 CHAPTER 8 THE BATTLE OF THE SAINTS PASSAGE, 1782 In the days when fleets in action relied upon the oar, all fighting was at close quarters, and as we have seen in our study of typical battles of this period, naval engagements fought out at close quarters gave very definite results, the fleet that was defeated being practically destroyed. When battles began to be fought under sail, with the gun as a chief weapon, a new method had to be evolved. The more the fire of broadside batteries was relied upon, the greater was tendency to fight at short artillery range, without closing to hand to hand distance. And when the sailors and sea fighters of the 17th century adopted line ahead as a normal formation for making the most of broadside fire, battles had a marked tendency to degenerate into inconclusive artillery duels. In both the English and the French navies, the two powers that, after the naval decline of Spain and Holland disputed the command of the sea, the tactics of the battle in line ahead soon crystallized into a pedantic system. For a hundred years, the methods of English admirals were kept in rigid uniformity by a code of fighting instructions for the navy, drawn up under the direction of the Duke of York, afterwards James II, when he was still Lord High Admiral of England in his brother's reign. These instructions were a well meant attempt to provide a sealed pattern for naval engagements. They contemplated set formal battles with both fleets in line ahead, assailing on parallel courses or passing and repassing each other on opposite tax, exchanging broadsides as the guns bore. The French adopted similar methods. If the English had any advantage in their tactics, it was in their ideas of gunnery. The French aimed at mass and rigging, in the hope of crippling an adversary in her sealed power and forcing her to fall out of the moving line. The English believed in making the hull their target, aiming between wind and water to start dangerous leaks or sending their shot into the crowded gun decks to put the enemy's batteries out of action. Under such methods, battles became formal duels, in which, as often as not, there was no great result, and both sides claimed the victory. The story of many of the naval campaigns of the first three quarters of the 18th century is weary reading. It was in the last quarter of the century that English admirals learned to fight again at close quarters and to strike crushing blows at an enemy. The new period of energetic, decisive fighting began with a famous battle in West Indian waters in 1782, inculminated in the world-renowned victories of Nelson, who was a young captain on the North American station when Rodney beat the Comte de Glace in the Battle of the Saints passage. Born when George I was king, Rodney was a veteran of many wars when he won his West Indian triumph. He had fought the French under hawk and was with Boscoine at the taking of Louisburg. In 1759, he bombarded Haive and burned the transport flotilla collected at the mouth of the saint for a raid on England. Three years later, as commander-in-chief on the Leewood Island station, he captured Martinique, St. Lucia and Grenada and learned ways of the West Indian seas. Then came years of political disfavor, half-pay, and financial embarrassment until in an hour of darkness for England, with the American colonies in successful revolt and Frenchmen and Spaniards besieging Gibraltar by land and sea, the veteran admiral was recalled to active service and found and seized the great opportunities of his life. Sailing south with a relieving fleet, he fell in with and captured a Spanish convoy of Finister and then surprised and destroyed Longara Spanish squadron, taking seven ships out of eleven and chasing the rest into Cadiz. The appearance of his fleet with Gibraltar saved the fortress and then in February 1780, he sailed across the Atlantic to try conclusions with the Gechen, whose powerful fleet based on Martinique was threatening all the English possessions in the West Indies. So far, numbers and opportunity had been on his side. He had now to depend more on skill than fortune and meet a more equal opponent. At his headquarters at St. Lucia in April 1780, Rodney heard that the French fleet under the Gechen had sailed from Martinique. On the 17th, he fought an indecisive action with the enemy, an action notable for what Rodney attempted, not for what he accomplished. Twice again, on later days, Rodney met the Gechen, but none of the three battles did more than inflict mutual loss on the competence without producing any decisive result. The campaign was, like so many others in the West Indies, a struggle for the temporary possession of this or that port or island, the Gechen's whole strategy being based on the idea of avoiding the risk of a close engagement that might imperil his fleet and trying to snatch local advantages when he could elude his enemy. In 1781, Rodney was compelled by ill health temporarily to give up the West Indian command and return to England. In the spring of 1782, he was again sent to the West Indies, at a moment when the situation of affairs was most menacing for British power beyond the Atlantic. Cornwallis had been forced to surrender at Yorktown, and the success of the revolted American colonies was now assured. The French fleet in the West Indies had been joined by reinforcements under the Comte de Gasse, who had gone out as commander-in-chief, taking with him a considerable military force that was to combine with an expedition from the Spanish-American colonies, not for the capture of some small islands in the Antilles, but for the conquest of Jamaica, the center of British power and British trade in the West Indian seas. Kampenfeld, a good sailor, now remembered chiefly as the admiral who went down with twice 300 men when the Royal George sank at Spithead. This person destroyed, at the mouth of the channel, a large French convoy of supplies for the grass and drove the squadron that protected it into breast. With his task thus lightened, Rodney put to sea with four ships of the line, and after a stormy passage reached Barbados on 19 February 1782. According to Antigua, he formed a junction with and took command of the West Indian fleet, which Hood had commanded during his absence in England. From Antigua he took the fleet to St. Lucia, where he established his headquarters in Gross Island Bay. St. Lucia was a favorite base of operations of our West Indian fleets in the old wars, and a scene of much desperate fighting by land and sea. The year before, the grass had failed in an attempt to seize it. The fleet of the Comte de Grasse was only some 40 miles away to the Northwood. It lay at Martinique, in the Bay of Fort Royal, now Fort de France. Though it has nothing to do with the fortunes of Rodney and de Grasse, it is interesting to note that in a convent school looking out on the bay, there was just then a little schoolgirl named Josephine de la Pagari, daughter of an artillery lieutenant in the garrison, who was to live to be empress of the French when France was a mistress of Europe. During the month of March, both fleets were busy preparing for a sea. Rodney was reinforced from England, and a small squadron from Brest joined de Grasse. The reinforcements received during March had given Rodney the advantage of numbers. He had 36 sail of the line to oppose the 30 that were with de Grasse at Martinique. In the English fleet, there were five great three-deckers, three of them carrying 98 and two of them 90 guns. There were 2174s, a 70 gun ship and 964s. In the French fleet, there was one of the largest war vessels then afloat, de Grasse's flagship in the Ville de Pagari of 104 guns. There were five ships of 80 guns, 20 of 74, one of 70 and three of 64. This enumeration gives Rodney an advantage of six ships and more than 200 guns. It is quite true that the ships of the same rating in the French service were generally larger than the English, but even apart from numbers, the latter had advantages in armament that were more important than any trifling difference in size. The English guns were mostly mounted on an improved system that gave a larger arc of training for an aft. The practical result being that as ships pass each other, the Frenchman was kept longer under fire than the Englishman. Further, the English ships mounted, besides the guns countered in their armament, a number of caronades mounted on the upper decks, short guns of large caliber, throwing a heavy shot when the fighting was carried on at close quarters, a weapon not yet introduced in the French Navy. Thanks to these improvements in the armament of his ships, Rodney had an advantage in gun power beyond the mere superiority in numbers of ships and guns. He had a further advantage in the fact that a larger number of his ships were copper sheath. This meant less fouling while the ships were waiting at their anchorage, and therefore better speed for the Englishman they put to sea. De Grasse was encumbered with a large convoy of merchantmen and store ships, and many of his ships were overcrowded with the troops destined for the descent on Jamaica. It was expected that when he sailed it would be to form, in the first instance, a junction with the Spanish part of the expedition of San Domingo. Rodney kept his fleet at St. Lucia, ready to weigh anchor on the shortest notice, and a smart frigate, the Andromarcker, commanded by Captain Byron, grandfather of the poet, cruised off Martinique watching the Frenchman. At dawn on 8 April, Byron saw that the French were coming out, and he hastened to St. Lucia under press of sail with the news. After port he flew the signal that told Rodney that De Grasse was at sea. Anchors came up and sails were shaken out, and Rodney set off in pursuit, knowing that De Grasse had a very few hours' start of him. The few hours did not count for much, provided the English admiral could once get on the Frenchman's track. The danger of missing him could only arise from making at the outset a wrong judgement as to the cause on which the enemy would sail. It was De Grasse's business to avoid a battle until he had safely taken his huge convoy to San Domingo and joined hands with his Spanish allies. Rodney judged that he would most likely follow the long curve of the chain of islands that fringed the Caribbean Sea, staring by Puerto Rico for San Domingo. In the night of the 8th, the English fleet passed Martinique. Next morning it was off the west coast of Dominique, making good speed, and away to the northward, a fast spreading crowd of sails showed that Rodney had guessed rightly. The French fleet and convoy were in sight. Dominique is a mass of volcanic ridges falling to the seaward in precipitous cliffs, rising landward, tier above tier, and shooting up into rocky spires that culminate in a towering peak of the Morné de Ableuten, 5,000 feet high. Under the shelter of this rugged island, while the prevailing trade wind blows steadily from the eastward, there are sudden calms, or irregular flaws of wind blowing now from one point, now from another, diverted by the irregular ridges of the highland. This April morning, the sun had hardly risen when the wind fell, and the two fleets drifted slowly with loose hanging sails. Near the north end of the island lay the convoy. A little to the southward, the grass's 30 battleships struggled