Nelson's childhood was far from conventional. His mother died when he was nine – a psychological blow that left a permanent scar. He then spent a significant part of his short schooldays in the progressive Paston School at North Walsham, where the curriculum was much more liberal and arts-based than in the standard grammar schools of the time. The results of this schooling can be seen in his marvellous letters, which flow from his pen in an exhilarating stream of consciousness that vividly captures his impulsive and eager way of speaking.

Then, in March 1771, aged only twelve, he joined the Royal Navy under the patronage of his maternal uncle, Captain Maurice Suckling, and was away from home for most of his teens. Even in the Navy his training was unconventional. Suckling, did not keep his protégé close by his side as was usual – instead, he seems to have deliberately planned for young Horatio to have as wide a variety of experience as possible. A short spell in Suckling's own ship, the 64-gun HMS Raisonable, in the Thames estuary was followed first by a voyage to the West Indies in the merchantman Mary Ann and then by another spell in the Thames, when the boy was sent out constantly in small boats. As he later remembered, this experience made him ‘confident of myself among rocks and sands, which has many times since been of very great comfort to me’. Then, still aged only fourteen, he took part in an expedition to the Arctic, and finally completed his early training with a two-year stint in the crack frigate HMS Seahorse in the East Indies, during which he saw action for the first time on 19 February 1775. At that point, he fell dangerously ill with malaria in 1775 and had to be invalided home.

Even so, his first four years in the Navy had been packed with activity and had given him a wide range of experience, in different types of ship and different environments, which helped to nurture his natural independence and energy.