About 20 kilometers northwest of Cape Trafalgar, Spain, in 1805, a British fleet approached a numerically superior Franco-Spanish fleet. On the British flagship, H.M.S. Victory, was Royal Navy Vice-Admiral Horatio Nelson. Nelson had plenty of experience under his belt and fought the French and Spanish navies before. But Nelson’s fleet was outgunned and he determined traditional tactics would not win the day, so Nelson took a gamble on a risky maneuver that could very well backfire. The bows (foremost part of a ship) of Nelson’s vessels faced perpendicular to the Franco-Spanish fleet, anxiety built amongst the captains and crew as they bore down on a line of guns with no way to return fire. A few minutes before the fleets came into range, a series of maritime signal flags rose up from the H.M.S. Victory which spelt out: “England expects that every man will do his duty”. Indeed England expected that every man would do his duty, for this battle would decide the fate of Britain and Napoleon’s ambitions.
Background
France had gone through a decade of political turmoil and invasions from other European powers during the French Revolution, going through four changes in government and having to fight off two coalitions. In this perilous time of fear and instability, a Corsican man would rise to power and bring order to France. His name was Napoleon Bonaparte. His military success in the conflicts against the Coalition forces bolstered his public image and he eventually helped launch a coup d’état in 1799, establishing a new government called the Consulate with Napoleon being First Consul. But Napoleon had heaps of ambition, and in 1804, he was given the title ‘Emperor of the French’. But he had acquired many enemies who saw him as a threat, one of these enemies being Britain.
Despite a peace treaty (the Treaty of Amiens) that ended hostilities between France and Britain, resentment grew as Napoleon’s intentions clashed with British economic and colonial interests. The treaty held for one year after being signed, until Britain declared war on France on May 18th, 1803, immediately imposing a blockade of the French coast. The British, being an island nation, had a powerful and well experienced navy, but a small land force compared to France. France, on the other hand, gave more priority to its land army, and their navy was not as efficient and experienced as Britain. The problem was exacerbated due to many officers being executed or fleeing the country during the upheaval of the Revolution.
Napoleon recognized the only way to defeat Britain was to cross the English Channel and land his troops on British soil, but that was easier said than done, for the Royal Navy guarded the Channel, and invading would require crippling it. So Napoleon stationed an army of 200,000 men in a camp at Boulogne to prepare the land force for the planned invasion. Then, in 1805, he planned to gather the main French fleets, break through the British blockade, sail across the Atlantic to the Caribbean, and link up with the fleet of his ally, Spain before sailing back to clear the Channel of the Royal Navy. Then, and only then, he could have his army transported safely to invade. In command of the combined fleet would be Vice-Admiral Pierre-Charles Villeneuve who was reluctant to face the Royal Navy after past experience facing them and he was overall unimpressed with Napoleon’s plan.
British Vice-Admiral Horatio Nelson commanded a small fleet blockading the French port of Toulon, where some of the French fleet under Villeneuve was stationed. Nelson loosened the blockade intentionally, so as to draw the French out to engage in battle. Nelson said, “…to be able to get at the enemy you must let them come out to you, if you cannot get at them.” The French did indeed sail out of Toulon on March 30th, 1805, not to engage in combat, but instead beginning Napoleon’s naval plan to combine the French and Spanish fleets. Villeneuve took advantage of a storm that scattered the blockade fleet and slipped away. Nelson became aware shortly thereafter, and a several month-long game of cat and mouse began.
Naval Cat & Mouse Chase
Nelson initially predicted that the fleet was headed to Egypt, but he was incorrect about their intentions. He only became aware of Villeneuve’s position on May 12th and turned back east towards the Caribbean. In that time, Villeneuve’s fleet met up with some of the Spanish and French fleet in the Caribbean after crossing the Atlantic, bringing the number of ships from 11 to 20. Nelson failed to meet Villeneuve’s fleet in the Caribbean by only a few days, who sailed back to Europe in June. But in a stroke of luck, one of Nelson’s faster ships that was sending his reports back to Britain (communication was slow at this time) spotted Villeneuve’s fleet.
