Vindman calls for Milley's resignation: 'He usurped civilian authority'

[Fortinbras Armstrong]

173. Did you ever hear about the Battle of Copenhagen during the Napoleonic Wars?

In 1801, the Danes were making noises about joining with Napoleon. This would have a disaster for the Brits, because (1) the Danish fleet was strong and well led (unlike the French fleet) and (2) Sweden was where the Royal Navy got timber for ship's masts and spars and also their source for turpentine (wooden ships need constant painting, and turpentine was the best available paint thinner). If the Danes had allied with the French, they could have closed off the Baltic to the British, since the fortress of Elsinore (the site of Shakespeare's Hamlet) was at the tip of the Jutland peninsula, and Sweden is actually visible from Elsinore in decent weather.

So the British Admiralty decided to make a preemptive strike against the Danish fleet anchored in Copenhagen. For some reason, their best admiral, Horatio Nelson, was made second in command, and overall command was given to Sir Hyde Parker. Parker had a decent record, but had spent the previous five years sitting behind a desk in Kingston, Jamaica.

Anyway, the British fleet assembled outside the harbor at Copenhagen, and Nelson led his squadron in. Parker got cold feet, and sent a signal to Nelson, "Break off the action". Nelson, who was blind in his left eye, supposedly said to his flag captain, Thomas Foley, "You know, Foley, I only have one eye — I have the right to be blind sometimes," and then, holding his telescope to his blind eye, said "I really do not see the signal!" While this story is probably apocryphal, Nelson did ignore the signal and whipped the Danish fleet.

In the aftermath, the Danes, having lost much of their fleet, promised to remain neutral. Then-baron Nelson was promoted in the peerage to viscount and given command of the Baltic fleet. Parker was recalled to England, and never held another command in the Royal Navy.

Incidentally, in the Second Battle of Cape St Vincent, then-captain Nelson disobeyed the RN's standing orders on tactics (known as the "Fighting Instructions&quot and split the French line of battle, which was decisive in the British victory. The admiral in command, Sir John Jervis, wrote that Nelson "contributed very much to the fortune of the day". Nelson was knighted after that battle.

So, sometimes disobeying orders is the right thing to do.