Admiral Sir Sidney Smith liked to think of himself as a second Nelson, and there were parallels between the two. Smith and Nelson shared the credit for changing the course of history by ending Napoleon Bonaparte's dream of eastern conquest: Nelson at the Battle of the Nile and Smith by his defence of Acre. While Nelson became the unrivalled national hero, Smith has been almost forgotten. Yet had his advice been followed, campaigns in the Middle East would have been forgotten and thousands of lives saved.