in a long line over some six miles of sunlit sea. Off the center and south of the island, Rodney's larger fleet was stretched out in line ahead. It was formed in three divisions. Hood, in a 90-gun Bafleur, commanded the van. Rodney, with his flag flying in a tall tree-decker, the formidable of 98 guns, was in the center. The rear was commanded by rear admiral Samuel Drake, a namesake and descendant of that other Drake, whose name had been in the terror of the West Indian seas in Elizabethan days. Suddenly, there came a flow of wind, sweeping from the south round the end of the island, so narrow that most of the English fleet hardly felt it. It filled the sails of Hood's ships in the van, and they steered for two French battleships that dropped a stern of their consorts. One of the Frenchmen passed close under the tears of guns in the leading English ship, but not a shot was fired at her as she swept by and rejoined her consorts. Rodney had not yet flown the signal for battle, and these were still the days when personal enterprise and decision were not encouraged among the captains of a fleet. As the breeze filled the sails of the Frenchmen, grass a signal to the convoy to bear away before it to the northwestward, while he with his fighting ships set his course for the channel between Dominica and Guadalupe. He rightly judged that Rodney would follow the warships, and thus the convoy would have a good start. The channel towards which the French fleet was heading is known as the Saint's Passage, not on the surmise that it leads to heaven, but because along its northern waters stretches a line of rocky islands known to the French as Le Ile de Sainte. The nine ships of Hood, forming the English van, had gone far ahead of the rest of the fleet. De Graza had not had his mind so centered on the idea of avoiding a battle that is little doubt that he might have brought an overwhelming force to bear on them. Luckily for Rodney, he contented himself with sending his second in command. What a way to skirmish with them. Passing and repassing Hood's division at long range and firing at Mars and rigging in the hope of disabling them for further pursuit. Hood returned to fire, doing as much damage as he suffered, and towards midday the rest of the English had worked up to him by taking advantage of every breath of wind that blew over the ridges of Dominica. Then the wind fell again, and all through the night and the following day, 10 April, the fleets lay inside of each other beyond even distant cannon shot. What a way and Hood's crews busying themselves with repairing, rigging, and replacing damage spares. During the 11th, De Graza tried to get his fleet through the Saints passage, working by short tacks to windward, and baffled and delayed by sudden calms. In the afternoon, several of his ships were still to the westward of the strait, and Rodney, who had been getting gradually to the northward, despite the frequent failure of the wind under the lee of Dominica, was at last near enough seriously to threaten these laggards. In order to save them from being overwhelmed by the whole English fleet, the Grazas gave up the advantage of weary hours of hard work and came back before the wind out of the strait. At sunset, the two fleets lay to the westward of the Saints passage, and there was no probability that the Grazas would attempt to tack through it during the hours of darkness. In the night, Rodney maneuvered to get to windward of the enemy, and at daylight on the 12th, the two fleets were within striking distance. The Grazas to the leeward, his fleet in a straggling line over some nine miles of sea, Rodney had his opportunity of forcing on a decisive battle at last. At some distance from the French line, a partly-dismastered line of battleship, the Zile, was seen into overfragade. She had been in collision with the flagship during the night, and had been so badly damaged that the Grazas were sending her away to Guadeloupe. Rodney's ships had lost their order to battle somewhat in the darkness, and while he was forming his line, he detached a couple of ships to threaten the disabled Zile. This had the effect he attended. It removed the Grazas' last hesitation about fighting. The French line was soon seen bearing down on the port tack, the rearward ships crowding sail to close up. Rodney's battle line in reverse order led by Drake and the Rare Division was already on a course that would bring the two fleets sweeping past each other. In the leading ship, the Marlboro was steered so as to make the passage a close one. Rodney had hoisted the signal to engage the enemy to Leeward. While the fleets were closing, he sat in an armchair on his quarter deck, for he was older than his 64 years, broken by long illness and only sustained by his dogged spirit. One of his captains, Savage of the Hercules, also went into battle seated in an armchair beside the bulwarks of his ship. He was lame with gout and unable to stand or walk without help. When the firing began and the ships were passing each other amid a thunder of broadsides and a hail of shot and bullets, Captain Savage gravely raised his cocked head to salute each enemy as she ranged up a breast of the Hercules. What would those old sailors have thought of the naval commander of today peeping through the slits in the steel walls of Conning Tower? But it is only fair to ask also what they would have thought of shells weighing half a ton bursting in fiery destruction. The Marlboro approaching on a converging course came to close quarters with the brave, the six ship in the glasses line and then shifting her helm to bring her course parallel to that of the enemy exchanged broadsides with the Frenchmen. Ship after ship came into action in the same way. The speed was nearer three than four knots and aligned some six miles long. So it was more than an hour before the leading English battleship was abreast of and engaged with the rear most Frenchmen. As ship passed ship, it was a thunder of artillery, a rattle of small arms. Then a brief lull till the guns of two more opponents bore on each other. But in this cannonade, the English had the advantage of the heavy blows struck by the large ball cannonades at close range and the fact that their gun mountings enabled them to keep a passing ship longer under fire than was possible for the French gunners. In the glasses ship crowded with troops, the slaughter was terrible. As the fight went on and the French ships came under the crashing fire of adversary after adversary, it was seen that it was only with difficulty the officers kept the men at the guns. In this first hour of the fight, the French began to throw the dead overboard to clear the encumbered decks. And the strange horror was added to the scene for shoals of sharks that had followed the fleets to pick up anything thrown overboard now swarmed around them, lashing the water into foam as they struggled for their human prey. At length, their leading English ship was a beam of the rear most of the grass's fleet. Over some six miles of sea, the two battle lines extended. Every ship ablaze with fire flashes from her guns and with the dense smoke clouds drifting around the English vessels and wrapping them in the fog of war. If the battle was now to be fought out on the old traditional method, the fleets would clear each other, wear and tack and reparse each other in opposite directions with a second exchange of fire. But now came the event that made the battle of saints passage epoch-making, enable history. What precisely happened is wrapped in a fog of controversy as dense as a smoke fog that enveloped Rodney's fleet at a decisive moment. One thing is certain. The old admiral suddenly changed all his plans and executed a new maneuver with the signal he himself was disobeying, the order to engage to Leeward, still flying from his flagship. The act was the sudden seizing of an unexpected opportunity, but some of the merit of the new departure was due to Rodney's right-hand man, his captain of the fleet, Sir Charles Douglas. Douglas was one of those whose minds had been influenced by new theories on naval war, which were just then in the air. In Britain, a scotch country gentleman, John Clerk of Eldon, had been arguing for some time in pamphlets and manuscripts, circulated among naval officers against the former methods that led to indecisive results. His paper plans for destroying an enemy were no doubt open to the criticism that they would work out beautifully. The enemy stuck to the old-fashioned ways and attempted no counter-stroke. But the essence of Clerk's theories was that parallel orders of battle meant only indecisive cannonading, that the crushing enemy, one must break into his line, bring parts of it under a close fire, not on one side, but on both, and aside the fate of the ships thus cut off by superior numbers and superior gun power before the rest could come to their help. His plans might not work out with a mechanical exactitude described in his writings, but they would tend to produce a close melee, where the best men and a steadiest fire would win. And after such an encounter, there would not be merely a few masts and spars shot away, and a few holes to be plugged. But the beaten side would be minus a number of ships sunk, burned, or taken, and condemned to hopeless inferiority for the rest of the campaign. Clerk was not the only man who put forward these ideas. A French gist suite professor of mathematics had worked out plans for securing local advantage of numbers in a sea fight at close quarters. But while French naval officers laughed at naval battles, worked out with a piece of chalk and a blackboard. British sailors were either themselves thinking out similar schemes or beginning to think there might be something in a scotch-layed diagram. It was at a critical moment when the two fleets lay side by side in parallel lines on opposite courses, wrapped in the battle smoke. That Douglas, looking out through a gap in the war cloud, saw that a sudden flow of wind blowing steadily from the southeast was flattening the French sails against the mast and checking their speed. The same sudden change of wind was filling the English sails, and the masters were squaring the yards to it. While the Frenchmen, to keep any way on their ships, had to bring their bows partly round towards the English line. Between the glorial, the ship immediately opposed to Rodney's flagship, the formidable, and the next Frenchman in the line, the Di-Dem, a white gap was opening up. Douglas saw the chance offered to his admiral. Half the English fleet was ahead of the formidable, engaged with the rearward French ships. If the formidable pushed through the gap, leading the rest of the line after her, the French rear would be cut off from the van and brought under a double fire at those quarters, and it would be a fair prospect of destroying it before the glaster could come back to its support. He rushed to Rodney's side. Moments were precious. He urged his plan in the briefest words. At first, the old admiral rejected it. No, he said. I will not break my line. Douglas insisted, and the two officers stepped to the opening in the bulwarks at the gangway and looked out. The formidable was opposite the tempting gap in the French line. Rodney, in a moment, changed his mind and told Douglas that he accepted his plan. In the