History - The battle of Trafalgar

The Battle of Trafalgar was fought on the 21^st October 1805 off Cape Trafalgar near the port of Cadiz in Spain between a fleet of the Royal Navy and a combined French and Spanish fleet.

The British were led by Lord Admiral Horatio Nelson in his flagship HMS Victory, which was captained by Thomas Hardy. The French and Spanish were led by the French Admiral Villeneuve.

The battle was the culmination of a game of cat and mouse between the 2 forces as they chased each other across the Atlantic during the summer of 1805.
HMS Victory 3d - view with red/blue filtered glasses
Eventually orders from Napoleon Bonaparte to move his fleet into the Mediterranean combined with bad weather forced Villeneuve into the harbour at Cadiz; outside the British fleet waited.
Whilst they waited Nelson called his captains aboard the Victory to spell out his battle plan. The plan would be to split the British fleet into 2 columns – the ‘weather’ column to the north led by Nelson and the ‘lee’ column to the south led by Lord Collingwood. They would then sail straight at the centre and rear of the enemy; the fighting would be done at close quarters. On the morning of the 21^st October Nelson finally received notice that the French and Spanish had left Cadiz and he put his plan into action. He ran up his now famous message to the fleet ‘ England expects every man will do his duty’ and engaged the enemy.

An iron Canon ball

As the fleets approached, both sides let loose with fierce broadsides from their ship’s cannon with devastating affect at such close range. Shrapnel from the cannon balls smashed wood and reeked havoc amongst the crews of both sides.

In addition to the cannon, the crews also faced deadly musket fire from the French sharpshooters and British Marines in the rigging of the ships.

Because the fighting was at such close quarters it meant it was an extremely bloody battle with both sides suffering heavy casualties.

As the battle continued HMS Victory became engaged in a fight with the French ship Redoubtable and as they sailed close to each other Nelson was hit by a French musket ball that smashed his spine, in great pain he was carried to a lower deck for treatment.

By mid afternoon Nelson’s ingenious plan began to pay out as more and more French and Spanish ships began to strike their colours or sail away from the battle. Captain Hardy was finally able to report to Nelson that the battle was won, Nelson replied ‘’thank god, I have done my duty’’, they were his last words, he died at 4.30pm.

Nelson’s victory at Trafalgar and subsequent death sealed his hero status and confirmed his place in history. His famous victory at Trafalgar also put an end once and for all for Napoleon’s plans for invading Britain.

But the victory was not without a cost, the British had 449 sailors killed and 1,241 wounded whilst the French and Spanish had 4,408 killed and 2,545 wounded.