Victory By J. M. W. Turner
Twenty-seven British ships-of-the line commanded by one-armed Admiral Horatio Nelson (he loses his right arm in the Canary Islands at the Battle of Santa Cruz de Tenerife in 1797), aboard his 104-gun flagship, HMS Victory, against a Spanish and French fleet consisting of thirty-three vessels led by Admiral Pierre-Charles-Jean-Baptise-
Nelson
Villeneuve
Gravina
Seeking a conclusive triumph over his enemies (who sail out of Cadiz, seeking to move the fleet's operations to Naples, Italy), Nelson relates his unorthodox battle plan to his captains over two October dinners aboard HMS Victory ... instead of attacking in a line parallel to the Spanish and French, the British will seek to cut the enemy fleet into three pieces by sending two columns of ships into the battle line on a perpendicular course (the second column is under the command of Nelson's second, Vice-Admiral Cuthbert Collingwood) that will negate any attempts of the enemy escaping, the tactic will bring about a ship-to-ship melee in which superior seamanship, quicker and more accurate gunnery, and better crew morale give the British a huge advantage, and bring a concentration of firepower on the rear of the Spanish and French fleet which they will be forced to deal with, disrupting the enemies' own plans. English ships painted to help their gunnery efforts with a distinctive yellow and black pattern that will later be called the Nelson Chequer, captains are told that "No captain can do wrong if he places his ship alongside that of the enemy."
HMS Victory
Collingwood
At 11:45 in the morning, Nelson sends out his now famous flag order to his fleet, "England expects every man to do his duty" ... and for the most part, that is exactly what happens. At noon, Admiral Villeneuve signals, "Engage the enemy" and the battle is on with Collingwood's ship, the 100-gun HMS Royal Sovereign being first to engage the enemy (all sails out and her bottom recently cleaned, she outruns the rest of the British fleet) in the form of five enemy ships, Fougueux, Indomptable, San Justo, San Leandro, and Santa Ana. Shortly afterwards, the second British ship in the lee column, HMS Belleisle (she will eventually be demasted and unable to maneuver, will be rescued by other British ships forty-five minutes into the clash), takes on L'Aigle, Achille, Neptune, and Fougueux and the HMS Victory becomes engaged with Heros, Santisma Trinidad, Redoutable, and Neptune.
Nelson's Signal To His Fleet
The Attack
Carnage at sea, the battle becomes a bloody holocaust of cannon fire, deadly wooden splinters, sniper fire, exploding grapeshot, and screaming wounded men. Locking masts with the Redoutable (74-guns), shortly after 1:00, Admiral Nelson is leading the defense of his ship when he is struck by a bullet fired from 50 feet away by a sniper in the mizzentop of the French ship ... a round that hits the admiral's left shoulder, passes through the warrior's spine (at the junction of the sixth and seventh thoracic vertebrae), and comes to rest two inches below the right scapula in his back muscles. "They finally succeeded, I am dead," Nelson exclaims before being taken below for treatment (but there is no treatment for Nelson's wound, fanned and given sips of lemonade and watered wine, he passes away at the age of 47 about three hours after being shot, aware that the British fleet has been victorious with last words that mark his heroic personality ... "Thank God I have done my duty ... God and my country."). About to be boarded, the HMS Victory is saved from being taken by the French by a broadside from the HMS Temeraire (98-guns) that rakes the Redoutable's exposed crew (when the battle is over, there will be only 99 fit sailors out of a crew of 643).
Bucentaure Demasted
Firing On The French
Nelson Is Shot
The Death Of Nelson By Daniel Maclise
Trafalgar
Battle as planned as more and more British ships attack into the center and rear of the Spanish and French fleet, the gunnery of the British eventually overpowers their enemies and the decisive victory is completed by the late afternoon (helped along the next day by a storm that sweeps over the fleets, sending many captured ships to the bottom of the Atlantic) ... at a cost of 458 men killed and 1,208 men wounded, but the loss of no English vessels, Nelson's sailors, soldiers, and ships capture 21 ships, destroy a French frigate, kill over 4,000 Spanish and French, wound an additional 2,400 men, and capture over 8,000 members of the enemy fleet. Rule Britannia ... though the victory is decisive, giving Great Britain command of the seas until World War II, it does nothing to keep Napoleon from controlling the European continent (fighting the War of the Third Coalition against the Holy Roman Empire in the form of Austria, Russia, Great Britain, and other European countries, out numbered, Napoleon will win his greatest battle in December near a village in Moravia called Austerlitz), he will, and wars with various countries and coalitions with the French emperor will last another ten years.
Trafalgar
Austerlitz
Victorious but dead, Nelson is placed in a cask of brandy mixed with camphor and myrrh, and returned to England where glowing tributes to his heroism are given, and monuments are built for Great Britain's greatest captain (including creation of Trafalgar Square, honoring his greatest victory, at the center of which is Nelson's Column, a 148 foot tall column with an 18 foot statue of the admiral at its top) ... at his funeral in London on 1/9/1806, Nelson procession to his final resting place at St. Paul's Cathedral consists of 32 admirals, over a hundred captains, and an escort of 10,000 soldiers. The two admirals that lose to Nelson will not be as well regarded. Spanish Admiral Gravina has his ship, the Principe de Asturias (112-guns), shot to pieces by three British warships, has his left arm shattered by grapeshot, and flees back to Cadiz, where he dies six months later from his wounds. Admiral Villeneuve, will survive the battle, be kept a prisoner in England, and then get paroled back to France in 1805, where he attempts to reclaim a career in his country's navy ... attempts which proves fruitless. Depressed, at a country inn in Rennes on the road to Paris, in 1806, Villeneuve will commit suicide at the age of 42 by stabbing himself in the left lung and heart seven times with a kitchen knife.
Nelson Sarcophagus
Trafalgar Column
The Admiral Ascends To Heaven
10/21/1805 ... Great Britain wins a monumental victory over the navy of Napoleon Bonaparte at the Battle of Trafalgar.
Trafalgar