haste to carry it out, the signal to fight to leeward of the French was forgotten and left flying. The formidable turned her high bows into the gap and swept through it with all her hundred guns and her carineries in action, pouring broadside after broadside, right and left into the glorieux and the Di-Dem. Six ships in succession swung round and followed in the wake of the flagship, which was now engaged with the French on the windward side. Shattered by successive blasts of well-directed fire, the Di-Dem was drifting a helpless wreck and the rearward ships with their way checked were huddling in confusion behind her, English ships firing into them on both sides. Through another gap in the French line, ahead of the glasses, the French giant Ville de Pagui, other English ships made their way in the dense cloud of smoke, some of the captains hardly aware of what they were doing. The French van had meanwhile forged their head and then as the wind suddenly fell to a dead calm, it was seen that the glasses fleet was broken into three isolated fragments. To the southward, later vanships under the Bougainville be calmed with no enemy in range of them. The Ville de Pagui with several of the consorts of the French centre formed another group with the whole of the rearward English division exchanging fire with them at long range. The rear of the French and the Vaudouille and the ships of the centre cut off by Rodney's maneuver were huddled together with Hood's division and the ships that had followed the formidable through the line shepherding them. The loss of the wind had made it difficult or impossible to keep the broad sides bearing and for an hour the action died down into a desultery cannonade. When the breeze came again over the ridges of Dominica, the Bougainville's division, now far to Leeward, made no attempt to succour the grass. Only one of his ships slowly beat up to the main battle. The French admiral tried to get away to the westward but Hood clung doggedly to him while Rodney and Drake completed the defeat of Vaudouille and the French rear. The Diadem soon struck her collars. A frigate tried to tow the dismastered glorieux out of the mille but the captain of the glorieux, the Colessie, saw that the effort would only end in the friendly frigate being also captured and with his own hand he cut the tow rope and hauled down his flag. Then the Caesar struck her collars and while the rearward ships were being thus disposed of in the broken centre, the Hector and the ardent surrendered to Hood's division. The English attack was now concentrated on the centre and the battle raged fiercely around the French flagship distinguished by her huge bulk and her towering mass. One by one these came down, trailing in a tangle of spars, sails and rigging over her sides. Her crowded decks were shambles of dead and dying but still the grasser fought on, for honour, not for victory. His van held aloof, his broken rear was in flight, five of his ships had struck, still he kept his guns in action till Hood and his flagship, The Princess, ranged close up alongside of him and poured in a series of destructive broadsides. Then the French flag came down at last and the grasser went on board the princess and gave up his sword to the vice admiral. The sun was going down when the French flagship surrendered. The captured Caesar, set on fire by her crew, was blazing from stem to stern. The other prizes had been secured. Rodney attempted no pursuit of the scattered French ships that were sailing away to the southward and the northwestward. Enough had been done, he said. It was now his business to refit his fleet and take it to Jamaica. He had shattered the French power in the West Indian seas and made himself the master of the field of operations. A younger and more vigorous man would have perhaps marked down what we or Bougainville's fugitive divisions for utter destruction. But Rodney was content with the solid success he had obtained. The losses of the French fleet had been very heavy. In their crowded decks, the English fire had affected something like a massacre. On board the view of the Bougainville men had been killed and wounded and in a whole English fleet. Very few officers and men had escaped some kind of wound. Many of the ships that had got away were now very shorthanded with leaking hulls and spars and rigging badly cut up. The effect of the victory was to enable England to obtain much better terms in the treaty that was signed next year. A disastrous war was closed by a brilliant success, but England owed to it more than its temporary advantage. It was a new beginning, the opening event of the period of splendid triumphs on the sea and reputation of which we are still living. To quote the words of Rodney's latest biographer, it marked the beginning of that fierce and headlong yet well-calculated style of sea-fighting which led to Trafalgar and made England undisputed mistress of the sea. End of Chapter 13, Recording by Breathe. Chapter 9, Part 1 of Famous Sea-Fights by John R. Hale. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to find out how to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Cape Trafalgar 1805 The closing years of the 18th century and the opening years of the 19th represent the most splendid period in the annals of the British navy. Hale destroyed the French fleet in the Atlantic on the glorious 1st of June 1794. Nelson died in the midst of his greatest victory of Cape Trafalgar on 21st of October 1805. Little more than eleven years separated the two dates and this brief period was crowded with triumphs for Britain on the sea. The 1st of June, Saint Vincent, Campedown, the Nile, Copenhagen and Trafalgar are the great names in the role of victory but the meteor flag of England flew victorious in a hundred fights on all the seas of the world. Men who were officers young in the service on the day when Rodney broke at once the formal traditions of a century and the battle-line of the copper grass lived through and shared in the glories of this decade of victory. A new spirit had come into the navy and English admiral would no longer think he had done his duty in merely bringing his well-ordered line into cannon shots of an enemy's array and exchanging broadsides with him at half cannon range. Nor was the occupation of a port or an island recognised as an adequate result for a naval campaign. The enemy's fighting fleet was now the object aimed at. It was not merely to be brought to action or more or less damaged by distant cannon aiding. The ideal battle was the close fight amid the enemy's broken line and victory meant his destruction. The spirit of the time was personified in its greatest sailor. Nelson's battle were fought in grim earnest taking risks boldly in order to secure great results. Cefalga, the last of his battles and the last great battle of the days of sail, was also the final episode in the long struggle of republican and imperial France to snatch from England even for a while the command of the sea. When Napoleon assembled the great army at Boulogne gave it the official title of Armée d'Angleterre and crowded every creek from Dunkirk to Haavre with flat-bottomed boats for its tramswats across the channel. He quite realised that the first condition of success for the scheme was that a French fleet should be in possession of the channel at the moment his veterans embarked for their short voyage. He had 20 sail of the line under Admiral Guantanme at Brest, 12 under Villeneuve at Toulon, a squadron of five at Rochefort under Admiral Missici, five more at Ferrole and this last port and at Cadiz and Catena. There were other ships belonging to his Spanish allies. But every port was watched by English battleships and cruisers. The vigilant blockade had been kept up for two years during which Nelson, who was watching Toulon, had hardly been an hour absent from his flagship, the victory, and Collingwood in the Royal Sovereign did not anchor once in 22 months of alternate cruising and lying to. Napoleon's mind was ceaselessly busy with plans for moving his fleets on the sea as he moved Armichord on land so as to elude, mislead and outmaneuver the English squadrons and suddenly bring a concentrated French force of overwhelming strength into the narrow seas. The first move in these plans was usually assigned to the Toulon fleet. According to one project, it was to give Nelson the slip, make for the Straits of Gibraltar, combined with a Cadiz fleet in driving off for crushing the blockading squadron before that port, sail north with deliberated vessels, fall on the blockading ship before Rushford and Brest and then sweep the channel with the United Squadrons. In other projects, French fleets were to run the blockade simultaneously or in succession raid the West Indies, draw for part of the naval forces of England to the other side of the Atlantic and then come swooping back upon the channel. In the plan finally adopted, the first move was to be the escape of the Toulon fleet. The second, the threats against the West Indies, its execution entrusted to Villeneuve because Napoleon, ever since the escape of his squadron from the disaster in Abercourt Bay, had regarded him as a lucky man and luck and chance must play a great part in such a project. Nelson did not keep up a close and continuous blockade of Toulon with his fighting fleet of battleships. He used Sardinia as his base of supplies and there were times when all the heavier ships were inside Indian waters while his frigates watched Toulon. His previous experiences had led him to believe that if the French Mediterranean fleet came out, it would be for another raid on Egypt and this idea was confirmed by reports that Villeneuve was embarking not only troops but large quantities of saddlery and muskets. The story of the saddles seemed to indicate an expedition to a country where plenty of horses could be obtained to mount a body of cavalry. Horses too, that when they were bought or requisitioned would not have saddles that a European troop was used to. Nelson did not want to keep the French shut up in Toulon. He was anxious to catch them in the open sea and with his fleet on the coast of Sardinia and his frigates spread out in a fan to the northwards. He counted on bringing Villeneuve to action if he attempted to reach the Levant. In January 1805, the frigates brought news that the French were out and Nelson at once disposed his fleet to intercept their expected voyage to Egypt. He found no trace of them in the direction he expected and was greatly relieved on returning from a hurried rush eastward to learn that bad weather had driven Villeneuve back to his port. These gentlemen, he said, are not accustomed to the Gulf of Lyon Gales but we have buffeted them for 21 months without carrying away a spar. On 30th of March, Villeneuve came out of Toulon again with 11 ships of the line. This time, thanks to Nelson's fixed idea about Egypt, he got a good start for the Atlantic. As soon as his frigates brought the news that the French were out, Nelson strung out his ships from the south point of Sardinia to Sicily and the African coast. He thus watched every possible avenue to the east and Mediterranean ready to concentrate and attack the enemy as soon as he got touch of them anywhere but not a French sail was sighted. Villeneuve had run down past the Balyric Islands to