievable explosion.

Speaker 2 It's as though the entire French flagship just suddenly turns into this gigantic fireball and the searing kind of white heat of the explosion is felt by everybody across the bay.

Speaker 2 Just boom, this kind of bursts.

Speaker 1 And it's heard for kind of miles around and seen for miles around, isn't it? This great kind of wall of fire spurting up into the sky. People in Alexandria hear it deep into the desert.

Speaker 1 I mean, astonishing.

Speaker 2 If a Hollywood filmmaker is listening, there are the most amazing descriptions. The whole thing is lit up suddenly.
It is like it's midday because of the heat and light of this explosion.

Speaker 2 And the sailors can see suddenly for the first time that on the shore there are dozens, hundreds of Mameluk and Arab spectators who have been watching the battle unfold.

Speaker 2 Captain Miller of Theseus, he said, a most grand and awful spectacle such as formerly would have drawn tears down the victor's cheeks.

Speaker 2 But, he says, pity was stifled as it rose by the remembrance of the numerous and horrid atrocities that their unprincipled and bloodthirsty nation had been and were committing.

Speaker 2 And when she blew up, although I endeavoured to stop the momentary cheer of the ship's company, my heart felt scarce a single pang for their fate.

Speaker 1 Nelson is softer-hearted, isn't he? And they rescue, what, about 70? 70 survivors, pulled up from the waters.

Speaker 1 And the thing that's amazing, always strikes me about this, is that the sound is so deafening that for about 10 minutes, everyone stops fighting. They do.

Speaker 1 Obviously the kind of, you know, the noise is ringing in everybody's ears and there is a kind of silence succeeds it because people can't carry on firing their own guns.

Speaker 2 What's more, all they can hear is there's a steam, the hiss of the steam, but also the sound of thousands of fragments raining down on the waters. So bits of wood, bits of metal.

Speaker 1 And of course they are, I mean, if you're in the sea and you have a bit of cannon fall on top of you.

Speaker 2 Yeah, an anchor fall on top of your head. That's not good, is it? No, not at all.
There's an account by one lieutenant who wrote an account afterwards, and he said, he wrote it in their present tense.

Speaker 2 So after about 10 minutes, as you say, they haul themselves up from the decks where they've been taking cover and start firing again.

Speaker 2 And he wrote, and so the battle recommences, and the roaring of the guns, the crashing of the masts, and the shrieks of wounded and the jargon of surrendering Frenchmen fill up the remainder of this most memorable night.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 1 And it carries on to what, kind of the early hours of the morning, one o'clock, two o'clock, something like like that yeah about two o'clock i think and essentially they're just too tired by the end and this is good news for pierchal villeneuve aboard the william tell the guillaume tell because he essentially i mean you said even the french have had a good fight i mean he hasn't really he could have come up and and helped but he doesn't and i think he's kind of torn between thinking should i pile in but i'll probably you know our ships will get sunk as well should i try and escape with what I can get from the ruin?

Speaker 1 And so ultimately he decides that that's what he'll do. And so his own ship, the Guillem Tel and the General, which is another one, they get away.
But all the others, they're either sunk or captured.

Speaker 1 And it is

Speaker 1 exactly the battle of annihilation that Nelson had wanted. Nelson hasn't lost a single ship, and it's an astonishing victory.

Speaker 1 So 11 ships of the line, two frigates, a brig, either captured or destroyed. And

Speaker 1 only Villeneuve really lives to fight another day. And of course, he will live to fight another day because he will be the commander who is defeated at the Battle of Trafalgar.

Speaker 2 And this is so important, because from this moment onwards, the gossip in Paris is that Villeneuve was frightened and he ran away. And he, instead of standing and fighting, he fled.

Speaker 2 Now, Villeneuve was very upset by this. His argument was, you know, I got away and everybody else was destroyed or captured.
I didn't behave dishonourably. I did the right thing.

Speaker 2 But this will play a part in the Battle of Trafalgar and in his decision.

Speaker 1 Because he doesn't want to retreat again, does he?

Speaker 2 Exactly. So Nelson lost just over 200 men.
The French lost somewhere between 2,000 and 4,000. And as you said, Tom, this is the most cataclysmic defeat for the French Navy.

Speaker 2 The most obvious effect is on Napoleon Bonaparte. He was in Cairo at his headquarters, which was in a kind of converted, you know, Ottoman townhouse.

Speaker 1 One thing I was wondering, I don't know whether you've come across this, I can't remember reading it, is whether by this point, Napoleon has a sense that Nelson is an adversary to fear, to respect, because he ends up having kind of bust of Nelson, doesn't he, on his mantelpiece?

