HMS Badger spent much of 1779 cruising the Central American coast as far as Honduras and Nicaragua, earning prizes despite only sporadic success. Nelson then handed Badger to Cuthbert Collingwood and received the larger 28-gun frigate HMS Hinchinbrook. Peter Parker briefly put him in charge of Fort Charles, which guarded the approaches to Kingston, while a threatened French attack was developing. When the threat moved north, Nelson returned to sea and resumed taking American prizes from Port Royal. The same period brought the malaria that would repeatedly affect his health and reinforce his dramatic swings between fearing death and feeling invincible.
Notable Point · 19:08-21:13
Fort Charles, prizes, and HMS Hinchinbrook
Nelson moved from Badger's Central American cruising to the frigate Hinchinbrook while mixing Jamaican port defence, commerce war, and the first recurring effects of malaria.