Cartagena where Admiral Salcedo was in command of a Spanish squadron but the Spaniards were not ready for sea and Villeneuve was anxious to be west of the Straits of Gibraltar as soon as possible and could not wait for his military allies. On 8th of April, he passed through the Straits then he steered for Cadiz, drove off Sir John Ord's blockading squadron of Sic sail and into the harbor on the 9th. At Cadiz, there were Admiral Gravina's Spanish fleet and a French battleship, the Eagle. Again, the Spaniards were mostly unready for sea but six of them and the Eagle joined Villeneuve when he sailed out into the Atlantic steering for the West Indies now at the head of 18 battleships and seven frigates. Information was difficult to obtain and travelled slowly a hundred years ago. It was not till 11th of April that Nelson learned that Villeneuve had passed through the Straits of Gibraltar eight days before. Then, while the French were running down into the trade wind there was to carry them westward. Nelson's still ignorant whether they were raiding the West Indies or Ireland but anxious in either case to be in the Atlantic as soon as he might be had to work his way slowly toward the Straits against stormy headwinds and then wait wearily at anchor on the Moorish coast for a change of wind that would carry him into the ocean. He was suffering from disappointment, depression and ill health. It was not till 7th of May that he passed the Straits he had made up his mind that the French were probably bound for the West Indies and he followed them. They had a long start but he trusted to find them among the islands and make the West Indian seas once again famous for a British victory. On 4th of June he reached Barbados and began his search only to miss the French thanks to false information and learned too late that they were returning to Europe. Villeneuve had paid only a flying visit to the West Indies leaving Martinique on 5th of June the day after Nelson arrived at Barbados and steering first north then eastwards across the Atlantic. Nelson followed on 13th of June and reached Gibraltar without once citing his enemy. He had however taken the precaution of dispatching a fast sailing break to England with the news that the French fleet was returning to Europe. This ship, the Curio actually got a glimpse of the enemy far off in mid-ocean and out sailed him to search good purpose that the Admiralty was able to order the squadrons blockading Brest and Rush Fort to unite under the command of Sir Robert Calder and try to intercept Villeneuve on his way back. Though inferior numbers to the Allied fleet Calder brought it to action in thick foggy weather on 22nd of July some 90 miles off the Spanish Cape Finist air. The battle fought in semi-darkness was a desultory indecisive encounter and though Calder cut off and took two Spanish ships of the line the feeling in England when the news arrived was not one of satisfaction at his partial success but of undeserved indignation at his having failed to force the fighting and destroy the enemy's fleet. Villeneuve took his fleet into Vigo Bay according to the plan of campaign now that he had shaken off Nelson's pursuit he should have sailed for the channel picking up the Brest and Rush Fort squadrons on his way. Napoleon at Bologna was ceaselessly drilling the Grand Army in rapid embarkation and disembarkation and hoping each day for news of his Admiral's dash into the channel. But Villeneuve, who knew Keith had a squadron in the channel and had a vague dread of Nelson suddenly making his appearance had a better appreciation of the small chance of the scheme giving any results than the Imperious Soldier Emperor who had come to believe that what he ordered must succeed. From Vigo, Villeneuve wrote to the Minister of Marine Décret that his fleet was hardly in condition for any active enterprise it had met with trying weather in the Atlantic his flagship, the Bucantorre had been struck and damaged by lightning. All the ships needed a dockyard overhaul there was sickness among the crews he had to land hundreds of men and send them to hospital he wanted recruits badly and Vigo afforded only the scantiest resources for the refitting of the ships he was already thinking of going back to Cadiz he moved his fleet to Corona but there he found things in such a condition that he reported that he could not even find hospital room for the sick from Napoleon came pressing orders to push on to the channels at all risks on 11th of August Villeneuve put to sea picking up a combined French and Spanish squadron from the neighbouring port of Ferrol he meant to sail to Brest bring out the squadron there and call up the ships at Rochefort by sending on a frigate in advance with orders for that port the frigate was captured on the way by a British cruiser he said to dispatch overland to Napoleon say that at last he was coming in the Bay of Biscay two days out from Corona he was told by a Danish merchant ship that there was a great fleet of British battleships close at hand to the northward the news was false few hours before captain of a British cruiser had stopped the Dane and purposely given him this false information in the hopes that it would reach the French and mislead them except a few scatter cruisers there was nothing between Villeneuve and the ports of Brest and Rochefort nothing that could stop his projected concentration Nelson had waited a few days at Gibraltar where the news of Calder's fight had not arrived communicated with Collingwood who was watching cadets with six ships and then conjecturing that the object of the French expedition might be Ireland he sailed north and was off the Irish coast on 12th of August the day after Villeneuve left Corona finding no trace of the enemy he joined the squadron of Cornwallis off Ushant on 15th of August and then broken in health and depressed at what seemed a huge failure he went back to England to spend some time with Lady Hamilton at Merton Villeneuve had hardly heard of the imaginary fleet when the wind which had so far been fair went round to the north this decided the irresolute admiral to the dismay of his captains he suddenly altered his course and ran before the wind southward to Cadiz where he arrived on the 22nd of August contenting himself with watching the retirement of Collingwood's six ships and making no effort to envelop and cut them off with his enormously superior force Collingwood promptly resumed the blockade when the French and Spanish anchored and deluded Villeneuve into the belief that the blockade was in touch with the supporting fleet by keeping one of his ships well out in the offing and frequently signalling through her to imaginary consorts below the horizon on the very day that Villeneuve anchored at Cadiz Napoleon sent off from Bologna this pressing dispatch to him at Brest Admiral I trust you have arrived at Brest start at once do not lose a moment come into the channel with our united squadrons and England is ours we are all ready everything is embarked come here for twenty-four hours and all is ended and six centuries of shame and insults will be avenged when he heard that the admiral had lost heart and turned back he was furious but he had already formed plans for an alternative enterprise the English ministry had succeeded in forming a new coalition with Austria and Russia as a means of keeping the emperor occupied on the continent on 27th August Napoleon issued his orders for the march of the Grand Army to the Danube and on 1st September he started on the career of victory the stages of which were to be Ulm, Austerlitz, Jena and Friedland to feel nerve he sent through the craze bitter reproaches and new orders for a naval campaign in the Mediterranean the craze, writing to his old comrade transmitted the new plan of campaign and softened down the emperor's angry words Villeneuve reported that he could not leave Cadiz for some time he was doing all that was possible to refit his fleet and find full crews for the French and Spanish ships for the latter men were provided by pressing landsmen into the service it is pitiful a row to French officer to see such fine ships manned with a handful of seamen and a crowd of beggars and herdsmen and the councils of war held at Cadiz there were fierce disputes between the French and Spanish officers the latter accusing their allies of having abandoned to their fate the two ships lost in Calder's action the jealousy between the two nations rose so high that several French sailors were stabbed at night in the streets the English government knew nothing of the inefficient states and the endless difficulties of the great fleet concentrated at Cadiz and regarded its presence there as a standing danger Collingwood was reinforced and it was decided to send Nelson out to join him take over the command blockade the enemy closely and bring him to action if he ventured out Nelson sailed from Spithead on 15th of September and his old flagship the victory accompanied by the Urialis Captain Blackwood one of the swiftest and smartest frigates in the navy picking up the battleships Tondara and Ajax on the way he joined the fleet off Cadiz on 28th of September Villeneuve had written to Decres that none of the ships were in really good order that the Spanish vessels were quite incapable of meeting the enemy only a portion of his fleet had had the slight training afforded by the Atlantic voyage the rest had lain for years in harbour and many of them had crews chiefly made up of recently enrolled landsmen many of the captains held that if there was to be a fight it would be useless to manoeuvre or to attempt an artillery duel that the only chance of success lay in hand to hand fight by boarding but then to produce a position for boarding meant being able to manoeuvre Villeneuve was supported by most of the superior officers of the fleet in the opinion that he had better stay at Cadiz but from Napoleon there came reiterated orders for the fleet to enter the Mediterranean the last hesitation of the unfortunate admiral was ended by the news that Admiral Rossoli was coming from Paris to supersede him if he did not attempt something his career would end in disgrace he held a final council of war give his last instructions to his officers and then wrote to Decres that he would obey the emperor's orders though he foresaw that they were probably lead to disaster country winds from the westward delayed his sailing for some days after this decision reefs and local currents made it difficult to work a large fleet out of Cadiz without a fair wind a smaller but better train fleet than that of Villeneuve had once taken three days to get out and a portion of the fleet had seated and supported would be in deadly peril on 17th of October the wind began to work round to the eastward next day it felt almost to a calm but increased towards evening and Villeneuve after a conference with his Spanish colleague Admiral Gravina signalled that the ships were to weigh anchor at sunrise on the 19th end of chapter nine part one chapter nine part two a famous sea fight by John R. Hale this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org recording by Barry Eads famous sea fights by John R. Hale chapter nine part two Nelson had been watching Cadiz for three weeks keeping his fleet well out at sea with his frigates close into the port and a chain