After the restoration of his health, he paid a visit to his worthy and venerable father, at Burnham-Thorpe; as well as to his amiable eldest sister, then recently married to Mr. Bolton, who resided at Wells, about five miles distant, and other relatives and friends in the county of Norfolk: few of whom, except his father, had ever once beheld him for the last eleven years. The felicity of such a meeting is not to be described, and it can only be conceived by those who have experienced similar sensations.
At length, in August 1781, Captain Nelson was appointed to the command of the Albemarle of twenty-eight guns. In this ship, which had been a French merchantman, captured two years before, and purchased for the king's service, his delicate constitution underwent a new and severe trial; being employed, the whole winter, convoying and cruizing in the North Seas. The inconvenience, too, as well as the dangers, of this service, were in no slight degree augmented, by the mast's having been made much too long for the ship; a circumstance which had, at several times, nearly occasioned it to be overset. These perils, too, were wholly unattended with what may be denominated any success; as the Dutch, the greater part of the time, had not a single trading vessel at sea: and, though a privateer, said to be the noted pirate, Fall, stole into the fleet which the Albemarle was convoying, it got clear off, after an hour's chace, owing to the necessity of Captain Nelson's returning to the unprotected ships.
On their arrival in England, the mast was taken out, and properly shortened; and, such other improvements being made, as suggested themselves to the captain, it was, at length, far from a bad old ship. He always, however, humorously insisted, that the French had taught the Albemarle to run away; as it was never a good sailer, except when going directly before the wind.
In March 1782, he was ordered to Cork; to join the Dædalus, Captain Thomas Pringle, and go with a convoy to Quebec, where they were expected to winter. This was another severe blow at his tender frame, which had been so buffeted all the late season. He had, indeed, great reason to dread it's effects, and wished much to be off of this voyage; but, though he did not doubt that, if he had a little time, he might get another ship—especially, as his friend, Surgeon Adair, who also attended Admiral Keppel, had declared that, if he were sent to a cold climate, it would make him worse than ever—having received his orders from Lord Sandwich, he could not avoid thinking it wrong to ask Admiral Keppel to alter them. Such was his high sense of propriety, and so little his self-consideration.
On the 27th of May, Captain Nelson arrived in St. John's Harbour,
Newfoundland, with four sail of the convoy; having parted with the
Dædalus, twenty days before, three hundred leagues to the eastward of
Cape Clear, in a hard gale of wind.
On the 3d of June, hearing that the remainder of the Quebec fleet had arrived at a harbour some leagues to the leeward, he sailed to join them; and, without losing a single vessel, they reached the place of destination on the 1st of July.
The third day after their arrival, he was ordered on a cruize off Boston; from which he returned to Quebec on the 17th of September, with the whole crew almost devoured by the scurvy. Himself and all the officers had, for eight weeks together, lived on salt beef; nor had the ship's company enjoyed a single fresh meal since the beginning of April.
During the greater part of this time, he had made a point of contriving to see Boston steeple every morning; where he watched for vessels, as they sailed in and out of the harbour.
Though this cruize was of the unsuccessful sort, not a single prize being brought into port, they took, saw, and destroyed, more enemies than are often met with in the same space of time. Some of the prizes taken, and one of them of considerable value, were lost by the mismanagement of the prize-masters. That of the principal one, was occasioned by the intoxication of the captors; who had, indiscreetly, made too free with the wine on board.
"I do not, however," said he, in a letter to Captain Locker, "repine at our loss; we have, in other respects, been very fortunate: for, on the 14th of August, we fell in with, in Boston Bay, four sail of the line, and the Iris frigate, part of Monsieur Vaudreuil's squadron, who gave us a pretty dance for nine or ten hours. But we beat all, except the frigate; and, though we brought to for her, after we were out of sight of the line of battle ships, she tacked and stood from us. Our escape I think wonderful. They were, on the clearing up of a fog, within shot of us; and chased us, the whole time, about one point from the wind. The frigate, I fancy, had not forgotten the dressing Captain Salter had given the Amazon, for daring to leave the line of battle ships."