1st December 1804
To Commissioner Otway Gibraltar.
Victory, December 1st, 1804
My dear Sir,
The Schooner is far too heavily gunned ; therefore I beg the four eight-pounders may be taken from her, and if her barricado could be nearly all taken away, she would be much better for service she is destined for, of sailing and rowing. When you get supplies of copper, I would have her coppered, or she would require a clean tallowed bottom every six weeks. Hallowell has not been very fortunate. Tigre, Fishgard, and Niger have taken, in toto, about £20,000.
Admiral Campbell has been very unwell, but is better, I hope Malta agrees with you. Nothing from England for seventy-two days!
I am, my dear Sir, ever your most obliged, humble servant,
NELSON AND BRONTE
To William Marsden, Esq, Admiralty.
Victory, at Sea, 1st December 1804
Sir,
I herewith transmit you the copy of a letter for Captain Corbet, of his Majesty’s Sloop Bittern, together with the one therein alluded to, addressed to Captain Cracraft of the Anson, giving an account of the capture of a small Privateer mounting one gun, by the Boasts of said Sloop, on the Coast of Ragusa, which you will please to lay before the Lords Commissioner of the Admiralty for their information.
I am concerned to observe that piracy is so much sanctioned in these seas by the Neutral Powers, which nothing but the strongest remonstrances can prevent.
I am, Sir, &c
NELSON AND BRONTE
Notes
Horatio Nelson, The Dispatches and Letters of Vice Admiral Lord Viscount Nelson, with Notes, ed. Sir Nicholas Harris Nicolas (London: Henry Colburn, 1846), 282–283.