Speaker 1 Yes, he does. Presumably, this is the moment where he really thinks, actually, here is a worthy adversary.

Speaker 2 I think so, yes. Would he have even known of Nelson's heroism at the Battle of Cape St.
Vincent? He might have heard of it, but he probably wouldn't have.

Speaker 1 Probably he doesn't, actually.

Speaker 2 Because the news comes to him, and it is said that he basically takes the note and puts it aside.

Speaker 2 But the next morning, he's talking to his lieutenants, Napoleon this is, and he says to them, it seems you like this country.

Speaker 2 Well, that's lucky because now we don't have any fleet to take us back to Europe. And actually, the remarkable thing is he stays for another year in the Middle East.

Speaker 2 He delays the inevitable by launching his disastrous Gaza campaign.

Speaker 2 which basically sees the French army causing utter carnage in Gaza and then wandering hither and thither across the desert, stricken by plague and behaving very badly.

Speaker 2 Basically, Napoleon, this is the first time that he does what would be a feature of his career. He scuttles back to France, abandoning his army and he leaves them in the desert.

Speaker 2 So 40,000 men who went to Egypt with Napoleon, 15,000 were killed or very seriously wounded, and the rest all ended up as British prisoners.

Speaker 2 So the whole campaign, which is, as you said, an extraordinary landmark in human history, is nevertheless an utter disaster.

Speaker 1 And from the British point of view, brilliant, because India is now secured as well.

Speaker 2 Exactly. But beyond that, the Battle of the Nile, naval historians have often said this is a real turning point in world history.

Speaker 2 Ben Wilson, in his history of the Royal Navy, says it was undoubtedly the greatest victory in British naval history because the French had a control of the Mediterranean.

Speaker 2 and they have definitively lost it. Napoleon's army is trapped.
It has broken the image of Napoleon's invincibility. And it has permanently shattered the confidence of France's navy.

Speaker 2 There was a French academic study in 1998, and they wrote about the Battle of the Nile. The Battle of the Nile is a battle of which French historians never speak.

Speaker 1 So this presumably is why Theo had never heard of it.

Speaker 2 Theo never heard of it. Oh, come on, Theo, that's poor.

Speaker 1 But I think more than that, so obviously it deals a devastating blow to the confidence of the French navy.

Speaker 1 But of course, it also boosts the confidence of those European powers who had withdrawn from the fight against France and who now kind of think maybe France isn't invincible after all.

Speaker 2 Exactly.

Speaker 1 And of course, that is the great geopolitical goal for Britain, isn't it?

Speaker 1 It's not just to save India and to re-establish British naval control over the Mediterranean, but to try and get the land-based allies that it needs.

Speaker 1 Because it's not enough for Britain to avoid defeat. It needs actually victory against France.
And that means that they need allies with armies. Exactly.

Speaker 2 Britain needs to keep winning victories at sea to get the Austrians and the Prussians back into the war to prosecute the defeat of the French on land.

Speaker 2 And of course that will take a very long time, but in the long run the British strategy does work.

Speaker 2 So Nelson holds a service of thanksgiving aboard the Vanguard and as a good vicar's son who says this is God's victory. The hand of God was visibly pressed on the French.

Speaker 2 It was not in the power of man to gain such a victory. So an Achilles, but a Christian Achilles.
Yes. But his officers are in no doubt.

Speaker 2 As Sommaray writes to Napoleon, it was the most glorious and complete victory ever obtained, the just recompense of your zeal.

Speaker 2 And it has pleased Providence to give you the sight of these vile miscreants who've now received the just punishment due to their past crimes. But Sommaray is in no doubt.

Speaker 2 It's Nelson's personal victory. He calls a meeting of the captains and they say we will found an Egyptian club in honor of the victory.

Speaker 2 When we get the club room, we will have a portrait of Nelson and we will hang it there and we will club together ourselves to buy Nelson a sword to thank him for leading us to this amazing, amazing triumph.

Speaker 1 And Dominic, just to say that Nelson likewise looks out for his captains, because of course we mentioned how Trowbridge doesn't take part in the battle because he's been stranded on this shoal.

Speaker 1 And so in due course, when medallions are given to the various captains who had fought in the Battle of the Nile, there was a move to deny Trowbridge his medallion, and Nelson was absolutely insistent that he have one.

Speaker 1 That is nice. So that's the band of brothers in Operation.

Speaker 2 Yeah, and Nelson, you know, he's such a romantic deep down, isn't he? That band of brothers stuff that lots of people might scoff at. He loves that.

