101. Collingwood (Cuthbert, Baron Collingwood, Vice-Admiral, 1750-1810) Autograph Letter signed to Sir Hew Dalrymple, 2½pp., sm. 4to, Ocean off the Dardanelles, 31st August 1807, describing the current situation in Turkey, “We have been here near a month... not a word can be extorted from any of their Ministers... The Turks are civil in their Language - and profess to desire peace, but is it not obvious that whatever they do will be dictated by the French... the Turkish fleet is removed to the upper Dardanelles - and appear to be in a wretched state quite unfit for sea - full of men - but the ships in tatters...”, contemporary docket on verso, folds, slightly browned.
est. £400 – £600
In June 1807, after the failure of Sir John Duckworth’s expedition, Collingwood was ordered to take the fleet to the Dardanelles “not so much to carry on an active war against the Turks as to conciliate them... but we had unadvisedly thrown them into the hands of France, and it was not possible to extricate them.”