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Horatio Nelson,

Earl Cork.

Nelson with the Left Hand.

“Victory,” 18th August 1803.

My Dear Boyle,—I am very happy to have you in so fine a frigate under my command, for I am ever yours most faithfully,

Nelson and Bronte.

Honble. C. Boyle,

H.M.S. Seahorse,

Malta.

MY FATHER SHIPWRECKED

During the war with France in the year 1800, my father suffered shipwreck on the coast of Egypt, and narrowly escaped with his life. He sent all his crew ashore before he himself left the sinking vessel, headed by an officer with a flag of truce, to make terms with a detachment of French soldiers (the country being then in the occupation of Napoleon’s army), and these soldiers stood on the beach, calmly watching the dangers and struggles of the shipwrecked mariners, as they endeavoured to gain the shore on hastily-constructed rafts, through surf which threatened to swamp them. The sea was running very high, and many of their provisions and possessions were floated off and lost to them for ever. The locality was near Rosetta, and the Frenchmen, in spite of promises of assistance and protection—which men of any chivalrous feeling would surely have afforded to an enemy in such straits—plundered the English sailors, ill-treated them, and threw them into prison, a fate which also befell their commanding officer on landing.