NELSON WRITES TO ADMIRAL BAYNTUN FROM THE ‘VICTORY’ NELSON (Horatio, Viscount, 1758-1805, Admiral)

Excellent Autograph Letter written with his left hand, Signed ‘Nelson & Bronte’ to Captain Bayntun later Admiral Sir Henry William BAYNTUN, (GCB, 1766-1840), suggesting that he “meet the Anson on our way towards Palma, join me with her & return the dispatches. If not, make the best of your way round Tolaro and as soon as you see the Anson make her signal for a Lieut and deliver my letters and join me in the Leviathan as expeditiously as possible...”, 1 side 4to., Victory, 3rd March

HMS Leviathan was a 74-gun third-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 9 October 1790. At the Battle of Trafalgar under Henry William Bayntun, she was near the front of the windward column led by Admiral Lord Nelson aboard his flagship, HMS Victory, and captured the Spanish ship San Augustin. In 1816, after the end of the Napoleonic Wars, she was converted into a prison ship and in 1848 was sold and broken up.
HMS Anson was a 64-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched at Plymouth on 4 September 1781 by Georgina, Duchess of Devonshire. She fought at the Battle of Les Saintes on 9 April 1782 under the flag of Admiral Sir George Rodney against Admiral de Grasse. She was wrecked in December 1807.
At the Battle of Trafalgar on the 21 October, Bayntun in Leviathan was third in Nelson's northern line, and engaged with the enemy rapidly following HMS Victory, HMS Temeraire and HMS Neptune. Leviathan raked the Bucentaure and battled the Neptune before engaging with the massive Santissima Trinidad. Seeing the distant approach of Admiral Dumanoir's squadron from the north, Captain Thomas Hardy ordered Leviathan and other ships to close the enemy. Leviathan managed to catch the Spanish ship San Agustín and easily capture it, but the remainder of the squadron fled, terminating the battle.
Bayntun was a senior officer in the Royal Navy, whose distinguished career in the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars was a catalogue of the highest and lowest points of the Navy during the conflict. His record includes extensive operations in the West Indies followed by shipwreck, the battle of Trafalgar and the disastrous expedition to Buenos Aires in 1807.

Item Date:  1805

Stock No:  42280      £7775

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