of ships acting as connecting links with them to pass on information by signaling with flags by day and lanterns by night the system of signaling had been lately so improved that it was fairly rapid and reliable and Nelson kept his fleet out of sight and requested that the names of ships sent to reinforce him should not appear in the papers as he hoped to delude Villeneuve into a false idea that he had a very inferior force before Cadiz he feared that if the whole array of his fleet were visible from the lookout stations of the port the allies would remain safe at anchor during this period of waiting he had had more than one conference with his captains and had read and explained to them a manuscript memorandum dated nine october setting forth his plans for the expected battle his plan of battle excited an enthusiasm among them to which more than one of them afterwards bore testimony they said that the Nelson touch was in it and it is generally taken for granted that they saw in it something like a stroke of genius and a new departure in tactics i hope it is not presumption on my part to suggest that their enthusiasm was partly the result of seeing that their trusted leader was thoroughly himself again and to use a familiar phrase meant business and they had a further motive for satisfaction in seeing how thoroughly he relied on them and how ready he was to give them a free hand in carrying out his general ideas the Nelson touch memorandum of nine october and whole plan of the battle have been and still are the subject of acute controversy the various phases of which it would be far too long to discuss it is strange that after the laps of a hundred years and publication of a vast mass of detailed evidence in british french and spanish there are still wide differences of opinion as to how the most famous naval battle in history was actually fought out there is even much uncertainty as to the order in which the british ships came into action the memorandum shows that Nelson originally contemplated a formation in three lines an advanced division to winward a main division under his personal command and a lead division under his second command collin would the final grouping of the ships in the ballot was in two divisions in the following list of the british fleet the names of ships are arranged in the same order in which they appear in collin would dispatch written after the action winward line ships guns commanders victory one hundred guns vice-admiral lord nelson captain hardy temer air ninety-eight guns captain harvey neptune ninety-eight guns captain freeman leviathan seventy-four guns captain bentaine conquer seventy-four guns captain peleau britainia one hundred guns rear-admiral lord northisk captain bullen bagamemnon sixty-four guns captain sir e berry ajax sixty-four guns lieutenant pilffold aryan seventy-four guns captain codrington minotaur seventy-four guns captain mansfield sparsiate seventy-four guns captain sir f. lefort africa sixty-four guns captain digby leeward line ships guns commanders royal sovereign one hundred guns vice-admiral collin would captain rutherham bill aisle seventy-four guns captain hargood mars seventy-four guns captain duff tonnett eighty guns captain tyler billiforon seventy-four guns captain cook colossus seventy-four guns captain morris michele seventy-four guns captain king dreadnought ninety-eight guns captain kahn p �famus sixty-four guns captain redmail revenge seventy-four guns captain morsom seventy-four guns captain rutherford defiance seventy-four guns captain durham thunderer seventy-four guns Lieutenant Stockham, Defense, 74 guns, Captain Hope, Prince, 98 guns, Captain Grindel, besides one frigate of 38 guns, three of 36, and two brigs of 12 and 8 guns. This was the fleet that lay off Cape Santa Maria, some 50 miles from Cadiz, on Saturday, 19 October 1805, and received from the frigates watching the port the message passed on by connecting ships that the enemy was at last coming out. Ville Nouve, like Nelson, had originally divided his fleet into three divisions. On the day of battle it fought in an order which was, as we shall see, partly the result of chance, arrayed in a long double line. He had deliberately mixed together in his array the French and Spanish units of his fleet to avoid the dangers that might arise from mutual jealousies if they were drawn up in divisions apart. Instead of giving the list of his fleet according to the Order de Bataille drawn up in Cadiz Harbor long before the event, it will be more convenient to arrange the list as they actually lay in line from van to rear on the day of battle. Following then is the list of the Allied Franco-Spanish fleet, ships, guns, commanders, Spanish ship Neptuno, 80 guns, commander, unknown, French ship, Sepion, 74 guns, Captain Belange, French ship, on trip-ed, 74 guns, Commodore Infernais, French ship, formidable, 80 guns, rear-admin, Dumanwale Pele, Captain Latolia, Spanish ship, Rao, 100 guns, Commodore McDonnell, French ship, Duguatruan, 74 guns, Captain Tufay, French ship, Montblanc, 74 guns, Commodore La Vilgarie, Spanish ship, San Francisco de Esis, 74 guns, Captain Dave Flores, Spanish ship, San Angostino, 74 guns, Captain Cajego, French ship, Harrow, 74 guns, Captain Poulon, Spanish ship, Santissima Trinidad, 130 guns, Ruradmo Cisnerdos, Commodore de Udearte, French ship, Boussaintar, 80 guns, Vice Admiral Villeneuve, Captain Mejonde, French ship, Neptun, 80 guns, Commodore Mistral, French ship, Redoubtable, 74 guns, Captain Leuke, Spanish ship, San Leandro, 64 guns, Captain Quevedu, Spanish ship, San Justo, 74 guns, Captain Gaston, French ship and Dumped Tabla, 80 guns, Commodore Huber, Spanish ship, Santa Ana, 112 guns, Vice Admiral de Alava, French ship, Vugo, 74 guns, Captain Boudouan, Spanish ship, Monarica, 74 guns, Captain Argumosa, French ship, Priton, 74 guns, Commodore Cusmeo Quejulion, ships of the Squadron of Observation, originally intended to act independently under Gravina, French ship, Al-Gasidas, 74 guns, Ruradmo Muayun, Captain Leutuna, Spanish ship, Bahama, 74 guns, Commodore Gueliano, French ship, Aguil, 74 guns, Captain Courgeige, French ship, Swishure, formerly British, 74 guns, Captain Velmadra, French ship, Argonaut, 74 guns, Captain Epron, Spanish ship, Montanus, 74 guns, Captain El Sido, Spanish ship, Argonauta, 80 guns, Captain Paraja, French ship, Berwick, 74 guns, Commodore, Fillarcoma, Spanish ship, San Juan, Napa-Maseo, 74 guns, Commodore de Chirruca, Spanish ship, El de Fonzo, 74 guns, Commodore de Vargas, French ship, Vakili, 74 guns, Captain Duya-Paul, Spanish ship, Princepe de Estorayas, 112 guns, Admiral Gravina, rear Admiral Escoña, besides five 40-gun frigates and two corvettes, one of 18, the other of 16 guns. So for as mere figures can show it, the relative strength of the opposing fleets may be thus compared. Line of battle, British fleet, 27 ships, 2,148 guns, Allied fleet, 33 ships, 1,626 guns, Lighter ships, British fleet, 4 frigates, 146 guns, 2 frigates and corvettes, 20 guns, Allied fleet, 5 frigates, 200 guns, 2 frigates and corvettes, 30 guns. But here once more, as so often happens in naval war, the mere reckoning up of ships and guns does not give the true measure of fighting power. The British fleet was immeasurably superior in real efficiency, and the French and Spanish leaders knew this perfectly well. The morning of 19 October was fine and clear with the wind from the shore. So clear was the day the lookout in the foretop of the Uriales could see the ripples on the beach. As the sun rose, the enemy's ships were seen to be setting their top sails, and one by one they unmored and towed down towards the harbor mouth. It was a long process working the ship singly out of harbor. Blackwood of the Uriales stood close in, and from early morning till near 2 p.m. was sending his messages to the distant fleet. Hoisted 7.20 a.m. transmitted to the victory soon after 9 a.m., the enemy's ships are coming out. 11 a.m., 19 under sail, all the rest have top yards hoisted except Spanish rear admiral and one line of battleship. About 11.30, little wind in harbor, two of the enemy are at anchor. Noon, notwithstanding little wind, enemy persevere to get outward. The rest, except one line, ready, yards hoisted. Just before 2 p.m., enemy persevering to work outward. Seven of line already without, and two frigates. When the fleet began to show in force outside, Blackwood drew off to a distance of four miles from the shore and still watched them. He knew the Uriales could out sail the fastest of the enemy if they tried to attack him. His business was to keep them under observation. He could see that for want of wind they were forced to work out ship after ship by towing them with rowing boats. He knew they could not be all out till the Sunday morning, and he knew also that Nelson had acknowledged his messages and was beating up near and near to the port, though with the light winds he could only make slow progress. Unless the enemy scuttled back into the harbor, a battle was inevitable. On Sunday morning, 20 October, the wind freshened and enabled Villeneuve to bring out the last of his ships. They were hardly out when the wind changed and blew strong from the southwest, with squalls of rain. The French admiral signaled the order to attack to the southward under shortened sail. The fleet had been directed to sail in five parallel divisions, each in line ahead, but for want of training in the crews, the ship's lost station and the formation was very irregular. At four in the afternoon, the wind changed again to the northwest, but it was very light and the fleet moved slowly. To the westward all day, the Uriales and Sirius frigates were seen watching Villeneuve's progress, and just as darkness was closing in, one of the French frigates signaled that there were twenty sail coming in from the Atlantic. If there had been more wind, Villeneuve might have crowded all sail for the straits, but he could only creep slowly along. Flashes and flares of light to seaward showed him the brace were exchanging night signals in the darkness. He felt he was closely watched, and he was haunted by the memory of the disastrous night battle in Abacur Bay. Though the wind had gone down, the sea was rough, with a heavy swell rolling in from the westward, the well-known sign of an Atlantic storm that might break on the Spanish coast before many hours. The flickering signals of the British fleet seemed to come nearer as the darkness of the moonless autumn night deepened. At about nine, a shadowy mass of sails was seen not far off. It was the Uriales that had closed in with every light shaded to have a near look at the enemy. There was an alarm that the British were about to attack and Villeneuve signaled to clear for action and form the prescribed double line of battle. The sharp drumbeats from the French ships, the lighting up of open ports, the burning of blue lights, showed Blackwood what was in progress. It was nearly two hours before the lines were formed, and there was much confusion, ships slipping into stations not assigned to them, and Gravina, who had been directed to keep 12 of the best ships as an independent reserve or squadron of observation, placing them in the line instead of forming independently. Then the fleet went about, reversing its order. Villeneuve had given up the idea of reaching the