A relationship, similar to that which influenced the fortunes of his mighty compeer, seems to have guided Collingwood in his selection of a career. Captain Braithwaite, who afterward rose to the rank of admiral, had married the boy’s aunt. That officer then commanded the “Shannon,” and it was resolved to place the young aspirant under his care and protection. A touching and interesting glimpse of his earliest experience on board is afforded as he sat on the deck, sad at heart, and with tears in his eyes, which flowed more rapidly as he gazed through them at the shore. The first lieutenant observing the comely little sailor in so downcast a mood, and perhaps remembering his own feelings on a like occasion, was touched with compassion, and addressed him in language of sympathy and encouragement. Whereupon [Collingwood] felt so grateful that he led the kind-hearted officer to his box, and [offered him a large piece of plum-cake], which his anxious and affectionate mother had given him at parting.
[COLLINGWOOD’S JUVENILE GENEROSITY.]
Collingwood experienced much kind treatment from the kinsman under whose protection he embarked on his career of duty and renown. He afterward confessed the obligations he owed to Admiral Braithwaite in the acquirement of professional knowledge. But the sage, meditative, and energetic seaman, was far from trusting to the aid or inspiration of others in his triumphant struggle. He thought earnestly, and labored diligently, for himself. He steadily practiced that self-culture which he ever strongly and perseveringly recommended to others. Besides perusing treatises on naval affairs, he read extensively, and with no small profit, in historical works; he obtained books relating to the places to which he happened to sail, and exercised his intellectual faculties by comparing these descriptions with his own impressions of the localities and scenery. Moreover, he embraced and acted on the opinion that a man should, before arriving at his twenty-fifth year, establish for himself a character and reputation of such a kind as he would have no cause to be ashamed of throughout life.
In the ordinary course of events Collingwood parted from his gallant relative, and sailed for some time with another officer. Between these two services thirteen years were consumed, and during that period he made the acquaintance of Nelson. At its termination he went to Boston with Admiral Graves, and was thus present at the battle of Bunker’s Hill, in command of a party of seamen to assist and supply the troops, who, under General Gage, encountered the insurgent colonists. After that event he was advanced to the rank of lieutenant; and in 1775 joining the “Hornet” sloop, in that capacity he sailed to the West Indies. The ship in which Nelson was lieutenant came to the same station; and with the immortal hero Collingwood renewed the feelings of friendship, which, cemented in the interval by many high aspirations and bright dreams, were strikingly and glowingly displayed on another and more glorious day.
Meantime Collingwood had the good fortune to succeed his friend as commander of the “Badger,” and, subsequently, as a post-captain in the “Hinchenbroke” frigate, with which he was ordered to proceed to the Spanish Main, and employed on the expedition sent up the river San Juan. The climate to which he was now exposed was in the highest degree pestilential; the majority of his crew fell victims to its excessive insalubrity; and in this perilous situation he was sustained and saved from sharing their fate by a remarkably strong constitution. Right glad, however, with all his powers of endurance, must he have been when relieved in the autumn from this scene of woe and suffering. He was then appointed to the command of the “Pelican.” With that frigate, of twenty-four guns, he captured a French vessel, recovered from the enemy a richly-laden Glasgow merchantman, and was soon after wrecked among the rocks of the Morant Keys. He next obtained the command of the “Sampson,” a ship of sixty-four guns, which was paid off at the peace of 1783. Then he was dispatched, in the “Mediator,” to the West Indies, where he and his younger brother, a naval officer of great promise, who filled an untimely grave, actively aided Nelson in enforcing the provisions of the Navigation Act against the encroachments of the Americans.
In 1786 this brave and manly sailor arrived in England, and joyfully turned his face homeward. He spent the next four years among his Northumbrian relatives, of whom he had hitherto seen much less than he could have wished. At the termination of that period an armament was preparing against Spain, and he was immediately nominated to a command; but the differences which had led to this step being speedily accommodated without going to war, and there appearing no prospect of active service, he again repaired to the frontier county; all the more readily, perhaps, that he had already surrendered to a lady in that northern province the exquisitely tender heart, which no prolonged service nor scenes of bloodshed could ever harden, or render indifferent to the welfare or sufferings of others. He was forthwith married, and there appearing no probability of his professional abilities being in requisition, he looked forward to a long season of that domestic peace and happiness which he was eminently fitted by nature to create and enjoy. However, his expectations in this respect proved vain; the French war broke out, he was under the necessity of sacrificing his cherished wishes to his country’s good, and he returned, with characteristic courage and resolution, to arduous and indefatigable exertion on that element which, almost without interruption, was his sphere for the remainder of his earthly existence.
“Calm thoughts that dwelt like hermits in his soul,
Fair shapes that slept in fascinating bowers,
Hopes and delights—he parted with them all.”