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 carrying out of this decision, with ships in such condition, in a region where winds and seas were of exceptional violence, and supplies of food and water most difficult to be obtained, because surrounded in all directions by countries either directly hostile, or under the overmastering influence of Bonaparte, that made the exercise of Nelson’s command during this period a triumph of naval administration and prevision.  It does not necessarily follow that an officer of distinguished ability for handling a force in the face of an enemy, will possess also the faculty which foresees and provides for the many contingencies, upon which depend the constant efficiency and readiness of a great organized body; though both qualities are doubtless essential to constitute a great general officer.  For twenty-two months Nelson’s fleet never went into a port, other than an open roadstead on a neutral coast, destitute of supplies; at the end of that time, when the need arose to pursue an enemy for four thousand miles, it was found massed, and in all respects perfectly prepared for so distant and sudden a call.  To quote his own words, written a year before this summons in reply to an intimation from the Admiralty to be on his guard against Spain, “I have the pleasure to acquaint you that the squadron under my command is all collected, except the Gibraltar,[60] complete in their provisions and stores to near five months, and in a perfect state of readiness to act as the exigency of the moment may determine.”  “With the resources of your mind,” wrote St. Vincent, when unable to reinforce him, “you will do very well;” and Nelson, when he put off his harness, might have boasted himself that the prediction was more than fulfilled.

Provisions, water, and supplies of all sorts were brought to the ships on their station, either at sea, or in unfrequented roadsteads within the limits of the cruising ground.  “I never could have spared the ships to go to Gibraltar for them,” he wrote to St. Vincent, to whom he expressed his satisfaction with the way the plan worked.  He soon abandoned, in fact, the method of sending individual ships for water, because of the long absence thus entailed.  When water could not be brought in transports, or rather could not easily be transhipped owing to the badness of the season, he thought it better to take the whole fleet to the nearest watering-place than to divide its strength.  Fresh provisions, absolutely indispensable to the health of the ships’ companies, constituted the greatest of difficulties.