straits without a bow, and was anxious to have the port of Cadiz under his lee when the crisis came. Nelson's fleet in two columns in line ahead was drawing near and nearer to his enemy. Between the two fleets, the Uriales flitted like a ghost, observing and reporting every move of the allies, and sometimes coming quite near them. When the enemy reversed their order of sailing, Blackwood ship was for a short time ahead of their double line, and saw the Allied fleet looking like a lighted street some six miles long. After midnight, the alarm in the Franco-Spanish fleet was passed off, and all the men who could be spared had turned in. At dawn on the Monday, the French frigate Hermione reported the enemy in sight to windward, and at seven Villeneuve again gave the order to clear for action. The sight of the Allied fleet had called forth a great outburst of exaltation on board of Nelson's ships. As the day dawn wrote one of his officers, the horizon appeared covered with ships. The whole force of the enemy was discovered standing to the southward, distant about nine miles between us and the coast near Trafalgar. I was awakened by the cheers of the crew, and by the rushing up the hatchways to get a glimpse of the hostile fleet. The delight they manifested exceeded anything I ever witnessed. Opposing fleets separated by only nine miles of sea would in our day be exchanging long range fire after a very few minutes of rapid approach. It was to be nearly six hours before Nelson and Villeneuve came within fighting distance. The wind had become so slight that the British fleet was often moving at a speed barely more than a knot over the grey-green ocean swells. Still anxious to fight, with Cadiz as a refuge for disabled ships, Villeneuve presently signaled to his fleet to go about. After they altered their order of sailing and began to sail to the northward, moving very slowly with the wind to beam, close hauled on the port tack, the course of the victory was a little north of east, directed at first to a point about two and a half miles ahead of the leading ship of the enemy. The Royal Sovereign, leading the leeward line on a parallel course, was about a mile to the southward. As the Allied fleet was moving so as presently to cross the course of the British, the result would be that at the moment of contact, the line led by the victory would come in a little ahead of the enemy's center and the Royal Sovereign to the rearward of it. But the courses of the two fleets did not intersect at right angles. Many of the current plans of battle and strange to say, the great model at the Royal United Service Institution, though constructed while many Trafalgar captains were still living, are misleading in representing the British advance as a perpendicular attack and closely formed line ahead. In the heavy swell and the light wind, the Allied fleet had succeeded in forming only an irregular line when it went about. There were wide gaps, some of them covered by ships lying in a second line, and the fleet was not in a straight line from van to rear, but the van formed an obtuse angle with the rearward ships, a flat apex towards Cadiz, so that some of Nelson's officers thought the enemy had adopted a crescent formed array. At the moment of contact, Collinwood's division was advancing on a course that formed an acute angle of between 40 and 50 degrees with the line and course of the French rear. The result would be that the ships that followed the Royal Sovereign were bought opposite ship after ship of the French line and could fall upon them almost simultaneously by a slight alteration of the course. But the French van line lay at a greater angle to the windward attack and here the British advance was much nearer to the perpendicular. Nelson had in his memorandum forbidden any time being wasted in forming a regular battle line. The ships were to attack in the order and formation in which they sailed. If the enemy was to leeward, as was the case now, the leeward line led by Collinwood was to fall upon his rearward ships. Meanwhile, the windward line led by the victory would cut through the enemy just in advance of the center and take care that the attack on the rear was not interfered with. Collinwood was given a free hand as to how he did his work. Nelson reminded the captains that in the smoke and confusion of battle set plans for likely to go to pieces and signals to be unseen and he left a wide discretion to everyone noting that no captain could do wrong if he laid his ship alongside of the nearest of the enemy. The actual battle was very unlike the diagram in the memorandum which showed the British fleet steering a course parallel to the enemy up to the actual attack and some of the captains thought that in the confusion of the fight Nelson and Collinwood had abandoned the plan but if its letter was not realized its spirit was acted upon. Nelson had said he intended to produce a melee a close fight in which the better training a more rapid and steady fire of the British would tell. It was a novelty that the two admirals each led a line into the fight. The traditional position for a flagship was in the middle of the admiral's division with a frigate near her to assist in showing and passing signals along the line. To the French officers it seemed a piece of daring rashness for the flagships to lead the lines exposing themselves as they closed to the concentrated fire of several ships. This method of engaging battle wrote Shaquille de Touche an officer on the intrepid was contrary to ordinary prudence for the British ships reaching us one by one and at a very slow speed seemed bound to be overpowered in detail by our superior forces but Nelson knew his own fleet and ours. This was indeed the secret of it all. He knew the distant fire of the enemy would be all but harmless and once broadside to broadside he could depend on crushing his opponents. This was why he did not trouble about forming a closely arrayed battle line but let his ships each make her best speed disregarding the mere keeping of station and distance so that though we speak of two lines Collinwood ships traveled out over many miles of sea and Nelson seemed to the French to come in on an irregular crowd. The victory in the leading place having her two nearest consorts not far astern but one on each quarter and at times nearly abreast. Every stitch of canvas was spread the narrow yards being lengthened out with the booms for the studying sails. Blackwood had been called on board the victory for a while during the advance. Nelson asked him to witness his will and then talk to him of the coming victory saying he would not be satisfied with less than twenty prizes. He was cheerful and talk freely but all a while he carefully watched the enemy's course information and personally directed the course of his own ship. He meant as he had said before to keep the enemy uncertain to the last as to his attack and as the distance shortened he headed for a while for the enemy's van before turning for the dash into his center. Cheerful as he was he did not expect to survive the fight. He disregarded the request of his friends to give the dangerous post at the head of the line to another ship and though it was known that the enemy had soldiers on board and there would be a heavy musketry fire at close quarters he wore on his admiral's uniform a glittering array of stars and orders. To the advancing fleet the five miles of the enemy's line presented a formidable spectacle. We have the impressions of one of the midshipmen of the Neptune in a letter written after the battle and he tells how it was a beautiful site when their line was completed their broad sides turned towards us showing their iron teeth and now and then trying the range of a shot to ascertain the distance that they might the moment we came within point blank about 600 yards opened their fire upon our van ships no doubt with the hope of dismantling some of our leading vessels before they could close and break their line some of the enemy's ships were painted like ourselves with double yellow streaks some with a broad single red or yellow streak others all black and the noble Santissima Trinidad with four distinct lines of red and a white ribbon between them made her seem to be a superb man of war which indeed she was. The Spanish flagship was the largest ship afloat at the time and she towered high above her consorts it was not the first time Nelson had seen her in battle for she was in the fleet that he and Jervis defeated 12 years before off Cape St. Vincent as the fleets closed the famous signal England expects that every man will do his duty flew from the victory at half past eleven the royal sovereign leading the lee line was within a thousand yards of the enemy making for a point a little to rearward of his center when the Fugol the ship for which she was heading fired the first trial shot other ships open fire in succession and the center began firing at the victory and her consorts not a shot and reply was fired by the British till they were almost upon the allies in the windward line the victory already under fire from eight ships of the valide van began the battle by firing her forward guns on the port side as she turned to attack the french admiral flagship the 100 gun Fusantar just as the victory opened fire at ten minutes to twelve Collinwood and the royal sovereign had dashed into the ally line he passed between the French Fugol and the Santa Ana the flagship of the Spanish rear admiral Aleva sending one broadside crashing into the stern of the flagship and with the other raking the boughs of the Frenchman what would not Nelson give to be here said Collinwood to his flag captain the hearty comradeship of the two admirals is shown by the fact that at that moment Nelson pointing to the royal sovereign's mast towering out of the dense smoke cloud exclaimed see how that noble fellow Collinwood takes his ship into action swinging round on the inside of the Santa Ana Collinwood engaged her muzzle to muzzle for a few minutes of fierce fighting he was alone in the midst of a ring of close fire the Fugol raking him a stern and two Spanish and one French ship firing into his starboard side the pressure on him decreased as the other ships of his division coming rapidly into the action closed with ship after ship of the allied rear further relief was afforded by Nelson's impetuous attack on the center he was steering the victory to pass a stern of the Busan tar captain Luca of the redoubtable the next in the line saw this and resolved to protect his admiral he closed up so that his bow spirit was almost over the flagship's stern and the Busan Tars people called out to him not to run into them the victory then passed a stern of the redoubtable raking her with a terribly destructive broadside and then ranged up alongside of her Luca had hoped to board the first ship he encountered he grappled the English flagship and while the soldiers in the French tops kept up a hot fire on the upper decks their broadside guns were blazing muzzle to muzzle below and a crowd of borders made gallant but unsuccessful attempts to cross the gap between the two ships the plucky Frenchmen being everywhere beaten back the redoubtable's way had been checked and through the gap between her and the Busan Tars came the Neptune to engage the French flagship while the