Speaker 2 And you can just imagine his officers telling him about this Egyptian club they're going to set up with a picture of him. And you can imagine kind of the manly tears springing into his eyes, Tom.

Speaker 2 You know, he would have absolutely adored that. The news reaches Gibraltar and then Cadiz,

Speaker 2 and then it travels to the Admiralty in London. It arrives on the 2nd of October, my birthday.
A messenger is sent to the king, George III.

Speaker 1 I love this. This is almost my favourite episode in the whole history of Nelson.

Speaker 2 The whole history of history.

Speaker 1 The whole history of history. There's nothing better than this.

Speaker 2 The messenger to George III is crossing Hounslow Heath and is stopped by a highwayman.

Speaker 2 And when the messenger tells the highwayman what the packet contains, which is news of Nelson's victory at the Nile, The highwayman, without a word, hands him back the package and says, be on your way.

Speaker 2 You know, what an amazing story. Oh, there are bonfires and bells and fireworks.
In every theater, people are singing Royal Britannia. It is the most extraordinary moment of national celebration.

Speaker 2 And relief. And relief, of course.

Speaker 1 It's the kind of El Alamein, isn't it?

Speaker 2 It's El Alamein and Mafeking and Port Stanley rolled into one. Nelson is awarded a barony.
He's a bit disappointed. That's the thing with Nelson.
He's always after more.

Speaker 2 He hoped he would be made a Viscount.

Speaker 1 He hasn't got the money for it, has he?

Speaker 2 He hasn't got the money. This is the reason that he can't support a Viscount's lifestyle.
However, he's not going to go home just yet. He now divides his fleet into three.

Speaker 2 So one group will remain at Alexandria to blockade the French. And people who love blockades, Tom, you've said how much you like blockades.

Speaker 2 Perhaps you'd like to treat them to the story of that blockade in a bonus episode at some future point. Yeah, that'd be fun.
I won't be there for that recording because I find blockades very boring.

Speaker 2 A second group escort the captured French ships to Gibraltar so they can claim the prize money. Really important, of course, for anyone in the Royal Navy.

Speaker 2 And finally, Nelson himself will take the battered vanguard, Alexander and Culloden to Naples so that Britain's only real allies in the Mediterranean can hear the news of the battle at first hand.

Speaker 1 And dominate not just the king and queen in Naples, but of course the British emboy Sir William Hamilton and his delightful wife, Lady Hamilton.

Speaker 2 Now this is the end of the first season of Nelson. We'll be returning to his story in the spring.
Would you like a little teaser, Tom, for the second season of Horatio Nelson? Yeah, I'd love one.

Speaker 2 And so, on the 22nd of September, the Vanguard limped into the Bay of Naples. Ahead lay the third largest city in Europe, simmering with danger.

Speaker 2 Although Nelson could hardly have known it, one of the darkest chapters in his life was about to begin.

Speaker 1 So that is from your book, Dominic Nelson, Hero of the Seas, and it's the perfect Christmas present for readers of all ages you've written down here.

Speaker 1 Now, as you said, we will be back continuing the story of Nelson in the spring. Obviously, we won't be covering.
the darkest chapter in Nelson's life. I really don't think we need to bother with that.

Speaker 2 You don't reckon we'll do Naples at all?

Speaker 1 No, we don't need to bother with that. So we will be back with the Battle of Copenhagen, another brilliant victory for Nelson.

Speaker 2 I have to say, I think we will be doing Naples. So people may want to skip that one if they don't want to hear anything bad about Nelson.

Speaker 1 So if you can't wait, we have actually touched on most of the episodes that follow on from the Battle of the Nile in various previous episodes of the rest of history.

Speaker 1 So William Hamilton, whose wife Emma Hamilton will be playing a leading role in the darkest chapter in Nelson's life, he was on Love Island 2. So you can hear about him.

Speaker 1 The Battle of Copenhagen, Nelson's great victory in the Baltic, featured in the very early episode we did when we did one on England against Denmark for those Euros, wasn't it?

Speaker 2 Euro 2020.

Speaker 1 So we've done that. And we've done a three-part series on Trafalgar.
So you can kind of piece them together. But we will be doing all of these in much more detail in the spring.

Speaker 1 And it continues to be a remarkable. and epic story and we will see you then.
Okay.

Speaker 1 But our next episode, we will still be in the Near East, but we will be exploring a time millennia before the age of Nelson as we go in search of the world's oldest city.

Speaker 2 So, bye-bye. Goodbye.