Nelson (part 1/3)

Lord Admiral Horatio Nelson

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Education

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• Nelson
• admiral
• navy

[TheRhinehart86]

There's no denying the significance of Trafalgar but I think its heroic status is a little overblown. The Franco-Spanish had been bottled up in their ports for months and even years, the crews were untrained and their ships were armed with obsolete guns. The British were experienced, relatively fresh and far better positioned. It seems a little silly to celebrate so wildly such a one sided pummeling, the British didnt lose a single ship!!

[artacania]

everyone always says that nelson did alot of bad things such as his affairs but ultimatly he gets the job done

[baycast]

You have a great channel i love all of your history videos etc., Thanks so very much.

[Alphamask978]

Good British navy commander but the information in this video is all wrong he dies in 1805 not 1801.

[am1966ath]

@canadarox14 I think that Villenueve knew that he was no match for Nelson. As an Admiral he knew that his sailors both spanish and french were not as good trained as the british under Nelson. That must be a horrifying

knowledge and also having an emperor who demands a sea battle.

[canadarox14]

@am1966ath That's super, thank you! And thanks for all the info. I really have a soft spot for Admiral Villenueve, who made a blunder going into the battle, but was under a ton of stress. I agree that Napoleon kind of pushed him to the combined fleet's demise, but I don't think Napoleon was nearly as good at naval strategy as he was at land strategy, and perhaps didn't know what he was doing. Interesting comment about the British winning Canada through use of their navy. That's a good point.

[am1966ath]

@canadarox14 Dear candarox, there is a british publishing house called Ospery-books, they have many titles on Nelsons fleet(books with colourpictures) ex nelsons sailor,Nelsons officers,armaments in Nelsons time,french napoleonic sailors etc..go and have a look, you can also mail order them.

[am1966ath]

@canadarox14 800men crew, most of them riff-raff and scum, commanded by snobbish officers who bought their command...that meant that the huge spanish ships like Santissima Trinidad were no match in a sea battle with an eglish ship, were the sailors were disciplined,well thought and could/were trained to quick reload and fire rounds after rounds. The spanish had the same problem they had in 1588 or 1628..huge ships,huge untrained crews and huge guns, slow reloading,chaos etc

[am1966ath]

@canadarox14 Napoleon let Villenueve down, the french admiral of the spano-french fleet at Trafalgar.

Mind you the british ruled the seas from mid 18th century untill WWI which made it possible to seek up and anihilate ennemies on the other side of the world and then land troops. Look at Canada and India,captured because of a superior british fleet. I think the secret of the british lay in the training of the seamen and their officers. Most fleets were just huge ships of the line with

[canadarox14]

@am1966ath I can see why Napoleon might want to stick with the land armies after that. He really knew his stuff with armies, and the fleet had let him down. I'm a big fan of Captain Jean-Jacques-Étienne Lucas, one of the French captains who fought at Trafalgar. He was pretty impressive even after Trafalgar when you read about him. He's the kind of person I wish there was more information on. I love reading about England from this period, but I like learning about France too.