famous fighting Temeraire which had raced the victory into action passed a stern of the redoubtable and closed with the Spanish San Justo ship after ship of both the British divisions came up though there were long gaps in the lines the Bell Isle second of Collingwood's line was three quarters of a mile a stern of the royal sovereign when the first shots were fired it was nearly two hours before the rear most English ships were engaged meanwhile the leading eight ships of the French van commanded by Admiral Duminois in the formidable after firing at the victory and her immediate consorts as they came into action had held on their course and were steadily drifting away from the battle in vain you'll new signal to them to engage the enemy Duminois in a lame explanation that he afterwards wrote protested that he had no enemy within his reach and that with the light wind he found it impossible to work back though he used both to tow his ships around the effort appears to have been made only when he had gone so far that he was a mere helpless spectator of the fight and his most severe condemnation lies in the fact that without his orders two of his captains eventually made their way back into the melee and though it was too late to fight for victory but a desperate fight for the honor of the flag they flew Duminois incompetent selfishness left the center and rear to be crushed by equal numbers and far superior fighting power but it was no easy victory outmatched as they were Frenchmen and Spaniards fought with desperate courage and heroic determination Trafalgar is remembered with pride by all the three nations whose flags flew over its cloud of battle smoke end of chapter nine part two chapter nine part three of famous sea fights by John R. Hale this is the LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org recording by Marian Martin famous sea fights by John R. Hale chapter nine Trafalgar part three there is no naval battle regarding which will possess so many detailed narratives of those who took part in it on both sides and it would be easy to compile a long list of stirring incidents and heroic deeds though the battle lasted till about five o'clock it had been practically decided in the first hour in that space of time many of the enemy ships had been disabled two had been actually taken and on the other hand England had suffered a loss that dimmed the brightness of the victory in the first stage of the fight Nelson's flag ship was engaged with a redoubtable alone the two ships locked together presently the Temerre closed on the other side of the French man and the victory found herself in action with a couple of the enemy that came drifting through the smoke on the other side of her one of them being the giant Santissima Trinidad before the Temerre engaged her the redoubtable had been fearfully damaged by the steady fire of the victory and had also lost heavily in repeated attempts to board the English flagship only a midshipman and four men succeeded in scrambling on board and they were at once killed or made prisoners Captain Lucas of the redoubtable in the report on the loss of his ship told how out of a crew of 643 officers and men sailors and soldiers 300 were killed and more than 200 badly wounded including most of the officers the ship was dismastered stern posts damaged and steering gear destroyed and the stern on fire she was leaking badly and most of the pumps had been shot through most of the lower deck guns were dismounted some by collision with the enemy's sides some by his fire and two guns had burst both sides of the ship were riddled in several places two or more ports had been knocked into one and the after-deck beams had come down making a huge gap in the upper deck the redoubtable already in a desperate condition became a sinking wreck when the Temereg added her fire to that of the flagship but the victory had not inflicted this loss herself unscathed one of her masts had gone over the side and there had been heavy loss on her upper decks and in her batteries the wheel were shot away several men had been killed and wounded on the quarter deck when elson was walking up and down talking to captain Hardy one shot screwed the deck with the bodies of eight marines another smashed through a boat and passed between Nelson and Hardy bruising the latter's foot and taking away a shoe buckle all the while there came a crackle of musketry from a party of sharpshooters in the mizzen top of the redoubtable only some 60 feet away and Nelson's decorations must have made him a tempting target even if the marksmen did not know who he was a 20 minutes past one he was hit in the left shoulder the bullet plunging downwards and backwards into his body he fell on his face and Hardy turning saw some of the men picking him up they have done for me at last Hardy he said i hope not said the captain and Nelson replied yes my backbone is shot through but he showed no agitation and as the men carried him below he covered his decorations with a handker lest the crew should notice them and realize that they had lost their chief and he gave Hardy an order to see that tiller lines were rigged on the rudder head to replace the shattered wheel his flag was kept flying until the action ended the fleet was not aware of his loss and looked to the victory for signals as far as the smoke allowed he had not been 10 minutes among the wounded on the lowest deck when the cheers of the crew following on a sudden lull in the firing told him that the redoubtable had struck her colors 20 minutes later the furor the second prize of the day was secured she had come into action with a temerair while the latter was still engaged with the redoubtable on the surrender of the latter the temerair was able to concentrate her fire on the furor mast after mast came down and the sea was pouring into two huge holes on the waterline when the shattered ship drifted full of the temerair and was grappled by her Lieutenant Kennedy dashed on board of the Frenchman at the head of a rush of borders cleared her up her decks hauled down her flag and took possession of the dismastered ship between two and three o'clock no less than nine ships were taken five Spanish and four French Ville Nerves flagship the Boussaintor was one of these she struck a few minutes after two o'clock at the opening of the battle she had fired four broadsides at the approaching victory Nelson gave her one shattering broadside in reply at close quarters as he passed on to attack the redoubtable as this ship's way was stopped and the space opened between her and the French flagship Captain Fremantle brought his three Decker the Neptune under the Boussaintor's stern raking her as he passed through the line and ranged up beside her then Pellou brought the conqueror into action beside her on the other side and as chance allowed her guns to bear the victory was at times able to join in the attack French accounts of the battle tell of the terrible destruction caused on board the Boussaintor by this concentrated fire more than 200 were all the combat most of them killed almost every officer and man on the quarter deck was hit Ville Nerve himself been slightly wounded the men could hardly stand to the guns and at last their fire was masked by mast after mast coming down with yards rigging and sails hanging over the gun mussels Ville Nerve declared his intention of transferring his flag to another ship but was told that every boat had been knocked to splinters and his attendant frigate which might have helped him in this emergency had been driven out of the melee as the last of the masks went over the side at two o'clock the conqueror ceased firing and hailed the Boussaintor with a summons to surrender five minutes later her flag hoisted on an improvised staff was taken down and captain Achille of the conqueror's marines went on board the french flag ship and received the surrender of admiral Ville Nerve his staff officer captain Prigny captain Majendi commanding the ship and General de Contamine the officer in command of the four thousand french troops embarked on the fleet next in the line ahead of the Boussaintor lay the giant Santissima Trinidad carrying the flag of rear admiral his Neros as the fleets closed she had exchanged fire with her four tiers of guns with several of the British ships when the melee began she came drifting down into the thick of the fight for a while she was engaged with the victory in the dense fog of smoke where so many ships were tearing each other two pieces in the center the high place guns of the Trinidad's upper tier cut up the victories rigging and sent down one of her masks the English flagship was delivered from the attack of her powerful antagonist by the Trinidad drifting clear of her by this time free mantle was attacking her with a Neptune supported by the Colossus at half past one a third ship joined in the close attack on the towering Trinidad which every captain who got anywhere near her was anxious to make his prize this new ally was the battleship Africa during the night she had run out to the northward of the British fleet Nelson had signaled to her early in the day to rejoin as soon as possible but her captain Digby needed no pressing he was crowding sail to join in the battle he ran down past the Manoir ships of the van squadron putting a good many shots into them but receiving no damage from their real aimed fire then he steered into the thick of the fight taking for his guide the tall masks of the Trinidad at 130 he opened fire on her at 158 all the masks of the Trinidad came down together the enormous mass of spars rigging and sails going over her side into the water as she rolled to the swell she had already lost some 400 men killed and wounded Admiral Thysneros was among the latter many of her guns had been silenced and the fall of the masks masked a whole broadside she now ceased firing and surrendered in the log of the Africa it is noted that Lieutenant Smith was sent with the party to take possession of her he does not seem to have succeeded in getting on board for the Trinidad drifted with silent guns for at least two hours after with no prize crew on board it was at the end of the battle that the Prince sent a party to board her and took her in tow another flagship the three-decker Santana carrying the flag of rear admiral Alava became the prize of the royal sovereign Collingwood had opened the fight by breaking the linus durn of her his raking broadside as he swept past her had put scores of her crew out of action when he laid his ship alongside of her to leeward it was evident from the very first that she could not meet the English ship on anything like equal terms in a quarter of an hour his flag captain Rotherham grasped Collingwood's hand saying I congratulate you sir her fire is slackening and she must soon strike but the Santana fought to the last till only a single gun now here now there answered the steady pounding fire of the royal sovereign's broadside at two thirty her colors came down Collingwood told his lieutenant to send the Spanish admiral on board his own ship but word was sent back that Alava was too badly wounded to be moved more than 400 of the Santana's crew had been killed and wounded the Tonant third ship in Collingwood's line and one of the prizes taken in the battle of the Nile captured another flagship that of the gallant