s plain, and, in my judgment, sound. It may
be profitably compared with that of Nelson as explained to his captains
during his return from the West Indies whither he had pursued
Villeneuve. Villeneuve was on his way back to European waters and Nelson
hoped to overtake him. He had eleven ships of the line in his fleet and
Villeneuve was known to have not less than eighteen. Yet, though Nelson
did not shrink from an engagement on his own terms, he was resolved not
to force one inopportunely. "Do not," he said to his captains, "imagine
I am one of those hot-brained people who fight at immense disadvantage
without an adequate object. My object is partly gained"--that is,
Villeneuve had been driven out of the West Indies. "If we meet them we
shall find them not less than eighteen, I rather think twenty, sail of
the line, and therefore do not be surprised if I do not fall on them
immediately; we won't part without a battle. I think they will be glad
to leave me alone, if I will let them alone; which I will do, either
till we approach the shores of Europe, or they give an advantage too
tempting to be resisted." Torrington's attitude was the same as
Nelson's, except perhaps that he lacked the ardent faith to say with
Nelson, "We won't part without a battle." He would not think himself
very unhappy if he could get rid of Tourville without a battle. But the
situations of the two men were different. Nelson knew, as he said
himself, that "by the time that the enemy has beat our fleet soundly,
they will do us no harm this year." If, that is, by the sacrifice of
eleven ships of his own he could wipe out eighteen or twenty of the
enemy, destroying some and disabling as many as he could of the rest, he
would leave the balance of naval force still strongly in favour of his
country, more strongly in fact than if he fought no action at all.
Torrington, on the other hand, knew that "if we are beaten they, being
absolute masters of the sea, will be at great liberty of doing many
things they dare not attempt while we observe them and are in a
possibility of joining Vice-Admiral Killigrew and our ships to the
westward." Killigrew and Shovel had twenty-two sail of the line between
them, and Torrington, in the dispatch above quoted, had requested that
they should be ordered to advance to Portsmouth, whence, if the French
pursued him to the eastward, they might be able to join him "over the
flats" of the Thames. As he had fifty-five sail of the li