Cuthbert Collingwood , 1st Baron Collingwood Vice Admiral Cuthbert Collingwood , 1st Baron Collingwood ( 26 September 1748 – 7 March 1810 ) was an admiral of the Royal Navy , notable as a partner with Lord Nelson in several of the British victories of the Napoleonic Wars , and frequently as Nelson ' s successor in commands . Early years . Collingwood was born in Newcastle upon Tyne . His early education was at the Royal Grammar School , Newcastle . At the age of twelve , he went to sea as a volunteer on board the frigate under the command of his cousin Captain ( later Admiral ) Richard Brathwaite ( or Braithwaite ) , who took charge of his nautical education . After several years of service under Captain Brathwaite and a short period attached to , a guardship at Portsmouth commanded by Captain ( later Admiral ) Robert Roddam , Collingwood sailed to Boston in 1774 with Admiral Samuel Graves on board , where he fought in the British naval brigade at the battle of Bunker Hill ( June 1775 ) , and was afterwards commissioned as a Lieutenant ( 17 June 1775 ) . In 1777 , Collingwood first met Nelson when both served in . Two years later , Collingwood succeeded Nelson as Commander ( 20 June 1779 ) of , and the next year he again succeeded Nelson as Post - Captain ( 22 March 1780 ) of , a small frigate . Nelson had been the captain of a failed expedition to cross Central America from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean by navigating boats along the San Juan River , Lake Nicaragua and Lake Leon . Nelson was debilitated by disease and had to recover before being promoted to a larger vessel , and Collingwood succeeded him in command of the " Hinchinbrook " and brought the remainder of the expedition back to Jamaica . First major command . After commanding in another small frigate , , in which he was shipwrecked by a hurricane in 1781 , Collingwood was promoted to 64 gun ship of the line , and in 1783 he was appointed to and posted to the West Indies , where he remained until the end of 1786 , again , together with Nelson and this time his brother , Captain Wilfred Collingwood , preventing American ships from trading with the West Indies . In 1786 Collingwood returned to England , where , with the exception of a voyage to the West Indies , he remained until 1793 . In that year , he was appointed captain of , the flagship of Rear Admiral George Bowyer in the Channel Fleet . On 16 June 1791 , Collingwood married Sarah Blackett , daughter of the Newcastle merchant and politician John Erasmus Blackett and granddaughter of Robert Roddam ( 1711 – 1744 ) of Hethpoole and Caldburne ( not to be confused with his former commander , later Admiral , Robert Roddam ) . As captain of , Collingwood was present at the Glorious First of June . On board the " Excellent " he participated in the victory of the Battle of Cape St Vincent in 1797 , establishing a good reputation in the fleet for his conduct during the battle . After blockading Cadiz , he returned for a few weeks to Portsmouth to repair . At the beginning of 1799 Collingwood was raised to the rank of Rear - Admiral ( of the White 14 February 1799 ; of the Red 1 January 1801 ) and , hoisting his flag in the , joined the Channel Fleet and sailed to the Mediterranean where the principal naval forces of France and Spain were assembled . Collingwood continued to be actively employed in blockading the enemy until the peace of Amiens allowed him to return to England . With the resumption of hostilities with France in the spring of 1803 he left home , never to return . First he blockaded the French fleet off Brest . In 1804 he was promoted to Vice - Admiral ( of the Blue 23 April 1804 ; of the Red 9 November 1805 ) . Nearly two years were spent here but with Napoleon planning and equipping his armed forces for an invasion of Britain , the campaign which was to decide the fate of Europe and the command of the sea was starting . The French fleet having sailed from Toulon , Admiral Collingwood was appointed to command a squadron , with orders to pursue them . The combined fleets of France and Spain , after sailing to the West Indies , returned to Cadiz . On their way they encountered Collingwood ' s small squadron off Cadiz . He only had three ships with him ; but he succeeded in avoiding the pursuit , although chased by sixteen ships of the line . Before half of the enemy ' s force had entered the harbour he resumed the blockade , using false signals to disguise the small size of his squadron . He was shortly joined by Nelson who hoped to lure the combined fleet into a major engagement . Battle of Trafalgar . The combined fleet sailed from Cadiz in October 1805 . The Battle of Trafalgar immediately followed . Villeneuve , the French admiral , drew up his fleet in the form of a crescent . The British fleet bore down in two separate lines , the one led by Nelson in the " Victory " , and the other by Collingwood in the . The " Royal Sovereign " was the swifter sailer , mainly because its hull had been given a new layer of copper which lacked the friction of old , well used copper and thus was much faster . Having drawn considerably ahead of the rest of the fleet , it was the first engaged . " See " , said Nelson , pointing to the " Royal Sovereign " as she penetrated the centre of the enemy ' s line , " see how that noble fellow Collingwood carries his ship into action ! " Probably it was at the same moment that Collingwood , as if in response to the observation of his great commander , remarked to his captain , " What would Nelson give to be here ? " The " Royal Sovereign " closed with the Spanish admiral ' s ship and fired her broadsides with such rapidity and precision at the " Santa Ana " that the Spanish ship was