Lot 7: NELSON, HORATIO,

LORD.
DOCUMENT SIGNED ("NELSON & BRONTE"), TO SIR ROBERT BARLOW, CAPTAIN OF HMS TRIUMPH ,

listing rendezvous numbers and the locations in the Mediterranean signified thereby and referring to the Signal Book, 1 page, folio, endorsed on verso, framed and mounted, HMS Amphion, off Toulon, 17 July 1803; faded at edges, professionally removed from mount

LITERATURE

Apparently unpublished (not in The Dispatches and Letters, Morrison Catalogues, or the New Letters).

NOTE

A significant document revealing the establishment of the rendezvous system when Nelson took command of the Mediterranean Squadron. This list, written less than ten days after Nelson took command of the Squadron, identifies rendezvous locations 53-96. These numbers (which were enlarged and revised over the following two years) were crucial to the maintenance of secrecy in the event that letters were captured by the enemy. The fleet was in continual movement between the various rendezvous, and these numbers appear again and again in his correspondence during his Mediterranean command (1803-5).