Shared West Indies commands bind Nelson and the Collingwoods

When illness forced Nelson ashore, Collingwood again succeeded him, this time in HMS Hinchinbrook on Nelson's recommendation. The repeated handovers made Collingwood a friend, mentor, and older-brother figure whose judgment Nelson knew from direct experience. In 1786 Cuthbert, his brother Wilfred, and Nelson operated three ships against American merchants trading illegally in the West Indies under the Navigation Acts. They sometimes worked separately and sometimes as a coordinated group, capturing enough ships to anger both American traders and local interests profiting from the commerce. Wilfred's death ended the three-man partnership, but the surviving friendship carried years of small-ship cooperation into later Channel and Mediterranean commands.