they put to sea, to have force enough
with me to _annihilate_ them. That would keep the Two Sicilies free
from any attack from sea."

On the 8th of July the "Amphion" joined the fleet off Toulon. It
numbered then nine ships-of-the-line, with three smaller cruisers. "As
far as outside show goes," he reported to St. Vincent, "the ships look
very well; but they complain of their bottoms, and are very short of
men." The fact was, as he afterwards explained, that before the war
came they had been expecting every day to go to England, and
consequently had been allowed to run down gradually, a result which
doubtless had been hastened by St. Vincent's stringent economies.
Gibraltar and Malta were both bare, Nelson wrote six months later, and
it was not the fault of the naval storekeepers. The ships, everywhere,
were "distressed for almost every article. They have entirely eat up
their stores, and their real wants not half complied with. I have
applications from the different line-of-battle-ships for surveys on
most of their sails and running rigging, which cannot be complied
with, as there is neither cordage nor sails to replace the
unserviceable stores, and, therefore, the evil must be combated in the
best manner possible." As the whole Navy had suffered from the same
cause, there was no reserve of ships at home to replace those in the
Mediterranean, which, besides lacking everything, were between eight
and nine hundred men short of their complement, or about one hundred
for each ship-of-the-line. "We can send you neither ships nor men,"
wrote St. Vincent as winter drew on; and even a year later, the
administration which followed his found it impossible to replace the
"crazy" vessels, of which Nelson said only four were fit for winter
cruising. "It is not a storeship a week," he declared, "that would
keep them in repair." The trouble was greater because, when leaving
Malta, they had anticipated only a cruise of three weeks, which for
many of them became two years.

Despite the difficulties, he determined that the fleet as a body
should not go into port; nor should the individual ships-of-the-line,
except when absolutely necessary, and then to Gibraltar, not Malta. "I
have made up my mind never to go into port till after the battle, if
they make me wait a year, provided the Admiralty change the ships who
cannot keep the sea in winter;" nor did the failure of the Admiralty
to meet this proviso alter his resolution. It was the