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Details
NELSON, Horatio, Admiral (1758-1805). Autograph letter signed ('Nelson & Bronte') to Sir John Acton, Victory, 7 April 1805, 2 pages, 4to, integral blank leaf (slight offsetting of ink, small traces of tape in margins).
Nelson writes (when the Victory was off the Southern tip of Sardinia), to say that he is sending Captain Hollowell to discover if Acton (at Naples) has any information about the French fleet which sailed fron Toulon on March 3rd, speculating that it may have passed the straits of Bonifacio or Cape Corse, and declaring 'My great object is now the protection of Sicily and Naples and I need not to say that they are not only from duty but gratitude dear to my heart'.
In a letter to Hugh Elliott written on the same day Nelson admitted that he was most unlucky, his frigates having lost sight of the French fleet. Ten days later he took the audacious decision to leave the Mediterranean and pursue the enemy to the West Indies.
Nelson writes (when the Victory was off the Southern tip of Sardinia), to say that he is sending Captain Hollowell to discover if Acton (at Naples) has any information about the French fleet which sailed fron Toulon on March 3rd, speculating that it may have passed the straits of Bonifacio or Cape Corse, and declaring 'My great object is now the protection of Sicily and Naples and I need not to say that they are not only from duty but gratitude dear to my heart'.
In a letter to Hugh Elliott written on the same day Nelson admitted that he was most unlucky, his frigates having lost sight of the French fleet. Ten days later he took the audacious decision to leave the Mediterranean and pursue the enemy to the West Indies.