Exmouth has long been an attractive place to live
- Credit: Alex Walton
Summer is here again, so it seems as good a time as any for us to remember that for a glorious period lasting roughly one century between the 1750s and the 1850s, the town of Exmouth enjoyed a glorious and golden period as one of the most fashionable coastal resorts in the land.
Conditions were perfect. A century before, Exmouth had been occasionally raided by Algerian pirates on the lookout for booty to plunder. These rogues often ended up departing with human cargo, kidnapping townspeople who they would then attempt to sell as slaves in North Africa.
Admiral Lord Nelson: 10 days that created a legend Published:
9 April 1777: The ambitious teenager shows his potential
Passing the lieutenant’s examination was a hurdle that everyone with ambitions to become a commissioned officer in the Royal Navy had to clear. Nelson was 18 years old when he appeared before the panel to be tested on diverse aspects of his service knowledge. Meeting with success, he wrote to his brother soon afterwards with the news that he had been appointed lieutenant on a frigate, the Lowestoffe. “So I am now left in [the] world to shift for myself,” he continued, “which I hope I shall do, so as to bring Credit to myself and Friends.”