Vice-Admiral Robert Calder, blockading other French ports in the Bay of Biscay with 15 ships, sailed out to meet Villeneuve on the 22nd of July. In the ensuing battle off Cape Finisterre, Spain, Calder captured two ships but failed to stop Villeneuve from reaching the Spanish port of Ferrol, where more ships joined the combined fleet. Villeneuve was supposed to continue onto the French port of Brest and then enter the English Channel, but with his fleet worn down and worries of being attacked by another British fleet made him choose the fateful decision to retreat to Cadiz, Spain. Napoleon, frustrated with Villeneuve’s cautiousness, had the invasion army waiting at Boulogne set its sights on a campaign against Austria and Russia, who had aligned with Britain in war against France (War of the Third Coalition).
Despite the immediate threat of invasion gone, Villeneuve’s fleet was still a threat. Meanwhile, Nelson had returned to Britain after two years on duty at sea as a hero, but he wasn’t home for long. Receiving word of where the combined fleet was, Nelson prepared to set sail for Cadiz while a part of the Channel fleet was detached and reached Cadiz on September 15th. Nelson’s fleet arrived on September 28th to take command of the blockade of Cadiz. Once again hoping to lure out the fleet, Nelson kept his main ships out of sight while smaller and faster ships scouted outside the port in the event Villeneuve’s fleet departed.
Villeneuve left his fleet and inexperienced crew to rot in port due to supply shortages. On September 16th, Napoleon ordered the fleet to sail for Naples, Italy, but it was not until October 18th that Villeneuve unexpectedly changed his mind and ordered the fleet to immediately set sail. But the light winds made for slow headway, giving plenty of time for Nelson’s fleet to be informed and prepare for battle.
“England expects that every man will do his duty“
Nelson’s fleet on October 21st had a total of 27 ships of the line (a type of sailing warship in the 19th century) along several smaller vessels. He originally had 34 ships of the line, but six were sent off to resupply and one with Robert Calder returned to Britain to face court martial for his lackluster performance at Cape Finisterre. Nelson’s flagship was H.M.S. Victory.
Villeneuve’s Combined fleet, sailing out of Cadiz, had 18 French and 15 Spanish ships of the line, making for a total of 33 ships. Villeneuve’s flagship is the Bucentaure while the Spanish commander, Admiral Federico Gravina, was aboard Principe de Asturias. They were also accompanied by several smaller vessels. Besides outnumbering the British fleet, Villeneuve had some of the most powerful and largest warships in the world at that time. But his crew were still inexperienced and his indecisive, and sudden decision making led to the fleet being disorganized.
The normal tactic of the time for naval warfare was to form into a line of battle and engage the enemy parallel to them, which allowed for better control of the fleets for commanders. But Nelson knew that he was outgunned and that a line of battle would be indecisive. So Nelson went for a more bold and more unorthodox approach; form into two columns and pierce the Combined fleet’s formation, so as to overwhelm the enemy ships in the breach with close combat. The downside of this plan was that the lead ships would be under heavy fire and with no way to return fire until they reached the enemy line.
At 8 A.M., Villeneuve orders his fleet to turn back north to Cadiz after Nelson’s fleet is spotted northwest of their position. This sudden change of plan causes his fleet to become even more disorganized. By 11 A.M., Nelson’s entire fleet was in formation with Nelson on H.M.S. Victory leading the ‘Weather column’ and the ‘‘Leeward’’ Column’ led by Vice-Admiral Collingwood on H.M.S. Royal Sovereign. Nelson asks that Victory’s signal flags be raised to the fleet saying: “England confides that every man will do his duty”, but for simplicity, ‘confides’ is replaced with ‘expects’. At 11:45, Nelson’s signal was given: “England expects that every man will do his duty”.
At noon, the first shots of the battle were fired by the Combined fleet. As Nelson’s fleet closed in, the Combined fleet’s shots began to hit their mark. Victory and Royal Sovereign were hammered with gunfire, with Victory’s ship’s wheel being destroyed making maneuvering difficult. At 12:30, Nelson aimed Victory to break the fleet line at Villeneuve’s flagship, Bucentaure, which was hard to make out without its identifying markers. At the same time, Collingwood’s ship Royal Sovereign is the first to break Villeneuve’s line. Now it was the British turn to unleash hellfire, as Royal Sovereign passes behind a Spanish ship and fires upon her, causing lots of damage and casualties. A few minutes later, Victory replicates the same with Bucentaure, crippling Villeneuve’s flagship.