rear admiral Maron the Aljethidas as the Tonant went through the Allied line after exchanging fire with the Fougue and the Monarca the Aljethidas raided her stern killing some 40 men the Tonant then swung round and engaged the Aljethidas and was crossing her bows when Maron trying to run his ship alongside her to board entangled his bow sprit in the main rigging of the English ship she was thus held fast with only a few forward guns bearing while most of the broadside of the Tonant was raking her from the fore top of the Aljethidas a party of marksmen fired down on the English decks and wounded captain Tyler badly admiral Maron in person tried to lead a strong body of borders over his bows into the English ship mortally wounded he was carried aft and of his men only one set foot on the Tonant this man was at once stabbed with a pike and would have been killed if an officer had not rescued him the ships lay so close that the flashes of the Tonant's guns set fire to the bows of the Aljethidas and the flames spread to both ships a couple of British sailors dragged the fire hose over the hammock nettings and while the guns were still in action they worked to keep down and extinguish the flames one by one the mass of the Aljethidas went into the sea carrying the unfortunate soldiers in the tops with them in a little more than half an hour she lost 436 men including most of her officers her position was hopeless and at last she struck her colors the prize crew that boarded her found Maron lying dead on the deck with his captain badly wounded beside him the Balerophon famous for her fight at the Nile adding to her record of hard fighting today and destined to be the ship that was to receive the conqueror of Europe as a prisoner followed the Tonant into action and found herself engaged with a Spanish monarch on one side and the French Eagle on the other she came in collision with the Eagle and their yards locked together the Balerophon's rigging was cut to pieces two of her mass were carried away and numbers of her crew were struck down her captain being wounded early in the day a little after half past one the eagle drifted clear and was engaged by and in half an hour forced to strike to the defiance meanwhile the Balerophon was hard at work with two Spanish ships the Monarca and the Bahama and so effectively battered them that at three o'clock the former was a prize and the other surrendered half an hour later the Tonant after her capture of Maron's ship shedding the victory over another brave opponent Commodore Churruka and his ship the San Juan Nepomutheno Churruka was the youngest flag officer in the Spanish Navy he had won a European reputation by explorations in the Pacific and on the South American coasts keen in his profession recklessly courageous deeply religious he was an ideal hero of the Spanish Navy in which he is still remembered as El Gran Churruka the great Churruka who died like the fit he had no illusions but told his friends he was going to defeat and death and he knew that when he left Gadith he was bidding a last farewell to the young wife he had lately married the French admiral does not know his business he said to his first lieutenant as he watched the van division holding its course while the two English lines rushed to the attack as the English closed with the Spanish rear Churruka ship came into close action with the defiance and was then attacked in succession by the Dreadnought and the Tonant the San Juan Fort till half her men were all the combat several guns dismounted and two of the mass down as long as Churruka lived the unequal fight was maintained for a while he seemed to have a charmed life as he passed from point to point encouraging his men he was returning to his quarter deck when a ball shattered one of his legs it is nothing keep on firing he said and at first he refused to leave the deck lying on the planking with a shattered limb roughly bandaged he sent for his second in command and was told he had just been killed another officer though wounded took over the active command when at last Churruka nearly dead from loss of blood was carried below he gave a last message for his wife sent a final order that the ship should be fought till she sank and then said he must think only of god and the other world as he expired the San Juan gave up the hopeless fight the three ships all claimed her as their prize but it was a Dreadnought that took possession the French Swiss shore once English was won back by the Colossus after a fight in which the Aryan helped her for a while with her capture one third of the enemy's whole force including several flagships was in English hands the victory was won it was now only a question of making it more and more complete shortly after three o'clock the Spanish Atican ship Argonauta struck to the bell isle which had been aided in her attack by the English Swiss shore a few minutes later the Leviathan took another big Spaniard the son who was thin carrying her with a rush of borders it was about four o'clock that after an hour of hard fighting the son Ildefonso hauled down her colors to the defense about this time the French Achille was seen to be ablaze and seized firing in the earlier stages of the fight she had been engaged successively with the polyphemus defiance and swift shore her captain and several of her officers and nearly 400 men had been killed and wounded when she was brought to close action by the prince her fore rigging caught fire and the mass coming down across the decks started ablaze in several places and the men driven from the upper deck by the English fire had to abandon their attempts to save their ship she was well alight when at last she struck her colors and the prince aided by the little brick pickle said to work to save the survivors of her crew she blew up after the battle the berwick was another ship taken before four o'clock but I cannot trace the details of her capture while the battle still raged fiercely admiral du manoir in the formidable was steering away to the north westwood followed by the Mont Blanc du Garde Rouen and Scipion but two ships of his division the Neptune and the entrepied had disregarded his orders and turned back to joining the fight working the ship's heads round by towing them with boats the entrepied led her captain Anphene was a rough proven sail sailor who had fought his way from the four castle to the quarter deck indignant at du manoir's conduct he had early in the battle given orders to steer for the thickest of it Lucapo Sulu Bousantour head her for the Bousantour he shouted in his native patois he arrived too late to fight for victory but he fought for the honor of his flag after engaging several British ships Anphene struck to the Orion an officer of the Conqueror which had taken part in the fight with the entrepied wrote her captain surrendered after one of the most gallant defences I ever witnessed his name was Anphene and it deserves to be recorded by all who admire true heroism the entrepied was a last ship that struck her colors the Spanish ship that had followed the entrepied into action the Etigan Neptune had shortly before being forced to strike to the Minotaur and the Sparciate another of the prizes of Abu Qibay before these last two surrenders completed the long list of captured ships Nelson had passed away the story of his death in the cockpit of the victory is too well known to need repetition before he died the tears of his crew and the messages brought to him had told him of capture after capture and assured him that his triumph was complete as the firing ceased Collingwood took over the command of the fleet and transferred his flag from his own shattered and dismastered ship the royal sovereign to blackwood smart frigate the Yuri Alice when the entrepied struck 17 ships of the allied fleet had been taken one the Achilles was in a blaze and soon to blow up four were in flight far away to the northwest 11 were making for Gadith all bearing the marks of heart-hitting during the fight some desaltery firing at the nearest fugitives ended the battle crowds on the breakwater of Gadith and the nearest beaches had watched all the afternoon the great bank of smoke on the horizon and listened to the rumbling thunder of the cannonade after sunset ship after ship came in bringing news of disaster and all the night wounded men were being conveyed to the hospitals more than half of the allied fleet had been taken or destroyed the four ships that escaped with Dumanoir were captured a few days later by a squadron under sir Richard Strachan the French ships that escaped into Gadith were taken possession of by the Spanish insurgents when Spain rose against the French and Gadith joined the revolt as the battle ended the British fleet was to use the expression of the Neptune's log in all directions the sun was going down the sky was overcast and the rising swell and increasing wind told of the coming storm most of the prizes had been dismastered many of them were leaking badly some of the ships that had taken them were in almost as damaged a condition and many of them were shorthanded with heavy losses in battle and detachment sent on board the captured vessels the crews were busy clearing the decks getting up improvised jury masks and repairing the badly cut up rigging where the masks still stood Nelson's final order had been to anchor to ride out the expected gale Collingwood doubted if this would be safer than trying to make Gibraltar and he visit himself getting the scattered fleet and prizes together and tacking to the south westward the gale that swept all the coasts of western Europe caught the disabled fleet with a hostile shore under its sleeve only four of the prizes and those the poorer ships of the lot ever saw Gibraltar ship after ship went down others were abandoned and burnt others drove ashore in these last instances the British prize crews were rescued and kindly treated by the Spanish coast population one ship the Aljethidas was retaken by the French prisoners and carried into Gadeth another the big Santana was recaptured as she drifted helplessly off the port but though there were few trophies left after the great storm Trafalgar had finally broken the naval power of Napoleon freed England from all fear of invasion and given her the undisputed empire of the sea yet there were only half-hearted rejoicings at home the loss of Nelson seemed a dear price to pay even for such a victory some 2,500 men were killed and wounded in the victorious fleet of the losses of the allies it is difficult to give an estimate every ship that was closely engaged suffered severely and hundreds of wounded went down in several of those that sank in the storm for weeks after search parties riding along the shores from Gadeth to Cape Trafalgar gathered every day a grim harvest of corpses drifted to land by the Atlantic tides the allied loss was at least 7,000 men and may have been considerably greater the news came to England just after something like a panic had been caused by the tidings of the surrender of a whole Austrian army at home it reached Napoleon in the midst of his triumphs to warn him that his power was bounded by the seas that washed the shores of the continent well did Meredith say that in his last great fight Nelson drove the smoke of Trafalgar to darken the blaze of Austerlitz end of chapter 9 part 3