on the verge of sinking almost before another British ship had fired a gun . Several other vessels came to " Santa Ana " ' s assistance and hemmed in the " Royal Sovereign " on all sides ; the latter , after being severely damaged , was relieved by the arrival of the rest of the British squadron , but was left unable to manoeuvre . Not long afterwards the " Santa Ana " struck her colours . On the death of Nelson , Collingwood assumed the command - in - chief , transferring his flag to the frigate " Euryalus " . Knowing that a severe storm was in the offing , Nelson had intended that the fleet should anchor after the battle , but Collingwood chose not to issue such an order : many of the British ships and prizes were so damaged that they were unable to anchor , and Collingwood concentrated efforts on taking damaged vessels in tow . In the ensuing gale , many of the prizes were wrecked on the rocky shore and others were destroyed to prevent their recapture , though no British ship was lost . On 9 November 1805 Collingwood was promoted Vice - Admiral of the Red and raised to the peerage as Baron Collingwood , of Caldburne and Hethpool in the County of Northumberland . He also received the thanks of both Houses of Parliament and was awarded a pension of £2000 per annum . Together with all the other captains and admirals , he also received a gold medal , his third , after those for the Glorious First of June and the Cape St Vincent ; only Nelson and Sir Edward Berry share the distinction of three gold medals for service during the wars against France . When not at sea he resided at Collingwood House in the town of Morpeth which lies some 15 miles north of Newcastle upon Tyne and Chirton Hall in Chirton , now a western suburb of North Shields . He is known to have remarked , " whenever I think how I am to be happy again , my thoughts carry me back to Morpeth . " Later career . From Trafalgar until his death no great naval action was fought though several small French fleets would attempt to run the blockade , and one successfully landed troops in the Caribbean two months after Trafalgar , the majority were hunted down and overwhelmed in battle . Collingwood was occupied in important political and diplomatic transactions in the Mediterranean , in which he displayed tact and judgement . In 1805 he was appointed to the Commander - in - Chief , Mediterranean Fleet . He requested to be relieved of his command that he might return home , however the government urgently requested an admiral with the experience and skill of Collingwood to remain , on the grounds that his country could not dispense with his services in the face on the still potent threat that the French and their allies could pose . His health began to decline alarmingly in 1809 , and he was forced to request the Admiralty to allow him to return home , which was finally granted . Collingwood died on board the , off Port Mahon as he sailed for England , on 7 March 1810 . He was laid to rest besides Nelson in the crypt of St Paul ' s Cathedral . Evaluation . Collingwood ' s merits as a naval officer were in many respects of the first order . His political judgement was remarkable and he was consulted on questions of general policy , of regulation , and even of trade . He was opposed to impressment and to flogging and was considered so kind and generous that he was called " father " by the common sailors . Between Nelson and Collingwood a close friendship existed , from their first acquaintance in early life until Nelson ' s death at Trafalgar ; and they lie side by side in St Paul ' s Cathedral . As Collingwood died without male issue , his barony became extinct at his death . Dudley Pope relates an aspect of Collingwood at the beginning of chapter three of his " Life in Nelson ' s Navy " : " Captain Cuthbert Collingwood , later to become an admiral and Nelson ' s second in command at Trafalgar , had his home at Morpeth , in Northumberland , and when he was there on half pay or on leave he loved to walk over the hills with his dog Bounce . He always started off with a handful of acorns in his pockets , and as he walked he would press an acorn into the soil whenever he saw a good place for an oak tree to grow . Some of the oaks he planted are probably still growing more than a century and a half later ready to be cut to build ships of the line at a time when nuclear submarines are patrolling the seas , because Collingwood ' s purpose was to make sure that the Navy would never want for oaks to build the fighting ships upon which the country ' s safety depended . " Memorials . The Maritime Warfare School of the Royal Navy is commissioned as , home to training for warfare , weapon engineering and communications disciplines . The town of Collingwood , Ontario , on Georgian Bay in Canada , the suburb of Collingwood in the Australian city of Melbourne , the town of Collingwood , New Zealand and the Collingwood Channel ( an entrance of Howe Sound near Vancouver , British Columbia ) , are named in his honour . A statue erected in his honour overlooks the River Tyne in the town of Tynemouth , at the foot of which are some of the cannon from the " Royal Sovereign " . One of the four houses at Collingwood ' s old school the Royal Grammar School , Newcastle , is named after him . One of the five houses of British public school Churcher ' s College is named after him , as is one of the eleven houses at The Royal Hospital School . One of the three secondary Schools within Excelsior Academy in Newcastle was named after Collingwood in 2013 . March 2010 saw the 200th anniversary of Collingwood ' s death and a number of major events were organised by ' Collingwood 2010 ' on Tyneside , in Morpeth and the island of Menorca .