Every Man Will Do His Duty by Dean King Page B

gotten to know in the line of duty and during travels across the Mediterranean to Gibraltar after Nelson evacuated Corsica and Elba. Before the colossal battle off Cape St. Vincent, Drinkwater sees one of Nelson’s more singular moments, when he refuses to lose Lieutenant Hardy, again, despite great danger.
    ON THE FORENOON of the 11th of February, the Minerve got under weigh. She had scarcely cast round from her anchorage, when two of the three Spanish line-of-battle ships in the upper part of Gibraltar Bay were observed to be also in motion. It was soon evident that they had been watching the commodore’s movements, and were prepared to pursue him as soon as the Minerve should take her departure from Gibraltar.
    As the Spanish ships had a steady wind from the eastward over the Isthmus, whilst the Minerve was embarrassed with the eddies and baffling flaws, that usually prevail in an easterly wind, near the Rock, the Spaniards had for some time the advantage in pushing forwards in the bay. The Minerve was not, however, long in getting the steady breeze, and soon after got into the Straits, when the chace of the enemy became, aswe afterwards heard, a most interesting “spectacle” to our friends of the garrison.
    The Minerve was a captured ship from the French—taken in the Mediterranean in 1795, and considered to be a tolerably good sailer, particularly with the wind on her quarter. The Spanish ships were not equally good goers; one of them, the Terrible, was a first-rate sailer, well known to the British officers, Culverhouse and Hardy, who had been exchanged from her only the day before. Her consort was a dull sailing ship. Advancing into the Straits, the Minerve had the wind abaft, and after marking her progress with that of the enemy, it was evident that the headmost ship of the chace gained on the British frigate. No sooner was this point ascertained, than directions were given by Sir Gilbert Elliot to have certain parts of his public papers ready to be sunk, if necessary, at a moment’s notice. The ship was cleared for action, and the position of the Minerve was now becoming every moment more and more interesting. At this period I was walking with Commodore Nelson, conversing on the probability of the enemy’s engaging the Minerve, and his words, and manner of uttering them, made a strong impression on me. He said that he thought an engagement was very possible, as the headmost ship appeared to be a good sailer; but, continued he (looking up at his broad pendant), “before the Dons get hold of that bit of bunting I will have a struggle with them, and sooner than give up the frigate, I’ll run her ashore.”
    Captain Cockburn, who had been taking a view of the chacing enemy, now joined the commodore, and observed that there was no doubt of the headmost ship gaining on the Minerve. At this moment dinner was announced, but before Nelson and his guests left the deck, orders were given to set the studding sails. At table I found myself seated next to Lieutenant Hardy, and was congratulating him on his late exchange from being a prisoner of war, when the sudden cry of a “man overboard,” threw the dinner party into some disorder. The officers of the ship ran on deck: I, with others, ran to the stern windows to see if any thing could be observed of the unfortunate man; we had scarcely reached them before we noticed the lowering of the jolly boat, in which was my late neighbour Hardy, with a party of sailors; and before many seconds had elapsed, the current of the Straits (which runs strongly to the eastward) had carried the jolly boat far astern of the frigate, towards the Spanish ships. Of course the first object was to recover, if possible, the fallen man, but he was never seen again. Hardy soon made a signal to that effect, and the man was given up as lost. The attention of every person was now turned to the safety of Hardy and his boat’s crew; their situation was extremely perilous, and their danger was every