NELSON AND COLLINGWOOD : A PARALLELISM.

Otago Witness, Issue 2692, 18 October 1905, Page 17 (Supplement)

NELSON AND COLLINGWOOD : A PARALLELISM.

Mahan, referring to this element in Nelson's character, says: "At the critical irisfcants of the Nile and Copenhagen, as well as in the less conspicuous but more prolonged anxieties of the operations off Corsica and along the Riviera of Genoa, this early habit, grafted upon the singularly steady nerve wherewith he was endowed by Nature, sustained him at a height of daring and achievement to which very few have been able to rise."

In 1778 Locker had to go home invalided, but through his kind offices Nelson, as third mate, was transferred to the Bristol, under the Commander-in-Chief Sir Peter Parker, and he and his wife became as good as father and mother to him, and cared for him through his illnesses. The climate was a deadly one, and as we were then at war with the American colonies, " the brutal levity of the old toast, ' A

bloody war and a sickly season,' " accounts for the two means looked upon as providing for rapid advancement. In three months, by succession, owing to these causes, Nelson became first lieutenant. Mahan at this stage of his biography of Nelson notes an extraordinary parallelism between the promotions received by Nelson and Collingwood. By what leading principles, if any, Sir Peter Parker was guided in the distribution of his favours, can scarcely now be ascertained; but that he brought rapidly forward two men of such great yet widely different merit as Nelson and Collingwood, is a proof that his judgment was sound and the station one where vacancies were frequent. Collingwood, who was then a lieutenant on board a sloop-of-war, went to the Lowestoffe in Nelson's place. When the latter, in December, 1778, was made commander into the brig Badger, the other was transferred to the vacant room in the Bristol ; and when Nelson, on June 11, 1779, became post-captain in. the Hinchinbrook frigate, Collingwood again followed him as commander of the Badger. Finally, when through a death vacancy a better frigate offered for Nelson, Collingwood also was posted into the Hinchinbrook ; this ship thus having the singular distinction of conferring the highest rank obtainable by selection, and so fixing the final position of the two life-long friends who led the columns afc Trafalgar, the crowning achievement .of the British Navy, as well as of their own illustrious careers. The coincidence at the earlier date may have been partly factitious, due to the fad of the Command er-in-Chief ; but it assumes a different and very impressive aspect viewed in the light of their later closer associations, especially when it is recalled that Collingwood also succeeded, upon Nelson's death, to the Mediterranean command, and was there worn out, as his predecessor fell, in the discharge of his duty upon that important station, which thus proved fatal to them bcth. Few historic parallels are so complete. Sir Peter Parker, living until 1811, survived both his illustrious juniors, and at the age of 82 followed Nelson's coffin, as chief mourner at the imposing obsequies, where " the nation, from the highest to the lowest, mingled the exultation of triumph with weeping for the loss of its best-beloved."