In the following minutes, more British ships file into the chaotic enemy formation, opening fire on Spanish and French ships to devastating effect. This was exactly what Nelson wanted. Victory went on past Bucentaure and became entangled with the French ship Redoubtable, firing practically on top of each other. In their time in Cadiz, some of the Combined fleet’s crews were trained in sharpshooting, boarding enemy ships, and close quarters combat, and Redoubtable was one of those ships. A boarding party was assembled on her deck when another British ship appeared and blasted her decks, mowing down the boarding party.
But, at the height of the battle, a sharpshooter in Redoubtale’s mast spotted Admiral Nelson in his bright and distinguishable uniform. The musket ball strikes Nelson, mortally wounding him. Nelson wasn’t a stranger to being wounded, but he immediately knew this was going to be his final one. “They finally succeeded, I am dead.” He was taken below deck of Victory to receive medical treatment.
By 3 in the afternoon, under overwhelming fire, the Combined fleet’s ships one by one take down their flags as a sign of surrender. The leading ships of the Combined fleet, which turned around to engage in battle, fire a few long-range shots before fleeing. It is now obvious that Villeneuve’s fleet has been defeated, and over a dozen ships surrender while the ships who can escape do so with haste. The news of victory reaches a dying Nelson on the bottom deck of Victory. “Thank God I have done my duty,” he murmurs. Horatio Nelson passed away shortly thereafter.
In one final bloody and destructive event of the battle, the French ship Achille, disabled and ablaze since 3:00 P.M., explodes when the fire reaches her magazine (place where ammunition and explosives are stored) at 6 in the evening. Achille would have the second highest percentage of casualties behind Redoubtale.
Aftermath
Of the 33 ships of the line in Villeneuve’s Franco-Spanish fleet, 17 were captured and one destroyed. 4,408 were killed and 2,541 wounded, most of the casualties coming from Redoubtale, who had her deck wiped clean of her boarding party by cannon fire. Over 4,000 were captured, including Villeneuve. Britain, on the other hand, suffered 438 killed and 1,252 wounded. Despite suffering severe damage, none of Nelson’s ships were lost.
But the captured ships (also referred to as prizes) wouldn’t be kept for long, as an Atlantic storm bringing gale-force winds battered the British and their prize ships. The French and Spanish took advantage of the storm to recapture some of their ships and some of the crews of the captured ships rebelled against their British captors. Out of 17 prize ships captured, only 4 remained in British possession. Despite that, it wasn’t a huge loss, as many of the Franco-Spanish ships recaptured were wrecked by the storm.
Vice-Admiral Villeneuve was allowed to return to France at the end of 1805, and was later found dead with stab wounds in an inn room on his way to Paris. Whether it was murder or self inflicted is still up for debate. Spanish Admiral Gravina, wounded, escapes the battle with ten other ships back to Cadiz. He later died of his wounds in 1806. Despite the grand British victory, the loss of Vice-Admiral Horatio Nelson dampened the celebration. To prevent his body from rotting on the voyage home, he was stored in a barrel filled with brandy. Already being a national hero, news of his death was mourned across Britain. He was given a large state funeral in London on January 9th, 1806, and so many people arrived to see him lying-in-state preceding the funeral that guards had to be sent to direct the crowd.
The news of victory at Trafalgar was shortly followed by the defeat of Austrian forces on land at Ulm by Napoleon. In December of 1805, Napoleon made another, greater land victory at Austerlitz against Russia and Austria. But of these battles, Trafalgar would prove to be most consequential: Britain established her naval dominance over the seas for the remainder of the Napoleonic Wars, continuing its blockade on France mostly unchallenged. Still looking for other ways to defeat the British, Napoleon established the Continental System in an attempt to economically damage Britain into peace. The enforcement of said system would lead him into making great mistakes, such as his invasion of Russia in 1812, which would ultimately culminate in his downfall. Britain would remain unchallenged at sea until the rise of the German navy in the leadup to World War I.
Horatio Nelson’s legacy lived on past the Napoleonic Wars and to this day he remains Britain’s greatest naval war hero. In a public survey conducted in 2002 in which the British people ranked who they thought were the ‘greatest’ British figures of all time, Nelson placed 9th out of 100. There are multiple places and ships named after him, though some of those names have been changed since. Nelson’s flagship, Victory, still exists as a museum ship at Portsmouth, and if you should ever visit London, I suggest stopping by Trafalgar Square, for not only is there the National Gallery art museum, but also a 163 feet tall column, topped with a statue of Horatio Nelson, the British Admiral whose strategic risk-taking changed the course of the Napoleonic Wars.
