Beschreibung:

Collingwood (Cuthbert, 1st Baron, 1748-1810). Autograph letter to Sir Evan Nepean, regarding the appointment of an agent for the prize ships taken at Trafalgar, on board HMS Queen off Cadiz, March 30, 1806, 3 pp., 'I did receive the letter from Mr Davison the copy of which you enclosed me - and am exceedingly sorry that he should have any disappointment on the subject of agency - but assure you it is not at all a thing of my doing - for I have never taken any part, or given myself the smallest concern about the appointment of agents - before Lord Nelson came out, my secretary was the agent for the flag eighth and got his proffits upon 172 £ which is all the prize money I have got since leaving England - various people were the agents for the several ships - when Lord Nelson came out and Mr Scott his secretary was appointed agent for the flag 1/8 - I received a note from him to say the Comm. in Chief having appointed him his agent - he hoped I would also - and if I am not mistaken the power was signed by Sr. Robt. Calder and myself, in Lord Nelson's cabbin - I do not remember ever having any conversation with Lord Nelson on the subject or ever having heard him mention Mr Davison - had Mr Scott lived he would certainly have been the agent - but on his death - while I was yet at sea I received a letter from Capt, Hervey of the Temeraire at Gibraltar - saying that several - (I believe all) the captains who were there, had agreed to appoint Mr Cosway their agent for the captured ships - I received their proposition as a great compliment to me...', concluding with 'Adml. Gravina is at last dead of his wounds and carried to Madrid to be buried', contemporary docket to verso, old folds and a few light stains, 4to (Qty: 1) Prize money from the Battle of Trafalgar was based on the proceeds from the four captured ships from the French and Spanish fleet: Swiftsure, Bahama, San Juan de Nepumuceno and San Ildefonso, plus the proceeds of bounty-bills on those ships destroyed in the battle, as announced in the London Gazette on March 28th 1807 by the two agents for the prizes Christopher Cooke and William Richard Cosway addressed to all the officers, seamen and marines of the British Fleet present at Trafalgar. Cosway was Admiral Collingwood's secretary, and as this letter confirms, was appointed agent for the prizes by the other captains after the death of Nelson's own secretary, John Scott on board HMS Victory durung the battle. Scott would otherwise naturally have been in charge of the distribution of prize money. Vice Admiral Cuthbert Collingwood, 1st Baron (1748-1810) served with distinction during the Revolutionary and Napoleonic wars with France and was second in command to Horatio Nelson at the Battle of Trafalgar, leading his squadron on board the Royal Sovereign which engaged the rear of the French-Spanish fleet. He assumed command of the Mediterranean Fleet thereafter but died at sea whilst sailing back to England, and was laid to rest near Lord Nelson in St. Paul's Cathedral. Sir Evan Nepean, 1st Baronet (1752-1822) was a politician, colonial administrator and Commissioner of the Admiralty at this time, and later Governor of Bombay from 1812 to 1819. Admiral Federico Gravina (1756-1806), Commander of the Spanish Navy, served under French Admiral Villeneuve at the Battle of Trafalgar and was wounded aboard his flagship Principe de Asturias, finally succumbing to his wounds on the 9th May 1806. In a letter of August 1805, just weeks before the decisive battle on 21st October, Napoleon described Gravina as "all genius and decision in combat". British officers also held Gravina in high esteem, as prior to the Franco-Spanish pact ushered in by the Treaty of San Ildefonso of 1796, he had served alongside Admiral Hood at the Siege of Toulon (1793), and in the same year had even visited Portsmouth to study British naval methods and tactics.