recaution intended to prevent
collisions, though it necessarily extended the line.

[136] The author is indebted for these incidents to Admiral Sir W.R. Mends,
G.C.B., who received them from the second baronet, Sir Henry M. Blackwood,
when serving with him as first lieutenant.

[137] The "Euryalus's" log gives eight o'clock as the hour of the captain's
going on board the "Victory;" but Blackwood not only says six, but also
mentions that his stay on board lasted five and a half hours, which gives
about the same time for going on board. The other frigate captains did not
go till eight. Blackwood, as the senior, might need a fuller and longer
continued interview, because the general direction of the frigate squadron
would be in his hands; or Nelson might particularly desire the presence of
a close professional friend, the captains of the ships-of-the-line having
their hands now full of preparations.

[138] The question of Lady Hamilton's services on the occasions mentioned
by Nelson, vigorously asserted by herself, has been exhaustively discussed
by Professor John Knox Laughton, in the "United Service Magazine" for April
and May, 1889. His conclusions are decisively adverse to her claims.

[139] See _ante_, p. 275.

[140] That is, with a one and a half knot breeze.

[141] The vocabulary of the telegraphic signal book provides certain words
which can be signalled by a single number. Words not in this vocabulary
must be spelled letter by letter,--each letter of the alphabet having its
own number.

[142] That is, to the westward.

INDEX.

Aboukir, Bay, Island, Promontory, and Castle, i. 342, 343, 345-347, 365;
ii. 16, 17, 32.

Aboukir, Battle of, ii. 17.

Acton, Sir John, Prime Minister of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies,
i. 328, 329, 340, 342, 383, 428, 430, 443;
ii. 8, 190, 191, 193, 194, 219, 264, 274, 275.

Addington (afterwards Lord Sidmouth), Prime Minister of Great Britain,
1801-1804, Nelson's intercourse with, i. 383; ii. 101, 103, 120, 136,
162-164, 166, 167, 172, 174, 189, 193, 205, 211, 352.

Adriatic,
importance to the communications of the Austrians in Italy, i. 247, 405;
British concern in, 369, ii. 192, 195, 243;
Napoleon's interest in, 188, 195, 266;
resort of privateers, 241, 242.

"Agamemnon," British ship-of-the-line,
Nelson ordered to command her, i. 95;
relation to his career, 97-99;
action with four French frigates, 113, 115;
engages the batteries at