(Recto) HMS 'Ganges' off Fort Trinidad, Rosas Bay, south-eastern Spain, 9 October 1851; (Verso) Lord Nelson's House, Port Mahon, 12 November 1851 RMG PZ0860-002

(Recto) HMS 'Ganges' off Fort Trinidad, Rosas Bay, south-eastern Spain, 9 October 1851; (Verso) Lord Nelson's House, Port Mahon, 12 November 1851
No. 12 of 36 (PAI0849 - PAI0884).
(Recto) Inscribed top left, 'Fort Trinidad / Rosas Bay Oct 9th 1851' and along the bottom, 'Ganges', 'Capt Smith' and 'Fort Trinidad in Ruins - / once occupied by Sailors & Marines / against the French in 1809-'. The last note refers to Captain Lord Cochrane (then of of the 'Imperieuse' under Lord Collingwood), whose 12-day defence of the fort against overwhelming odds in fact took place in November 1808, when the French were besieging the adjacent town of Rosas [Roses]. He only abandoned and destroyed the fort, safely evacuating the garrison, when the French took the town. Rosas Bay lies under Cape Creux (Cap de Creus), in the south-east corner of Spain north of Barcelona, and only about 20 miles south of the French border. The 84-gun 2nd-rate 'Ganges' was built at Bombay in 1821, of teak. This accounts for her longevity, serving for 40 years before becoming a training ship in 1865 and only being sold for breaking up in 1929.
(Verso) Inscribed top left 'Lord Nelson's House / Port Mahon / Novbr 12th 51. This is a pencil drawing, presumably done from the 'Trafalgar', up to the heights on the north side of Port Mahon harbour, where it shows a substantial two-storey square-set house, with a pitched roof and central main chimney stack, and finials on the roof corners. Despite Mends's caption, this house - now much altered as the 'Hotel Almirante Collingwood' - is better known as the latter's occasional residence on visits to Mahon (as a Spanish ally), presumably late in his tenure of Mediterranean command (1805-10). Nelson himself spent very little time at Port Mahon, which was only retaken from the Spanish in 1798 and given permanently back to them in 1802. The report may have some truth but sound evidence is elusive.

Lord Nelson's House, Port Mahon, 12 November 1851