viii The Chairman’s Dispatch: Collingwood Inspires Peter Warwick When Nelson sailed for Trafalgar With all his country’s best, He held them dear as brothers are, But one beyond the rest. For when the fleet with heroes manned To clear the decks began, The boast of old Northumberland He sent to lead the Van. Sir Henry Newbolt, ‘Northumberland’ fromPoems New and Old, 1912. Almost two hundred years to the date of this issue of The Trafalgar Chronicle a very weary sailor, who had suffered serious strains to both his health and happiness, wrote a letter to his sister: You will be sorry to hear my poor dog Bounce is dead. I am afraid he fell overboard in the night. He is a great loss to me. I have few comforts, but he was one, for he loved me. Everybody sorrows for him. He was wiser than (many) who hold their heads higher and was grateful (to those) who were kind to him. That 62 year-old sailor was Vice-Admiral Lord Cuthbert Collingwood. The boast of old Northumberland according to Henry Newbolt, and ‘Nelson’s own hero’ in the words of biographer Max Adams, Collingwood has recently emerged from the under shadow cast by his great friend. His five years in command of the prestigious Mediterranean Fleet after Trafalgar are now seen as a culmination of an active and successful career, which revealed his mastery of strategy and diplomacy and instinctive judgement when dealing with foreign powers and affairs. British ministers and the Admiralty held him in such high esteem they kept him on station and even refused his requests for leave. Given virtually a free hand by the Admiralty and the poor communications with his political masters,
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