his health improved, and when he got home he was fit enough to take an immediate position with another ship.
He must have missed the companions with whom he had shared the past two and a half years. He would meet Troubridge again andthe two would stand together in brilliant victories and a humiliating defeat.
Thomas Surridge would also flourish. In fact, he sailed for home within months of Nelson, passed his examination for lieutenant in England on 10 September 1777, and had his commission confirmed on 9 June 1779 by an appointment to the Isis . He could easily have remained a lieutenant, and served on several ships in that capacity, but the outbreak of the wars with revolutionary France created more opportunities. Surridge was appointed commander of the Goelan sloop, went to the West Indies, where he transferred to the Alligator , and in 1794 made the key rank of post-captain. In 1804 he commanded his largest ship, the sixty-four-gun Trident , but in retirement with his wife, Mary, he continued to rise in the service, achieving flag rank in 1812 and becoming vice admiral of the blue squadron on 12 August 1819. As if satisfied, he died towards the end of the same year in Chichester, Sussex, at the age of seventy-two, the last surviving mentor of the young Nelson. 27
The homeward run of the Dolphin was uneventful. She put into Anjenga roads on 2 April 1776 and then sliced through squally seas and variable weather towards the coast of Africa, which was sighted on 11 May. Ten days later she entered Simon’s Bay, in False Bay at the Cape of Good Hope, controlled by the Dutch. Apart from the three-gabled hospital to the right of the anchorage, the simple settlement consisted of a jetty, magazines, stables, workshops and a few houses, one using a flag to proclaim its status as a command post. Nevertheless, it was a safe haven and a French frigate, a number of Dutch merchantmen and the Prince of Wales , a British Indiaman, enlivened it during the month the Dolphin remained moored. Whether or not Nelson was hospitalised on shore for any time is unknown, but on 20 June his journey continued, and the next day the Dolphin rounded the Cape on large swells. 28
There was little for Pigott to record in his log. Routine discipline had to be maintained and there were fourteen floggings between Bombay and Spithead. A man fell overboard in the North Atlantic, but the boats were able to save him, and in July and August Pigott’s sick list fluctuated between eight and thirteen. It does not appear that Nelson was ever numbered among these invalids, who were most probably the ratings transferred from the hospital in Bombay. When the ship anchored at Spithead on 30 August, eleven of the 145 men on the books were listed as invalids. 29
During that long sea voyage on a leaking ship Nelson slowly regained his strength, but there were occasions, no doubt, when the darkest fears gathered around his cot as he hovered between sickness and recovery, perhaps even death and life. According to what he told a friend long afterwards, while walking in the grounds of Downton Castle in Hertfordshire, his determination to survive and distinguish himself rallied in the deepest depths of despair. ‘I felt impressed with an idea that I should never rise in my profession,’ Nelson is supposed to have said. ‘My mind was staggered with a view of the difficulties I had to surmount and the little “interest” I possessed. I could discover no means of reaching the object of my ambition. After a long and gloomy reverie, in which I almost wished myself overboard, a sudden glow of patriotism was kindled within me, and presented my king and country as my patron. My mind exulted in the idea. “Well then,” I exclaimed, “I will be a hero, and confiding in Providence, I will brave every danger.”’ 30
Although the ascribed words cannot have been accurately remembered, the gist of them may be true. There must have been useless, depressing days on the Dolphin and
He must have missed the companions with whom he had shared the past two and a half years. He would meet Troubridge again andthe two would stand together in brilliant victories and a humiliating defeat.
Thomas Surridge would also flourish. In fact, he sailed for home within months of Nelson, passed his examination for lieutenant in England on 10 September 1777, and had his commission confirmed on 9 June 1779 by an appointment to the Isis . He could easily have remained a lieutenant, and served on several ships in that capacity, but the outbreak of the wars with revolutionary France created more opportunities. Surridge was appointed commander of the Goelan sloop, went to the West Indies, where he transferred to the Alligator , and in 1794 made the key rank of post-captain. In 1804 he commanded his largest ship, the sixty-four-gun Trident , but in retirement with his wife, Mary, he continued to rise in the service, achieving flag rank in 1812 and becoming vice admiral of the blue squadron on 12 August 1819. As if satisfied, he died towards the end of the same year in Chichester, Sussex, at the age of seventy-two, the last surviving mentor of the young Nelson. 27
The homeward run of the Dolphin was uneventful. She put into Anjenga roads on 2 April 1776 and then sliced through squally seas and variable weather towards the coast of Africa, which was sighted on 11 May. Ten days later she entered Simon’s Bay, in False Bay at the Cape of Good Hope, controlled by the Dutch. Apart from the three-gabled hospital to the right of the anchorage, the simple settlement consisted of a jetty, magazines, stables, workshops and a few houses, one using a flag to proclaim its status as a command post. Nevertheless, it was a safe haven and a French frigate, a number of Dutch merchantmen and the Prince of Wales , a British Indiaman, enlivened it during the month the Dolphin remained moored. Whether or not Nelson was hospitalised on shore for any time is unknown, but on 20 June his journey continued, and the next day the Dolphin rounded the Cape on large swells. 28
There was little for Pigott to record in his log. Routine discipline had to be maintained and there were fourteen floggings between Bombay and Spithead. A man fell overboard in the North Atlantic, but the boats were able to save him, and in July and August Pigott’s sick list fluctuated between eight and thirteen. It does not appear that Nelson was ever numbered among these invalids, who were most probably the ratings transferred from the hospital in Bombay. When the ship anchored at Spithead on 30 August, eleven of the 145 men on the books were listed as invalids. 29
During that long sea voyage on a leaking ship Nelson slowly regained his strength, but there were occasions, no doubt, when the darkest fears gathered around his cot as he hovered between sickness and recovery, perhaps even death and life. According to what he told a friend long afterwards, while walking in the grounds of Downton Castle in Hertfordshire, his determination to survive and distinguish himself rallied in the deepest depths of despair. ‘I felt impressed with an idea that I should never rise in my profession,’ Nelson is supposed to have said. ‘My mind was staggered with a view of the difficulties I had to surmount and the little “interest” I possessed. I could discover no means of reaching the object of my ambition. After a long and gloomy reverie, in which I almost wished myself overboard, a sudden glow of patriotism was kindled within me, and presented my king and country as my patron. My mind exulted in the idea. “Well then,” I exclaimed, “I will be a hero, and confiding in Providence, I will brave every danger.”’ 30
Although the ascribed words cannot have been accurately remembered, the gist of them may be true. There must have been useless, depressing days on the Dolphin and
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