“I am going to race to the masthead and beg that I may meet you there.”
Once when he was invited to dinner with the governor of Barbadoes, Nelson said, “Your Excellency must excuse me for bringing one of my midshipmen. I make it a rule to introduce them to all the good company I can, as they have few to look up to besides myself while they are at sea.”
It is not surprising that men under his command exclaimed, in comparing him with other men, “Nelson was the man to love!”
The wars of Great Britain with Napoleon kept the young navy officer in active service. During a siege a shell burst and destroyed the sight of his right eye. In another attack he was wounded in the arm. He shouted to those who wished to remove him from the fray,
“Let me alone; I have yet my legs and one arm. Tell the surgeon to make haste and get the instruments. I know I must lose my right arm; so the sooner it is off, the better.”